Fruit Hill, Scroggy Lane, Scroggy Road, Glenavy, County Antrim, BT29 4LD

Fruit Hill is an asymmetrical two-storey, five-bay farmhouse dating from the early 19th century, with a variety of good-quality early outbuildings pre-dating 1830. It is located off Scroggy Lane, approximately two miles south of Glenavy, in the townland of Aghanamoney, Ballinderry parish, County Antrim. Field evidence suggests the building originated as a lobby-entry vernacular dwelling, possibly itself developed from an earlier direct-entry, gable-hearth vernacular dwelling, before being enlarged at an unknown date. In its current form, the house presents a good-quality 19th-century farmhouse character, notable for its modest style, simple detailing, and good proportions of wall to openings. The listing extends to the house, gates, gate pillars, walling, and outbuildings.

EXTERIOR

The farmhouse has a rectangular plan with a single-bay extension added to the south around 1920. The roof is pitched and clad in natural slate with clay ridge tiles, clipped verges to the gable ends, and rendered chimneys to the gable ends. A replacement brick chimney is centrally located, fitted with clay pots, most of which have since been removed. Rainwater goods are uPVC replacements. The walling is finished in ruled-and-lined render with long-and-short quoins. Windows throughout are 2/2 timber sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars. The front door is a timber replacement.

The principal elevation faces east on a slight incline and is uniformly arranged five windows wide, with the front door centrally located. The left ground-floor opening is an enlarged double window. The left gable is abutted by an additional bay built around 1920, probably on the footprint of a former single-storey stone abutment; this extension is built in brick and has a first-floor window and a modern ground-floor opening to the gable face, with a door to a coal shed on its west face.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with openings concentrated to the left side. There is a door to the left-hand side with a diminished window immediately to its left, a single window to the right, and two first-floor windows. Bays to the right are blank. The rear is rough-cast rendered. The right gable has a ground-floor window to the right and a first-floor window slightly right of centre, both diminished, with a chimney at the gable apex. The far left-hand side is abutted by a wall adjoining a single-storey outbuilding immediately to the north.

INTERIOR

Much of the original vernacular interior detailing has been retained, which adds significantly to the interest of the building.

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

The farmhouse is set within a largely open rural landscape with a garden to the front. Numerous stone structures — including outbuildings and piers — flank a historic road to the north and west that formerly ran through the middle of the farmyard but has gradually fallen out of use. The outbuildings have slated roofs, rubble stone walling, and original openings; many pre-date 1830, with additional blocks added around 1850. Large round gate piers are present throughout, fitted with replacement gates. A gravel access lane crosses the lawn to the front entrance. The quality of the outbuildings, gates, and setting all add to the interest of the main farmhouse.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Ballinderry parish was described in Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) as a fertile agricultural area: "The land is almost all arable and in a good state of cultivation; the system of tillage is improving. There is little or no waste land; in the north-east and south-west parts of the parish are some valuable bogs. The weaving of linen and cotton affords employment to a considerable number of persons, but the greater number of the inhabitants are engaged in agriculture." Ordnance Survey maps confirm that the area has remained rural, with scattered farms and small settlements and very little increase in the overall level of development. The most significant change to the wider landscape was the arrival of the railway to the east of the farm in 1871.

The farmhouse sits within the better arable land in the district, lying between the 100-foot and 300-foot contours; land below 100 feet is liable to winter flooding, and land above 300 feet runs to pasture, furze, and rough grazing. The area experienced a decline in population during the second half of the 19th century as people drifted from rural districts into Belfast, leaving mainly older generations to work the farmland, though the population began to stabilise around the turn of the 20th century.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 shows a group of farm buildings on the site, surrounded by a regular plantation of trees indicating an orchard — as were all neighbouring farms. The orchard is also shown on the second, third, and fourth edition maps but is no longer present today. The presence of orchards in the neighbouring parish of Glenavy was noted in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of around 1832: "Their orchards are profitable sources of emoluments to the farmers, and, except in the south of this county, rather novel to the north of Ireland. Every farmer has an orchard of a greater or less extent, and on average this will produce him at the rate of 12 pounds annually per acre. The orchard is rented by an 'apple man', who takes the fruit to Belfast and sells them to persons who export them. The quantity of fruit formerly exported from this district to England and Scotland was enormous." The 1832 map also shows a road running through the middle of the farmyard, which has gradually fallen out of use.

The Townland Valuation records the house as the property of James Stewart Esquire, comprising a two-storey house measuring 54.6 by 20.6 by 13 feet — corresponding to the present dwelling — and a single-storey barn and stable measuring 68 by 19 by 7 feet, corresponding to the stable block still present on site, though subsequently raised in height. Dimensions are also recorded for a potato house, a turf house, and byres. All the buildings were thatched at this time, and the house was described as old but in repair. The house and outbuildings were valued at £5 11 shillings.

The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 shows additional structures on the site, notably an outbuilding abutting the north-eastern gable of the farmhouse. Outbuildings to the west appear to have been extended since 1832, which may account for a large increase in the valuation recorded by Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) to £15. By this time the occupier was tenant farmer Thomas McAlevy, who leased the farm from local landowner the Marquis of Hertford, later Sir Richard Wallace. The farm comprised over 87 acres, a very substantial holding and by far the largest in the townland. Thomas McAlevy appears in the Belfast Newsletter of June 1868 as the winner of second prize for his Kerry bull at the North East Agricultural Show.

The farm remained in the McAlevy family until 1894, when it was taken over by Edward Mockler, who became owner in fee in 1895. Mockler was a prominent figure in the Lisburn area, serving as a Poor Law Guardian and as a member of the Rural District Council. The 1901 census lists him as a farmer aged 45, living with his wife, three children aged nine, seven, and five months, and two domestic servants, one described as a nurse — perhaps a children's nanny. By 1911, the family had undergone a change of denomination from Church of Ireland to Episcopalian. Only the youngest of the three children listed in 1901 was still living at home, and three further children had been born to the family. At this time Fruit Hill was the largest house in the townland and one of only two designated as first class. The house remained in the Mockler family until 1928.