Tardree Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey rendered building with slated hipped roof containing accommodation in the roof space. Main entrance faces south.

South elevation asymmetrical with two windows to left of the entrance and three windows to the right.
Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; one small original flush rooflight. Two chimneys of modern rustic brickwork with modern red pots. Walls smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked with smooth rendered plinth and projecting eaves course. Metal gutters supported on iron brackets, with two cast iron downpipes. Door and window openings are Gothic arched with smooth rendered flush surrounds, lined; angled stone cills to window, painted. Windows to left of entrance are modern PVC double glazed in two panes; windows to right of entrance are vertically hung timber sliding sash, 1 over 1, with horns, with exposed sash boxes; timber windows in poor condition. Main entrance is a Gothic arched timber sheeted door set in a timber frame, with a late Victorian iron knocker and modern aluminium letter box.

Side elevations are plain blank walls, smooth cement rendered; original rooflight in each end hip.

Rear elevation is of similar walling to sides, with similar slated roof. Asymmetrical arrangement of openings, with three rectangular windows to ground floor, metal casements with fixed lights; and two small windows to the attic space, rectangular timber 4-pane top-hung vents; concrete cills, plain reveals. Cast iron rainwater goods. Rear entrance is a steel plated door in steel frame set in a plain rectangular opening.

OUTBUILDINGS: To the rear of the house is a yard bounded on two sides by walls of granite rubble with concrete copings; wall to west contains a rectangular ledged timber door in a brick dressed opening. Rear side of yard contains a 1½ storey outbuilding of roughly coursed granite with slated roof in poor condition; large rectangular coach entrance with modern steel lintel and modern preformed metal garage door, surmounted by a semi-circular arched loft opening containing a tongued and grooved sheeted door with modern plywood panel above; rectangular windows to each side of garage door, modern timber fixed lights with top-hung vents; rectangular doorways flanking windows; tongued and grooved sheeted; PVC rainwater goods. To right-hand end of main outbuildings block is a double storey block of granite rubble with rendered upper floor; concrete block used to block up an opening at right-hand extremity which contains a modern metal casement. End and rear elevations of outbuildings are of no architectural merit.

SETTING: The building stands in a very rural area facing the main road but set back from it with an overgrown garden in front. A pair of octagonal granite gate piers with ogee domed caps stands immediately in front of the main entrance doorway giving access to the front garden; gates missing.
Front boundary formed by a stone and sod wall. Main entrance gateway to east end of front boundary, comprising a large modern steel gate with bounding walls to driveway formed of rubble stone and sod revetments. To west end of front boundary is another gateway, now blocked off, containing a modern timber gate, with a pair of square granite gate piers, without gates, set back within a similar driveway to previous. House immediately surrounded by rough tarmac areas; rear yard similar but covered with moss. A large yard to the east of the house contains a white painted rendered outbuilding and a timber boarded shed, both of poor quality. To the rear of the property is a forest.

Historical information

Built in 1810, by public subscription, as a school, and marked as such on the OS map of 1833; later became a house known as Tardree Cottage, as marked on the OS map of 1858. The building stands within the area of a scheduled monument, no.ANT44:21.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1833, Co Antrim 44 (marked as 'School Ho.').
2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 44 (marked as 'Tardree Cottage').
3. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 19: Parishes of County Antrim VI, 1830, 1833, 1835-8 (Belfast, 1995), pp 27 and 30.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is an early 19th century building of some charm which enjoys a pleasant setting, but it has suffered a number of inappropriate alterations which detract from its original appearance and character.