Mary Brook House, 11 Raleagh Road, Drumnaconagher, Crossgar, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 9JG

Mary Brook House, 11 Raleagh Road, Drumnaconagher, Crossgar, Downpatrick, County Down

This is an extensive and largely complete small-scale Georgian vernacular rural milling complex dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries. The site comprises water-powered two-storey corn and flax mills and a single-storey stable block, all probably dating from the mid to late 1700s, a two-storey miller's house of 1837, and subsidiary structures including a small cottage and storehouse of around the 1840s. The grouping was abandoned in the 1950s and lay largely derelict until the early 1970s, when restoration began. The corn mill continued in operation until the late 1990s. The entire complex is characterised by uniform harled and whitewashed facades, slated roofs, and Georgian paned sash windows with timber sheeted doors. Traditional wrought iron farm gates, stone walling, and simple gate pillars complete the picturesque appearance.

The site is located at the end of a lane to the west of Raleagh Road, approximately two and a half miles east of Ballynahinch. The Ballynahinch River lies immediately to the west, with a mill pond to the south.

The miller's house stands at the south-east corner of the complex. The main portion is a two-storey structure with a hipped roof, now linked in somewhat organic fashion to a series of what appear mainly to have been outbuildings, part of which may belong to an older dwelling possibly dating from the 1720s. The front facade faces roughly east and is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is a panelled timber door with a large elliptical fanlight with radial tracery and sidelights with interwoven tracery. To the left is a sash window with Georgian panes (6/6), with three further sash windows to the first floor, all with similar panes. All windows throughout the house are sash with Georgian panes. The south facade is blank but is abutted at its left edge by the blank east wall of a single-storey extension. The north facade has a window to each floor as the front. The remainder of the south elevation consists of a largely two-storey gabled section to the left, which was originally separate from the house and probably an outbuilding of some sort, possibly a barn. To the right this section is single-storey and linked to the main house by means of a single-storey flat-roofed section set further back, abutting only the right side of the former outbuilding. The south facade of the former outbuilding has four windows to the ground floor and a timber sheeted door. The 1st, 2nd, and 4th windows are as the front of the main portion. The 3rd window is smaller with a nine-pane frame which appears to be fixed. The doorway to the immediate right consists of a timber sheeted door with a country garden open porch with gabled roof and lattice work sides, slated with shaped barges. The 4th window is within the single-storey section. To the first floor are two windows as the front, set within gabled half-dormers with shaped barges. The short south facade of the flat-roofed extension has a large window with arched lights; the frame for this window was apparently salvaged from a Victorian shop front. The east-facing gable of the single-storey portion has a small, high-level, six-pane window.

The north facade of the outbuilding section faces into a small informal courtyard. This facade has two windows to the first floor as the front. The 2nd window undoubtedly was once a loft door, being taller and sitting under a gabled hood which may once have had a pulley wheel. To the ground floor is a small nine-pane window. The west-facing gable has a window as the front to each floor. The rest of the north elevation, to the right of the north facade of the main house, has a complex appearance, consisting largely of a long two-storey gabled return in two distinct sections, with that to the right projecting further north and abutted at ground floor level by a long single-storey gabled section. Part of the return may belong to an older dwelling possibly dating from the 1720s. The north facade of the left-hand portion of the return has a timber sheeted door to the left on the ground floor, with a smaller window as the front to the right. To the first floor are two similar but smaller windows. The north facade of the projecting section to the right has three windows to the first floor as the front. The north facade of the single-storey section has three smaller windows as the front, with a round gate pillar abutting the facade to the left of the windows. To the ground floor of the east-facing exposed portion of gable between the two sections of the return is a window as the front. The east-facing gable of the single-storey section has a timber sheeted door.

The south facade of the return faces into the rear courtyard. To the ground floor are four sash windows as the front, with five similar but slightly smaller windows to the first floor. The west-facing gable of the return has two windows to each floor as before. To the west side of the rear courtyard is the single-storey flat-roofed extension. Virtually all of its east face is glazed with two sets of three-light salvaged Victorian shop windows as on the south elevation, with a modern glazed double door between. Within this extension the original ground floor window to the rear of the main house remains intact, as does the door opening to the north giving access to the return. On the exposed upper right-hand section of the rear west facade of the main section, visible above and beyond the extension, is a window as the front.

The entire facade is harled and whitewashed. All roof sections except the extension are slated. The extension has a dentilled eaves course. The main section has two central chimney stacks; the return has two more, and the single-storey section to the north has one further stack. There is also a small stack to the north-west corner of the return and, to the south-west corner of the main house, a slim chimney breast rises. All stacks are finished as facade with stone coping and octagonal pots to the main stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout.