Ashmount Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey rendered house, built c.1830. Rectangular on plan facing north and located along the south side of Hillhall Road with a projecting front entrance porch and lean-to rear projection. Range of late nineteenth-century rendered outbuildings located to the west. Now empty and boarded up.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and three redbrick chimneystacks, that to the west being profiled and rendered. Ogee-moulded cast-iron guttering to exposed rafter feet and cast-iron downpipes. Ruled and lined cement rendered walling with rusticated soldier quoins and raised render lettering to the front elevation stating: 'ASHMOUNT COTTAGE'. Square-headed window openings with architrave surrounds, painted masonry sills and single-pane timber sash windows.

Front elevation is three windows wide and abutted by an off-centre gabled entrance porch with decorative timber bargeboard, rusticated soldier quoins. Round-headed window opening to the front and square-headed door opening to the west cheek with early twentieth-century timber panelled and glazed door. Small front garden enclosed to the road by hedging with an iron pedestrian gate to the road.

East gable is blank with remnants of carved timber brackets to the eaves.

Rear elevation is abutted by a lean-to redbrick projection having a timber sheeted door to the east cheek.

West gable as per east.

Setting:
Set close to the road behind a hedgerow with a range of late nineteenth-century single-storey rendered outbuildings to the west having pitched natural slate or corrugated asbestos roofs, pebbledash rendered walls, timber casement windows and sheeted timber doors.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled and lined cement render
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

The single-storey dwelling now known as ‘Ashmount Cottage’ first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 where it is depicted as a single oblong building situated along the modern Hillhall Road in the townland of Ballymullan. There had been no change to the site by the second edition of the maps in 1859; the contemporary Griffith’s Valuation tells us that a Mr. Peter Reid occupied the dwelling in 1861 at which time it was valued at £2 and was let by the Marquis of Hertford.

Census records inform us that Peter Reid continued to occupy the cottage by 1901 at which time he was aged 78 and resided with his wife Eliza (75) and his daughter Maggie, who was employed as a spooler in one of the nearby mills. Peter Reid was employed as a farmer and possessed a number of farm buildings including a stable, cow house, fowl house and a barn; the Census Building Return describes Ashmount Cottage as a 2nd class dwelling which at that time (and during the later census of 1911) consisted of three rooms and possessed a thatched roof. Peter Reid resided at the cottage until his death in 1903 at the approximate age of 80; in his will Reid left the house to his widow Eliza while dividing effects of £50 between his four children (PRONI Wills Catalogue 2 April 1903). The 1911 Census tells us that Elizabeth Reid (then aged 87) resided at the cottage alone; the later occupational history of the site after 1911 however is not known.

The fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey (1919-20) shows no discernible change to the site from the earlier maps. The Ordnance Survey map of 1963 shows that current western outbuilding had been constructed between 1920 and 1963; although it is not clear when the thatched roof, last recorded in the 1911 Census, was replaced with the current slate roof. Field inspection finds that Ashmount Cottage has lain abandoned for some time and has fallen into a state of disrepair along with its former farmbuildings.

References
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/15/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/15/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/15/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-20
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/24A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
5. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1903)
6. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911
7. Ordnance Survey Map – 165-7 (1963)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached single-storey rendered house, originally built as a thatched house c.1830 and located along the south side of Hillhall Road, now empty. Although in a state of decay, this house appears to have started life as a vernacular dwelling with an extensive decorative external appearance added during the early twentieth-century. The decorative details are of some note and the overall composition adds character to the local area. Despite its interest the building has undergone significant alteration in the 20th century, has suffered loss of character as a result of the deterioration of the fabric and is therefore not suitable for listing.

General comments

This record was completed without access to original source material held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.