Woodford House, 21 Woodford Avenue, Dromara, County Down, BT25 2AA

Woodford House is an imposing and handsomely proportioned Georgian farmhouse, built around 1800 as an extension to an earlier house dating from around 1770, and constructed as part of a linen mill complex set within an extensive estate of approximately 120 acres to the north of Dromara village. It is a fine example of a large Georgian farmhouse of the type commonly built in Northern Ireland from the mid-18th century onwards, and is of considerable social importance to the local community, the linen mill having once been a major employer in the area.

Architectural Description

The house is large and symmetrical, rectangular on plan, with a large two-storey and single-storey return to the rear. The principal elevation faces east and is five openings wide and two storeys tall, arranged symmetrically across three bays. The walls are finished in ruled-and-lined render with raised quoins, while the rear return is rough-cast rendered. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate, with tall smooth rendered chimneystacks carrying four terracotta pots each; a further chimneystack rises from the gable of the rear return. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves. There was once a parapet to the principal elevation, but this has been removed.

The windows throughout are predominantly double-hung 6-over-6 timber-framed sliding sash with horns and a keyblock. A variety of timber-framed windows of differing sizes appears on the rear return, some of which are replacements.

The principal entrance is centred on the east elevation and is particularly fine: an original six-flat-panel timber door, accessed by three bull-nosed stone steps, surmounted by a large segmental fanlight with radial glazing bars, with the same pattern repeated in the sidelights. The doorway has paired fluted pilasters with carved urns at the base of the sidelights, and voussoirs over the opening.

The south elevation is blank. The west elevation has two windows at first-floor level and a single opening to the right at ground-floor level, abutted at the centre by the rear return, which has five windows of various sizes to each of its elevations. The north elevation is partially abutted by a coalhouse. At the far left of the north elevation is a small entrance porch with a catslide roof, containing a timber door of six shallow panels with a decorative knocker, surmounted by a fanlight and accessed by eight masonry steps contained within a parapet wall. The gable at this end is abutted by a double-height return featuring a Venetian window; the south elevation of this return has a 6-over-6 sash window, and the exposed section to the left is abutted by the coalhouse.

Interior

The house retains many of its original interior features and presents as a notably grand Georgian farmhouse built to accommodate the owner of the flax mill.

Setting

Woodford House sits at the end of a private single-track road, accessed from the direction of St John's Parish Church. It forms the centrepiece of the Woodford Estate and is part of a wider linen mill complex comprising a number of industrial and agricultural buildings to the north and west, including a sile, a lying-in shed, a large machinery shed and barn, and the mill itself. Three two-storey red-brick former workers' cottages, offices, and a manager's house are also located on the site. A lawned and shrubbed garden to the front of the house is contained within a low parapet wall with decorative cast-iron railings. The house is set within an unspoilt rural landscape, contributing significantly to the architectural heritage of Dromara village and the wider area.

Historical Background

Woodford House first appears on the Ordnance Survey map for the Dromara area in 1833 as a T-shaped building situated beside the Lagan River just north of Dromara village, adjacent to a bleach mill and up to four other outbuildings to its north. The shape of the house has not changed since.

The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records the occupant as a Mrs Martha Black, who later married a man named David McCartney. The valuer recorded Woodford as a first-class-plus dwelling worth £22, possessing three returns and six offices, one of which was a coach house. The bleaching mill was noted at that time as being "nearly in a state of dilapidation… not used for some years past." Other outbuildings recorded included two boiling houses, a beetling mill, a washhouse, and a drying loft. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs for Dromara do not mention Woodford House directly, but do note that a Mr Black owned an old corn mill in the centre of the village.

By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map in 1859, one of the larger outbuildings surrounding the house had been removed. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 listed Martha's husband David McCartney as occupant, with the property's value increased to £28, for which the McCartneys paid £14 per annum in rent. The valuer described Woodford as a "very good respectable house with good offices," estimating that if sold "this farm would sell for more than £1,000." The valuer also noted that an old graveyard exists on the site, though no further information regarding it has been found.

By 1865, a Mr William Dodds had taken possession of the property, now described as "house, offices, scutch mill and land" and valued at £40. By 1885, a second scutch mill had been added to the site, though the valuation was reduced to £30 that year, with a note observing that the "value of buildings is too high. House too large for farm. Scutch mills work only four months during the year."

William Dodds died on 20th November 1896, leaving Woodford House and effects of £422 to his son Robert Dodds, who is recorded as occupant in 1899. By 1901 the farm's value had been lowered to £28 10s. after one of the stores fell into disrepair, and reduced again in 1907 to £24. In 1911, another William Dodds came into possession of Woodford House, which he bought outright in 1918. In 1921 he replaced the scutch mill with a new flax mill, greatly increasing the site's value to £43. A small flax mill had replaced the bleach mill by the third edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1903, and by the fourth edition of 1920 three large buildings had been constructed to form a substantial flax mill factory. According to Rodney Green, this new enterprise was called the Dromara Flax Co. Ltd.

On 21st October 1893, the Belfast Weekly News reported that a Mr James Dodds of Woodford House, Dromara, was appointed one of the original 600 members of the Ulster Defence Union Central Assembly, a representative body comprising unionists "from every class and creed," formed to resist the Second Home Rule Bill, which was defeated later that year.

The 1911 census records show that Robert Dodds (aged 66), a Presbyterian farmer, lived at Woodford House with his wife Abigail — married 34 years — and a number of their seven children. The building return records Woodford as a first-class dwelling with seven inhabited rooms. The extensive outbuildings at that time included two stables, two cowhouses, two calf houses, two piggeries, three fowl houses, a boiling house, a barn, a potato house, a workshop, and a shed and store.

The Black family had been involved in the linen trade from as early as 1758, and it has been suggested — with field research offering support — that the origins of Woodford may extend to around that period, though the current facade dates from around 1800. Samuel Lewis, writing in 1837, records Woodford as once being the seat of a flourishing linen industry in the area. The listing records note that the first occupant was a Mr James Black, who owned the bleach mill.

Woodford House was listed in 1992. The old mill has unfortunately since fallen into a ruined condition, and many of the other early agricultural and industrial outbuildings to the north of the house are in a similar state.