Gate

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A pair of mid nineteenth-century cast-iron gate piers supporting decorative composite cast/wrought iron gate, located to the north side of Gloverstown Road and providing pedestrian access to a farmhouse.

The piers are each set on a painted rendered octagonal pedestal. They each have a foliated plinth and exaggerated fluted shaft with contrasting candy stripe paintwork throughout. The left pier has a straight fluted cap; the right has a twisted fluted cap.

The gate comprises a cast-iron frame with floral and anthemion motifs, and wrought-iron detailing including three human faces and radiating barley-twist snakes, bird, cat and monkey finials.

In the yard top the rear of the farmhouse stands a pump. A cow tail closed head lever type pump with a plain spirally decorated column and a fluted cap with an acorn finial. There is a bucket hook on the spout. It has been decorated to match the gates.

To either side is a roughcast boundary wall with unpainted cement coping. The farmhouse is modern (1970s), and the farmyard has a range of single storey outbuildings with pitched corrugated metal and asbestos roofs, roughcast walling and t&g sheeted doors.

Historical information

The group is shown on the 1830 OS map. The remaining piers originally formed one of a pair, with those flanking a vehicular entrance to east having been demolished in the latter part of the twentieth century. Brett states that the gates are the work of John Carey, a prominent local figure who left a varied and eclectic architectural legacy in the environs of Toome, including the 1860 Free Water Pump (HB20/01/06), the exotic “Hindoo” style Temple of Liberty (built 1866, burned 1911, now demolished), and his own memorial, located in the nearby churchyard at Duneane (HB20/01/019C). According to Brett, Carey lived at the cottage from 1850, and died in 1891 at the age of 91. However the 1830s Townland Valuation and the Griffiths Valuation of 1859 record the occupant James Kelly. The first valuation records the house and offices as valued at £3.17s.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/1/42/1 First edition OS map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/42/1 Second edition OS map (1857)
3. PRONI VAL/1A/1/42 Townland Valuation Map
4. PRONI VAL/1B/185 Townland Valuation Fieldbook
5. PRONI VAL/2A/1/48A Griffiths Valuation Map

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B. Buildings of County Antrim (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and the Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996), 293-295.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
C. Ornamentation
F. Structural System
G. Innovatory Qualities

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The gate piers and gate at Gloverstown Road represent an innovative use of cast- and wrought-ironwork, and display the versatility of each material to remarkable effect. The detailing is similar to that found in high Victorian street furniture, and is particularly unusual in this rural setting. The piers are one of a number of unusual structures associated with John Carey, who erected also the Water Fountain at Toome (HB20/01/006) and his own memorial at Duneane Presbyterian Church (HB20/01/019B). The gates are all that remains of the Carey home, Rarity Cottage (now demolished); in addition to their artistic merit and historical associations, they form an important and unique landmark in the area.