29 Hill Road, Dromore, County Down, BT25 2AH

Gray's Farm is a modified two-and-one-half-storey abandoned farmhouse with attached byre and outbuildings situated down a long lane off Hill Road near Dromara in County Down. Originally built around 1800 as a single-storey dwelling, it was raised to two storeys in the mid-nineteenth century. The property is now in a state of neglect, though a modern replacement dwelling has been constructed to the west.

The farmhouse is rectangular on plan with a projecting single-storey gable porch to the front and an attached byre to the south. The main structure is constructed of rubble stone with roughcast render to the front elevation and lime render to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof features rendered chimneystacks; the byre has a tin roof added at an unknown date. There are no rainwater goods. Windows throughout are boarded with smooth rendered surrounds and projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces east and contains two openings to each floor, with the single-storey gable porch positioned to the right of centre. The elevation extends to the right with a one-and-a-half-storey addition incorporating a window and a gabled half-dormer. The south elevation is abutted at ground floor by the lower rubble stone byre, which has a window opening to both ground floor and attic of its gable. The east elevation has a door and window opening. The west elevation features a large opening covered with a corrugated metal door and a single opening at first-floor centre with three windows at ground-floor level. The north elevation is abutted by the extension with a blank gable; its western side has a single opening to the left of centre. Various slated roughcast outbuildings to the front create a yard. To the south stands a former stable block with replacement timber doors and two window openings. To the north is a one-and-a-half-storey barn with two timber-sheeted doors and a single window opening to the south elevation; the east elevation has a diminutive attic window and the west elevation has a door opening.

The setting is largely unspoiled rural terrain enclosed by mature trees to the south. A rubble stone boundary wall with modern timber fencing runs to the north. Rubble stone and rendered round gate piers with an original wrought-iron gate provide access to the rear yard.

Historical Development

In 1759 the Marquis of Downshire granted a seventy-five-year lease to William Gray of Mullaghdrin for an eighteen-acre plot in the townland of Mullaghdrin at a yearly rent of £2 17 shillings. The lease required Gray to construct a single-storey dwelling measuring thirty feet by fourteen feet and a single-storey barn measuring fourteen feet by fourteen feet by 1762.

The farmhouse and stable block of Gray's Farm first appear on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map of Dromara Parish, where the farmhouse is depicted as an oblong building situated off Hill Road in its current location, with the stable block also shown in its present position. It is uncertain whether these structures were the same buildings recorded in the 1759 lease. At some stage in the mid-nineteenth century, this single-storey vernacular farmhouse was formalized and a second storey added. The barn to the north-east of the farmhouse first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859.

The Griffith's Valuation of 1861 records that the farm had passed to William Gray Junior, who continued to let the property from the Marquis of Downshire. In 1861 the farm was valued at £2. The one-and-a-half-storey extension currently abutting the north elevation may have been added during the period between 1859 and the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map, which shows no discernible alterations to the farm layout.

William Gray Junior occupied the farm until his death in 1899, when it passed to his son John Gray. The 1901 Census records that John Gray (aged 39), his sister Agnes (aged 34), and brother Thomas (aged 34) occupied the farm following their father's death. John and Thomas were recorded as Presbyterian farmers; Agnes was employed as a housekeeper and domestic servant. The census building return describes the farmhouse as a second-class dwelling consisting of five inhabited rooms with a slate roof. Beyond the stable block and barn, the farm possessed a piggery, the surviving byre abutting the farmhouse, and a fowl house among its outbuildings. Jane Gray (their mother) does not appear in the 1901 or 1911 Census.

The Ordnance Survey map of 1975 shows no alteration to the farm layout, though it is unclear whether the farmhouse remained occupied at that date. The farm is now abandoned and has fallen into disrepair. The windows and doors of the original farmhouse and its outbuildings have been boarded up, and the slate roof of the dwelling has suffered minor damage. The stable block has similarly sustained damage to its roofing slates.

A farmhouse on this site has been inhabited by members of the Gray family, local Presbyterian farmers who first constructed a dwelling in the area in the mid-eighteenth century. Although the farm has fallen into dilapidation, the general layout of the farm dating from 1834 has been preserved.