15 Loughaghery Road, Ballycrune, Hillsborough, County Down

15 Loughaghery Road, Ballycrune, Hillsborough, County Down

A two-storey three-bay farmhouse in Georgian style, built circa 1830 and formalised circa 1870, located at the end of a long lane southeast of Loughaghrey Road in Anahilt. The house is accompanied by attached outbuildings arranged in an L-shaped group around a partially cobbled yard. The building is currently vacant and in a state of disrepair.

The farmhouse is rectangular on plan with a pitched natural slate roof fitted with blue and black angled ridge tiles and rendered gable chimneys. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are fitted throughout. The walling is roughcast render, now partially eroded to expose the underlying fieldstone construction.

The principal southeast-facing elevation is symmetrically arranged across three bays. At ground floor, the centre features an elliptical-headed opening containing a timber-sheeted entrance door with a decorative cast-iron knocker and knob, set within a round-headed smooth rendered surround. The door is flanked by stained glass transom and sidelights on a masonry plinth with projecting sills. Windows throughout are 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars, smooth rendered surrounds and masonry sills, retaining their original fenestration. The southwest elevation has a single ground-floor window. The northwest rear elevation is abutted on the right by outbuildings and features a single-storey extension under a catslip tin roof. The northeast elevation is blank.

The outbuildings comprise single-storey rubble stone and brick construction forming an L-shape to create a rear yard. The linear group adjoining the dwelling includes a square-headed carriage entrance to the left with timber-sheeted doors fitted with cast-iron strap hinges, and to the right a timber-sheeted door and two timber half-doors to a stable. A rubble stone outbuilding with catslide slated roof stands at the gable, abutted to the north by a semi-ruinous rubble-stone stable block. Many exterior features survive, including the cast-iron knocker and remnants of the cobblestoned yard.

The house occupies a rural setting at the end of a long lane accessed from a quiet country road. The site is enclosed by mature trees. A small front garden is bounded by a rubble stone and rendered wall. Square ashlar gate piers with decorative wrought-iron gates mark the Loughaghrey Road entrance. Brick and cement rendered gate piers with original wrought-iron gates define the farm entrance. To the north, a square gate pier with a pointed cap and decorative wrought-iron latch gate leads to a side yard. Modern steel-framed agricultural and livestock sheds stand to the south.

Historical Records

The farmhouse first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, depicted as an oblong building with adjoining north-facing outbuildings in the townland of Ballycrune. The map also records a similar-sized out office and a smaller one to the east, the latter of which still survives though now in disrepair. The property does not appear in the contemporary Townland Valuation of the 1830s. By 1862, it was occupied by Hugh Brown, who rented the farm from the Marquis of Downshire. At that time the farmhouse was valued at £1 10s; by 1871 the valuer noted that Brown had built a new house at the site, increasing its value to £4 5s.

The original single-storey vernacular building was modified circa 1871 into its current two-storey configuration, when formal Georgian-style features were added and the structure was raised by a storey. A separate dwelling does not appear on the 1903 Ordnance Survey map, indicating the transformation occurred around 1871. The 1901 census building return records the farmhouse as a second-class slated building consisting of four rooms. The farm was modest, with outoffices recorded as a stable, cow house, piggery and barn, housed in the rear outbuilding. In 1901, Hugh Brown was an 82-year-old retired widower; his son Matthew maintained the farm until their father's death in 1902, when Hugh left the farm and effects valued at £299 to Matthew. Matthew Brown, born circa 1853, lived at the farm with his wife and son Hugh (born circa 1884).

Between 1901 and 1911, Matthew Brown expanded the farm; the 1911 census out-office return records two stables, a cow house, piggery, fowl house, barn and potato house within the adjoining and eastern outbuilding. Brown purchased the house by 1913 when recorded as owner in the Annual Revisions. By 1929, when he would have been 76, the house passed to his son Hugh, the last occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions which ended that year. The farm currently lies vacant. Although the building retains its original layout from at least 1833 and presents an interesting example of a formalised Georgian farmhouse, it is not considered among the better examples in the Lisburn area and is not worthy of listing.