The Park, 23 Park Road, Dromara, Co Down, BT32 3RN

The Park is a two-storey, three-bay farmhouse predating 1834, located off Park Road approximately two miles south-east of Dromara village in County Down. Together with its associated outbuildings, it forms a good and increasingly rare example of a historic rural smallholding that retains much of its original character, style and proportions. Although some alterations and modernisation have taken place, many historic features of interest survive, and the outbuildings and setting remain much as originally developed.

The farmhouse is of rectangular plan form with linear abutments. The principal elevation faces north and is symmetrically arranged, with a centrally positioned front door flanked by windows at ground floor level and first floor windows set directly above. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with clay ridge tiles, and the rendered chimneys are roughcast with corbelled upper courses; the rainwater goods and chimney pots are replacements in uPVC. The external walls are finished in painted smooth render with an undercut plinth. Windows are replacement 2/2 double-glazed timber sliding sashes with vertical glazing bars, set on masonry cills within slightly projecting contrasting rendered reveals; the first floor windows are diminished in height. The front door is a four-panelled raised-and-fielded door with bolection mouldings and a beaded muntin, fitted with brass ironmongery and topped by a square-headed tripartite overlight.

The left gable has a single first floor window and is abutted at ground floor level by a gabled single-storey former outbuilding set back from the main block. This outbuilding has double-leaf doors to the left and a single window to the right. To the north, a single-storey lean-to outshot occupies the re-entrant angle, with a blank gable. The rear of this outbuilding has a single window to the left and a bipartite window to the right. The rear elevation of the main house is symmetrically arranged, with a central projecting windbreak porch fitted with a timber sheeted door, single windows either side at ground floor level, and a centrally placed, diminished-in-scale first floor window. The right gable has a single first floor window positioned right of centre.

The site is accessed from Park Road via replacement gates on squared roughcast piers with pyramidal caps, adjoining rendered walls, and a sweeping curved private lane lined with hedgerows. The lane terminates at the rear yard through a secondary set of wrought-iron gates. The yard is enclosed by single-storey outbuildings and stables with smooth painted rendered walls, pitched natural slate roofs, timber sheeted doors and fixed timber-framed lights. Abutting the stable is a one-and-a-half-storey cottage, converted into rented holiday accommodation, with smooth painted rendered walls, a pitched natural slate roof, replacement top-hung casement windows with glazing bars, and a replacement timber-framed door with glazed panels; the interior has been significantly altered, with the kitchen hearth modified. Further south stands a two-storey outbuilding with exposed rubble masonry walls, cut masonry quoins, brick surrounds to openings, a timber lintel over the gable first floor opening, a ramped earth approach to the first floor on the east elevation, timber sheeted and corrugated-iron doors, and a pitched slated roof. To the north of the yard is a modern single-storey stable block. A small garden addresses the front elevation of the house, and various historic wrought-iron and cast-iron gates are found throughout the site, alongside rubble masonry walls and piers. The buildings as a whole are secluded and screened from public view by the natural landscape and vegetation.

The Park consists of two early 19th-century farmhouses, both recorded as already constructed on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. The two-storey farmhouse is situated to the north of the site and the one-and-a-half-storey cottage to the south. In the 1830s the property was the residence of brothers Joseph and David Campbell, local farmers who occupied the two dwellings separately. The Townland Valuations record that David Campbell lived in the northernmost dwelling, valued at £3 13s., while his brother Joseph resided in the southern house, valued at £4 7s.

By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859 little discernible alteration had been made to either dwelling. By the time of Griffith's Valuation of around 1861, however, David Campbell had vacated the site and the northern house was occupied by Joseph Campbell, while the southern house had passed to a John Campbell of unknown relation. The northern house appears to have undergone some alteration between 1834 and around 1861, as its valuation had risen to £5 10s. by the latter date; the southern house saw only a modest increase, from £4 7s. to £4 10s. Griffith's Valuation records that both John and Joseph Campbell held their properties from Arthur Edwin Hill-Trevor, 1st Baronet Trevor, son of the Marquis of Downshire.

In 1884 Joseph Campbell vacated the northern house, presumably upon his death, and was replaced as occupant by John Campbell Junior, son of John Campbell Senior of the southern house. John Campbell Senior died in 1894, at which time he appears to have been residing at a property named New House in Crossgar. Upon his death the southern house was occupied by his nephew Joseph McCance. By 1901 the southern farmhouse was vacant and unrecorded in the census of that year; both John Campbell (aged 75, Presbyterian) and Joseph McCance (aged 36) were described as farmers residing at The Park with a number of servants and John Campbell's sister Eliza (aged 59). The 1901 census building return described the northern house as a second-class dwelling of three rooms, with a large number of outbuildings including three stables, three cow houses, two piggeries and a barn among its out-offices.

John Campbell had vacated the site by 1909, when Joseph McCance was recorded as occupant of both properties. The 1911 census records McCance residing at the northern house with his wife Agnes (aged 39), his aunt Eliza, and a number of farm and domestic servants. Although the 1901 building return had noted only three rooms in the northern dwelling, the 1911 census recorded nine; this inconsistency is considered likely to be an error, as later Ordnance Survey editions of 1902 and 1919–20 show no apparent alteration to the site, and there was no corresponding change in valuation that would be expected following building works. Joseph McCance continued to reside at The Park until his death in 1937, at which time his widow Agnes came into possession. When the site was first surveyed in 1969, ownership had reverted to the Campbell family, with a Mr J. D. Campbell recorded as occupant. The Park was listed in 1977 and continues to be occupied. The northern dwelling has undergone modern alterations, while the outbuildings and additional cottage survive.