74 Dromore Road, Drumadoney, Dromara, Dromore, County Down, BT25 2NH

74 Dromore Road, Drumadoney

A two-storey two-bay hearth-lobby vernacular farm house, constructed in the early 19th century and predating 1830, with an additional two-storey bay added around 1850. The building retains much of its original vernacular style, proportions and character, and represents a typical example of how farmhouses of this type evolved to meet changing occupant requirements through documented 19th and 20th century additions and alterations.

The farmhouse occupies a sloping site at the end of a short private lane, now lined with modern dwellings. Despite nearby development, it retains most of its rural setting and remains of local interest.

The building has a linear plan form with single-storey stores and byres flanking either end. The principal elevation faces south-east and is asymmetrically arranged, comprising two original bays on the left and an extended two-storey bay to the right. The front door is positioned right of centre with two ground and first floor windows aligned to the left; the first floor left window is a replacement casement. The right-hand bay has an asymmetrically arranged ground floor and a replacement 1/1 timber sliding sash first floor window. The left gable is blank.

The roof is pitched with natural slate and clay ridge tiles, though some artificial slate replacement is evident. The walling is rough-cast rendered with a projected plinth. Cast-iron rainwater goods run throughout. The windows are predominantly 2/2 timber sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars and masonry cills. The front door is a replacement timber sheeted door with a central glazed panel and a metal grille embedded into the ground. The rear door, dating to around 1930, features an elliptical glazed opening embraced by timber mouldings with three tall moulded panels to the lower portion, flanked by rectangular side lights.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a door located left of centre in the additional bay, two ground floor windows to the right and one to the left, and two first floor windows to the right with a single wall-headed dormer window to the left. The right elevation is abutted by a single-storey byre with a small fixed window on the north-west face and a door on the south-west face.

The ground floor is abutted by single-storey concrete block outbuildings with mono-pitch corrugated iron roofing, stepped into the landscape and extending beyond the building line. These have various timber sheeted doors, some with strap hinges, and one blocked-up window.

The farmhouse is embedded into the sloping site and largely partially screened from view on approach. The front faces directly onto the yard serving several outbuildings ranging from single-storey rubble-masonry to corrugated-iron barns. The rear elevation addresses a more formal garden arrangement with rural landscape beyond. Several modern dwellings and modern agricultural units are located in adjacent fields.

Historical context: The parish of Dromara is a rural district that has changed little since the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. Two farm buildings are shown on the site in that first edition map, and both early buildings have survived: the farmhouse and an outbuilding to the south. An orchard shown behind the farm was reduced in size by the second edition of 1859 and had disappeared by 1903. The house appears to have been extended eastward by means of a bay and single-storey byre, though the dating of these changes cannot be clearly determined from map evidence. By the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1859), the farmhouse had been extended to the west.

Griffith's Valuation of 1863 lists the farm as occupied by John Neilson and leased from the Marquis of Downshire. The house and outbuildings were valued at £1 10s and situated on a thirteen-acre plot. This low valuation suggests that at the time of Griffith's Valuation the dwelling was a single-storey vernacular house and was raised to two storeys at a later date. The listing extends to the house and an outbuilding.