19 Crewe Park Road, Glenavy, County Antrim, BT29 4NJ

19 Crewe Park Road is a two-storey, two-bay vernacular direct entry house with associated outbuildings, predating 1830. The building is located off Crewe Park Road approximately two miles south-west of Glenavy in low-lying fertile agricultural land between the 100 and 300 foot contours. The general proportions and scale remain representative of a vernacular farmhouse, though the external appearance largely represents early 20th century modification of an earlier structure. There are no inappropriate additions or extensions, though the interior has undergone significant change.

The main elevation faces north and is asymmetrically arranged. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with skews and clay ridge tiles. Yellow brick chimney stacks rise over the gable ends. The walling is rough-cast rendered with a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are timber sliding sash with 2/2 lights and horizontal glazing bars; they have stone cills with smooth rendered surrounds. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout. The front entrance is located left of centre and comprises a timber door in 1940s style set within a flat-roofed projecting porch with smooth render surrounds. Ground floor windows are positioned either side of the entrance, with three first floor windows directly above.

A gable-ended single-storey two-bay extension abuts the left gable. This extension has two windows to its north face, a timber sheeted door to the left side of the gable, and a single window to the far left of the south face. Two chimneys are located along the extension's axis. The rear elevation is symmetrically arranged with a timber sheeted central door flanked by enlarged ground floor casement windows. The right gable is largely obscured from view.

The setting comprises a small front garden to the north bounded by a hedge with a small wrought iron pedestrian gate. Yard and outbuildings are accessed to the east, including pitched natural slate and timber sheeted structures, pitched corrugated tin outbuildings, concrete block construction, and a double height corrugated tin Dutch barn with an abutting single-storey lean-to of brick and stone. Large round piers with iron gates are located at the entrance and within the yard. The property is set within open rural landscape to the south and west.

Historical evidence suggests the house may have begun as a single-storey vernacular dwelling that was later raised, probably prior to 1858. A rectangular structure of the same plan form appeared on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 but was not substantial enough to be listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840. The current dwelling, extended to the east, appears on the second edition map of 1858, accompanied by an outbuilding to the north marked as a Dispensary, which survives today. The house remains unaltered in plan form on subsequent map editions, though outbuildings were modified.

The property was leased by Nelson Reid from the Marquess of Hertford (later Sir Richard Wallace) and valued at £3 10 shillings in the Annual Revisions fieldbook of 1869. The Dispensary was separately valued at £1 10 shillings and was exempt. Nelson Reid was prominent in the local community, serving as a poor law guardian for the Lisburn Union from at least April 1852 to April 1878, and operated the dispensary. John Waring became occupier in 1892 and purchased the farm in 1893, likely using land purchase legislation that allowed tenant farmers to buy their freehold. By 1901 the separate Dispensary valuation had been deleted and incorporated into the farmhouse valuation. The 1901 census records John Waring as a farmer aged 37. The building could not be identified in the 1911 census and there were no further changes recorded in the Annual Revisions.

The associated outbuildings, yard features, entrance gates and pillars date from various periods and add to the architectural interest of the group. The house is further enhanced by its unspoiled rural setting. Buildings of this type illustrate how vernacular structures have been adapted over time to suit changes in lifestyle, and although once common, relatively unspoiled examples such as this are becoming increasingly rare.