Farmhouse (The Grove), 7 Legaterriff Road, Upper Ballinderry, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 2EY

The Grove is a slightly asymmetrical three-bay, two-storey late Georgian farmhouse built around 1830, set in a mature rural landscape down a private tree-lined lane to the west of Legaterriff Road. It is a fine and relatively intact example of a 19th-century farmhouse in the Georgian style, illustrating the ambitions of prosperous farmers of the period to move away from vernacular building traditions and adopt the fashionable idiom of the Georgian house. The house, its outbuildings, and an associated mill to the south form an important group that makes a significant contribution to the heritage of the area.

The building is L-shaped on plan, with a conservatory to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles, replacement brick chimneys to the centre, and decorative clay chimney pots to the gables. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round. The front elevation is finished in smooth render; the remaining elevations are roughcast. There is a chamfered plinth and quoins throughout. Windows are two-over-two timber-framed sliding sash with exposed sash boxes and horizontal glazing bars.

The principal elevation faces north. At first-floor level there are four windows with heads at eaves level. At ground floor, a central entrance is flanked by paired windows with shallow segmental heads. The entrance doorway is particularly fine: a bolection-moulded raised-and-fielded four-panelled door with cast-iron door furniture, surmounted by a segmental-headed fanlight with sidelights, and approached by a single bull-nosed step.

The east elevation has a half-panelled timber door to the left at ground-floor level, with a window above at first floor. The south elevation is abutted by a conservatory with a hipped natural slate roof and timber-framed windows. To the left of the conservatory is a small return with a catslide roof, containing a window at ground floor and a diminutive window at first floor; the south gable of this return is blank, while the exposed section has windows at both ground and first floor. The west elevation has a single window at ground and first floor at the gable end. The return on this side has a six-panel flush timber door with a transom light at ground floor with a window to the right, and two windows at first floor.

Architectural detailing remains largely intact and the interior retains some good examples of high-quality finishes.

To the west of the house, a variety of rubble-stone and brick outbuildings are arranged in a U-shape around a yard. These include a large hay barn and stables, all with natural slate roofs, original timber-framed windows — some of which are sash retaining their original glazing — and brick segmental-headed arches to the openings. Particularly notable details include honeycomb brick pattern ventilation openings to the first floor of the barn, and original segmental-headed timber stable doors with cast-iron strap hinges. The outbuilding to the south has a carriage entry with its original doors. These outbuildings are of fine quality and relatively rare to survive in such good condition.

The setting is approached by a long tree-lined lane from the north. A garden to the front is enclosed by a rendered wall with a coped top and slender gate piers surmounted by decorative cast-iron railings. A large garden to the east is enclosed by mature trees and hedgerow. At the centre of the stable yard to the west is an original rectangular raised bed constructed in rubble-stone masonry, whose original function is unknown.

The farmstead first appears on the 1832 Ordnance Survey map, depicted as an oblong building surrounded by one large and three smaller outbuildings. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records the property as belonging to a Mr Mark Peel, described as a first-class dwelling measuring 42 feet by 19 feet by 14 feet high, with a valuation of £5 13s. Its outbuildings at that time included a byre and cart house, a potato house, a barn and stable, a corn kiln, and a piggery. By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859, recorded as "house, offices, corn kiln and land," the value had risen to £8. The second Ordnance Survey map of 1857 shows an extension to the northernmost outbuilding and the addition of a further smaller outbuilding.

The Annual Revisions of 1875 record that Mark Peel was joined at the farm by three brothers — Joseph, William, and Michael. By 1879, only Mark and Joseph remained as joint holders. In 1884 the farm was divided: a Mr John Peel (another brother) took over the farmhouse, while Joseph and Mark occupied the offices and land, adding a house in 1888 valued at £2 10s. In 1892 John Peel demolished the corn kiln at The Grove, and in 1894 he left the farmhouse to Mark Peel. By 1906 both Joseph and Mark owned their respective properties outright. In 1918, Mark Peel was replaced as occupant by his niece Mabel, most probably following his death.

The 1911 Census records all three brothers — Mark (born around 1841), John (born around 1842), and Joseph (born around 1860) — as occupying houses at The Grove. Mark, the eldest, occupied the principal dwelling, a first-class building with ten inhabited rooms; John and Joseph each occupied smaller second-class homes. It is possible that the main house, the return, and one of the outbuildings formed these three residences, though no firm evidence survives to confirm this. The farm's outbuildings at that time were extensive, comprising three stables, three cow houses, two calf houses, three fowl houses, a barn, two potato houses, three sheds, and a workshop. At least twelve members of the Peel family lived and worked at The Grove at this period. The last recorded historical occupant was Mabel Blair (née Peel), who lived at The Grove until her death in 1940.

The Grove, including its stable yard and threshing mill, was listed in November 1992. The current owner has lived in the house since 1979 and continues to operate the site as a working farm, with all the original outbuildings recorded on the 1920 Ordnance Survey map still in agricultural use. The house underwent renovations in 1992 and again in 1998, when an extension and garden room were added to the rear.