Aghalee House, 13 Ballinderry Road, Aghalee, Craigavon, County Antrim, BT67 0DY

Aghalee House is a detached, three-bay, two-storey rendered house dated 1878, incorporating an earlier house dated 1818, set within its own grounds and farm on the west side of Ballinderry Road, Aghalee. The listing covers the house, gate screens and boundary walling.

The building is irregular on plan and faces east. Its pitched natural slate roof carries roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and finials, with three tall red brick chimneystacks topped by octagonal clay pots. Decorative replacement timber bargeboards are fitted to the front and side elevations, and cast-iron rainwater goods are fixed to timber box fascias. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with a projecting render plinth course and rusticated strip quoins.

The front elevation is the most architecturally striking feature of the house. Symmetrical in composition, it has a central recessed bay flanked by a pair of pronounced gabled projections, each containing a corniced two-storey three-sided canted bay window. A balcony spans the recessed central bay above the front entrance. The unusually emphatic gables and their lavish decoration are more characteristic of late 19th-century urban suburban architecture than a rural village setting. At first-floor level each gable has a lancet opening fitted with a pointed-headed single-pane timber sash window beneath a decorative hood moulding, and an oculus with a moulded surround at attic level. The bay windows carry decorative mouldings. The concrete balcony above the entrance has a decorative cast-iron balustrade and is accessed via a replacement timber glazed door with sidelights from the first floor. The front door opening retains a replacement timber surround and panelled sidelights with the original leaded coloured glazing re-inserted, and there are slender window openings to either side. All windows throughout the house are square-headed and fitted with original timber sash windows retaining cylinder glass, with painted masonry sills.

The north side elevation has a two-over-two timber sash window at first-floor level and a single-pane timber sash window at ground floor. A crenellated wall extends eastward from this elevation, possibly a remnant of the earlier 1818 house. The south side elevation is three windows wide, with a chimneystack rising through the eaves beneath a decorative timber bargeboard. Original two-over-two timber sash windows with decorative mouldings survive at first-floor level; replacement timber sash windows with cornices over sit at ground floor, in openings that formerly housed two glazed doors.

The rear elevation has three gables, the central one projecting forward, with a single-storey lean-to section to either side. Walling here is rough-cast rendered with a simpler timber fascia. The southern lean-to, built around 1980, has a natural slate roof and timber casement windows. The northern lean-to possibly incorporates fabric from the earlier house; it has a corrugated cement roof and is fitted with six-over-six and four-over-four timber sash windows. It also has an elliptical-headed door opening with an early 19th-century timber doorcase comprising plain pilasters flanking a replacement panelled door, with sidelights framed by console brackets to a lintel cornice and a webbed timber fanlight above, all retaining cylinder glass. Further six-over-six timber sash windows survive on the south gable, horizontally-glazed two-over-two timber sash windows appear at first-floor level on the central gable, and replacement timber casement windows sit below.

The interior retains its decorative Victorian character and some earlier fabric, making it one of the most significant houses in Aghalee.

The house is set within landscaped grounds enclosed by a modern stone wall to the road, with rendered entrance screens to both the north and south. The northern entrance has replacement decorative steel gates and railings. The southern entrance is original and includes a single-storey rendered gate lodge with a natural slate roof and original two-over-two timber sash windows. To the north of the house stands a two-storey rubblestone former outbuilding, possibly 17th-century in origin, which at the time of survey was being renovated; it has a pitched artificial slate roof and retains large early joists to the interior. The house has group value with Laurel Vale house a short distance to the north along Ballinderry Road.

Aghalee House first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832, where it is shown as a T-shaped building with three oblong outbuildings to the north. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records it as occupied by a Mr George Carter, subsequently replaced by George Stephenson. The original house was recorded as a first-class-plus dwelling measuring 43 feet by 20 feet by 17 feet high, with an additional square element of 16 feet by 15 feet. The outbuildings at that time included two stores, a number of offices and a kiln. The entire property was valued at £12 14s. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs described it as "a neat oblong house two storeys high and slated, occupied by Mr George Carter, grain merchant. There are good offices and well enclosed yards." The same source recorded a three-storey grain store and a two-storey corn kiln nearby; the kiln had been erected sixteen years before the time of writing (1833–38) by a Mr Thomas Elliot of Belfast. Carter had occupied the house from 1827, at which time he "dealt extensively in the grain trade, by which traffic he not only benefits himself but also affords the farmers of the surrounding neighbourhoods a convenient and speedy sale for their grain, without having to send it to distant markets." The Memoirs further note that the house was originally built "many years ago" by the Usher family, who owned large tracts of land and constructed a large flour mill and bleaching mill in the vicinity.

By 1859, Griffith's Valuation split the rateable value of the property between the house and three office buildings. At that time the house was let by George Stephenson and occupied by a Mr Brendan Burton; the offices were valued at £5 and the house at £9. Burton occupied the house until 1879, when the valuer records that it was taken down. A new house was erected in 1880 along with a new gate lodge; it was constructed and occupied by a Mr Lancelot Turtle, who resided there until 1891. The rebuilding work increased the rateable value of the house to £30 10s. In 1891 a Mr James Knox became the new occupant and, from 1893, the owner of Aghalee House. In 1894 the gate lodge was taken down, reducing the value to £25 10s. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900–01 shows that between 1858 and 1900 one of the out-offices had been removed, but the house itself appears unaltered, suggesting it was extensively rebuilt in 1880 on the foundations of the original house. Knox occupied the house until 1922, when a Mr Robert Horner purchased it for £1,800. The Lisburn Standard of 1910 recorded James Knox as a Justice of the Peace for the area of Aghalee. The 1911 Census records James Knox, a 61-year-old farmer, living at Aghalee House with his wife Sarah Knox, aged 54. One of his sons, Alfred Defton Victor Knox, was a solicitor of the Irish Supreme Court. The house was classed as a first-class dwelling with thirteen inhabited rooms, and in 1911 it had eleven out-offices including a stable, harness room, cow house, two calf houses, a piggery, fowl house, potato house, workshop, shed and a store in the buildings to the north — though no mention is made of the kiln recorded in the 1830s.

Field research supports an early 19th-century construction date for the original house, evidenced by Georgian glazing to the rear elevation and the earlier doorcase described above; however, the current appearance of the house is largely the result of late 19th-century modification. The crenellated wall to the rear may also be a remnant of the earlier house. The house was listed in 1985. In 1993 repairs were made to the roof, and in 1994 the chimneys and original rafters were repaired. An aerial survey image from 1972 shows the house with its northern out-offices, but subsequent field research found that only the largest, northernmost office survives and was at that time being renovated. A new gate lodge was constructed at some stage and is situated to the south-west of the house.