The Howe, 16 Howe Road, Ballykeel, Dromore, County Down, BT25 1ET

The Howe is an early 19th-century farmhouse, predating 1830, situated north of Howe Road in the townland of Ballykeel, Dromore. It is a good example of a farmhouse developed upwards from a single-storey dwelling, and is a rare survivor of its type in the area. It retains its original architectural detailing externally and its original plan form internally, and sits within its unspoiled rural setting alongside a substantial range of galleted rubble stone outbuildings arranged around a central yard.

HOUSE

The house is two storeys over a partial basement, three bays wide, and asymmetrical in plan. It is rectangular on plan with a projecting porch to the front and a single-storey return to the rear under a catslide roof. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles and four replacement brick chimneystacks. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round. The walls are finished in roughcast render, with smooth render to the porch. Windows are timber-framed sliding sash with horns and exposed sash boxes: 6-over-6 panes to the ground floor and 6-over-3 to the first floor, all recessed in stone surrounds with sills.

The principal elevation faces southeast and has asymmetrical fenestration. To the right of centre is a projecting double-height porch with a window to each cheek and a double-leaf timber panelled entrance door surmounted by a 6-over-3 window. The right section has a single window to the ground floor. The left section has three windows to the first floor and two to the ground floor. The southwest elevation has one window to the right at first-floor level.

The northwest (rear) elevation also has asymmetrical fenestration. The ground slopes away to the right, where a timber-sheeted door accesses the partial basement at ground level, surmounted by a 6-over-6 window. To the right of centre is a six-panelled door surmounted by a small 2-over-2 window at first-floor level. To the centre is an 8-over-8 window at ground-floor level and a 2-over-2 window offset to the left at first-floor level. To the far left is the cement-rendered rear return under a slated catslide roof, with a timber-sheeted door to the centre; the northwest elevation of this return has a modern steel-framed window. The northeast elevation has a window to the right at both ground and first-floor levels.

OUTBUILDINGS

The galleted rubble stone outbuildings are slated and arranged in a U-shape to the rear of the dwelling. The stable block to the southwest has brick dressings to all openings, segmental-headed carriage entrances to the far left and right, timber-framed replacement windows, and timber half-doors. The rear elevation has a series of small openings.

The two-storey agricultural office to the north has three 3-over-3 timber-framed windows to the first floor, a stable door to the left, and a timber door to the right. The north gable is abutted by a concrete block square tower, built at a higher level, with two timber doors. The rear elevation of this block has two small openings to the first floor and a large timber-sheeted door to the far right.

The single-storey block to the northeast has three timber doors; to the far left is a segmental-headed opening with a timber door leading to agricultural land to the rear. The south gable has three large window openings; the north gable has a timber door at both ground-floor and attic level.

SETTING

The house is reached via a lane running north from Howe Road and sits within a large, unspoiled rural setting. To the front of the house is a small overgrown garden enclosed by roughcast rendered walls, with central squared gate piers having pointed masonry caps and a decorative cast-iron latch gate. The site is bounded to the east along the road by a low rubble stone boundary wall with a grass verge and mature trees. More modern agricultural sheds lie to the far north. Directly to the east at 15 Howe Road is a small vernacular hearth-lobby house, originally let by the occupiers of The Howe to a tenant during the 19th century, which adds group value to this farm development.

HISTORY

The Howe first appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map for the townland of Ballykeel, where it is depicted as an oblong single-storey building. By this date the current stable block and northwest outbuilding had already been constructed. The Townland Valuation of around 1830 records that the house had until recently been occupied by a Mr James Smyth, who passed the farm to a Mr David Smyth (whose precise relation to James is not recorded). The valuer describes the farmhouse as a first-class-B dwelling with five out-offices, and valued the entire site at £10 2s.

Between 1833 and 1859 David Smyth built a third major office building, shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map as an L-shaped structure on the northeast side of the farmyard. This addition raised the valuation of the farm to £12 in 1861, when Griffith's Valuation described the site as "a large and respectable farm house with extensive and good offices." At that time the two-storey farmhouse — let to Smyth by the Reverend Edward Smith, Bishop of Down and Connor — measured 19 feet by 6½ feet and had five single-storey offices and one two-storey office, the latter corresponding to the current northwest outbuilding.

In 1876 a note in the Annual Revisions records that a "new house" was added, though this most likely refers to the construction of a new outbuilding or possibly the small rear extension to the house. David Smyth lived at The Howe — as it was named on Ordnance Survey maps from 1859 — until his death in 1897, when he left the farm and effects of £840 to his relative James Cathcart Smyth, who worked as both a railway official and farmer. James C. Smyth occupied the farm with his wife Margaret and their adopted daughter Sarah Smyth. The 1911 census building return classified the farmhouse as a first-class dwelling with a slated roof and six rooms; the extensive out-offices at that time housed a stable, cow house, piggery, fowl house, and barn. In 1917 the farm passed to a Mr John Young, who in turn passed it to his son Francis Young in 1925. The farm has remained in the possession of the Young family and continues to be occupied.

At the time of listing, the house and outbuildings had fallen into a dilapidated state: the roof of the northwest outbuilding had collapsed, and the roofing of the stable block was in a similar state of disrepair.