Craig's House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay masonry house with a half-hipped roof. Main entrance faces east.

East elevation is symmetrical with one window to each side of a central doorway. Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; tiled main ridge; with zinc to hips; two chimneys equidistantly positioned, smooth cement rendered with plain projecting cornice; two pots per chimney, original octagonal creamware.
Walls of roughly coursed basalt rubble with later reticulated pointing; rusticated granite quoins to extremities; projecting smooth rendered plinth; projecting smooth rendered eaves course. Cast iron gutters.
Windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 6 over 6, without horns, mostly retaining original panes, set in plain rendered reveals with raised smooth cement rendered dressings laid on over original red brick dressings which are still visible in some places; projecting stone cills, painted. An ornamented cast iron ventilator grille is set into the plinth below each ground floor window.
Main entrance is contained in a rectangular moulded opening with cornice hood; the original rectangular 6-panel door with cast iron handle and knocker, recessed and flanked by a pair of black painted timber fluted Doric columns supporting a frieze and cornice enriched by a Greek key design, surmounted by a rectangular fanlight 2-panes wide with margin lights. Two steps up to front door, lower one concrete, upper one of sandstone.

South gable is smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, but boast in places, with two small portions having fallen next to the granite quoins at the right-hand side, revealing rubble stonework beneath.
Half-hipped roof with flush verges carried on a projecting rendered cove. Cast iron gutter returns from front elevation horizontally across face of gable.
Two windows: one rectangular timber to ground floor, sashed as previous to entrance front, with plain reveals; one semi-circular headed timber sliding sash to first floor, 6 over 6, without horns, with radial lights to head, and set in a slightly raised semi-circular headed surround.
Projecting from the left-hand side of the south gable is a single storey outbuilding with slated hipped roof and basalt rubble walls; tiled ridges. Rectangular timber glazed and panelled door set in a timber frame, recessed in crude rubble reveals; some red brickwork incorporated in wall to left.

Rear elevation comprises main front block with a lower rear return to the left-hand side and a lower two-storey lean-to across the rear face of the main block.
Main block roof hipped and slated as previous to front elevation. Wall above lean-to is rendered with a wet dash, with a projecting eaves course; no gutter, but a short length of cast iron downpipe at an intermediate position, and a short length of PVC downpipe returning from the gutter on the south gable, both discharging on to the lean-to roof below.
Lean-to extension has a roof slated as previous to main block; flush verge to right-hand side. Wall roughcast as rear of main block, with smooth rendered and painted plinth; moulded PVC gutter mounted on timber eaves board; PVC downpipe to right-hand side. Cast iron soil pipe and small PVC waste pipe.
Three windows to ground floor, from left to right: rectangular timber 4-pane side-hung casement in smooth rendered splayed reveals with recessed timber cill; a similar casement, but set in smooth rendered and painted surround with keystone motif; a metal fixed light with top-hung vent also set in rendered and painted keystone surround.
Two first floor windows, as follows, from left to right: a semi-circular headed timber sliding sash, 3 over 3, without horns, with radial lights to head, with exposed sash box, set in smooth reveals with projecting cill of rendered bricks, partly spalled.

Rear return is gabled, with flush verges to gable; roof slated as previous; walls roughcast as previous, with slightly projecting eaves course; moulded PVC gutter mounted on timber eaves board; short PVC downpipe discharging into gutter of lean-to. One chimney, similar to those on main block, with two original circular pots.
Two windows to first floor; to left, a small rectangular timber 4-pane fixed light, set in smooth reveals with recessed cill; to right, a larger rectangular timber replacement fixed light with top-hung vent, double glazed with pseudo-small panes, set in smooth reveals; projecting concrete cill.

West gable of rear return is blank.

North gable of main block of house is blank, with rendered wall, dry dash of stone chippings, painted over; smooth rendered plinth; projecting eaves coving; rusticated granite quoins to left-hand side.

North side of rear return is in same plane as north gable, but walling is rendered with a wet dash, painted over; smooth rendered and painted plinth; projecting eaves course. Roof slated as previous.
Metal gutter with cast iron downpipe at junction with north gable; moulded cast iron hopper.
Two windows to first floor, rectangular timber small-paned fixed lights with top-hung vents, set in smooth reveals with recessed cills; three windows to ground floor, one similar to first floor, and two modern replacement windows, double glazed as on south side of return, with projecting concrete cills.

SETTING: The house stands in a very rural area, facing the main road and set back from it within its own grounds. Front boundary formed by a low basalt rubble wall with large basalt rock copings; front gateway recessed in curved screen walls, with a pair of scrolling wrought iron gates mounted on square basalt rubble piers with painted stone caps. Front gateway leads to a driveway flanked by lawns leading up to front of house. To right of front gateway is a modern side gateway comprising snecked basalt piers with rock copings, mounted with a pair of timber gates; concrete driveway leads up to rear of building and to farm buildings.
Small mono-pitched rubble stone shed, formerly a toilet, with corrugated iron roof, stands adjacent to side gateway.
Rear yard of concrete, surrounded by one and two-storey rubble stone outbuildings, with slated roofs; ledged timber doors; rectangular timber fixed light windows, some with top-hung vents; red brick dressings to window openings; PVC rainwater goods. Yard entered by a pair of flat iron gates. Lean-to concrete block greenhouse at south-east corner of outbuildings; corrugated iron barns to west. House and outbuildings surrounded by agricultural land.

Historical information

Built by James Ellison who was born in 1810; precise date of building not known but it appears on the OS map of 1857; nothing shown on site on OS map of 1832. Stylistically it looks like a work of the 1840s.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 51.
Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, West Antrim (Belfast, 1970), p 18.
2. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (UAHS, Belfast, 1996), p 204 (but makes a bizarre assertion that the rear range may date from the late 17th or early 18th century).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an early to mid-19th century house in a vernacular Georgian style displaying the proportions, plan form, and some of the ornamental details that are characteristic of that style. It is of local interest as a comparatively unspoiled example of its type which enjoys a pleasant setting.