Clady Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one and a half storey, three bay, direct entry house with a half hipped thatched roof and exposed random rubble stone to the front elevation, the north-west gable and part of the rear. The remainder of the external finish is of render.

The house is accessed from the Templepatrick/Antrim road by turning to the left (south-west) just over a mile and a half from the former village. After a short distance beyond the railway bridge a further turn is made to the left and the house is some 500 yards on the right hand side.

Two chimneystacks with narrow corbelling and two tall pots each are set equidistantly on the ridge.

The entrance door with eight moulded and fielded panels is recessed within a classical doorcase. The elliptical arched fanlight has radial glazing and decorative sidelights are set within reeded pilasters.

The entrance is flanked on either side by an 8/8 vertically sliding window with small sash stops and sills of traditional depths.

Each opening is arched with red brick and those over the windows exhibit a slight rise.

The left-hand (south-east) gable has two 6/6 vertically sliding windows, with small sash stops and sills of traditional depths at low level and a 4x2 top hung casement above.

The opposite right hand (north-west) gable has a 6/6 vertically sliding window, with small sash stops and a sill of traditional depth at low level and a 4x2 top hung casement above. These openings are spanned by voussoired stone arches. An inset stone is inscribed with the date of erection of 1790 and that of renovation of 1958.

At the rear the thatch roof covering rises in the form of eyebrows to accommodate three triple casement windows with each light divided into 2x3 panes.

At the rear starting from the north-west corner there is a double casement with each light divided into 2x3 panes and surmounted by a radial fanlight. This panel is rendered.

At this point the flat-roofed extensions that project at the rear start on the north-west side with a triple casement window with each light divided into 2x3 panes. This is followed by a four-panelled door with leaded lights in the upper parts giving access to the kitchen. Next the former garage has been provided with a tripartite widow divided 2/2, 6/6,2/2. There are small sash stops and the sill is of traditional depth. The rear of this building is lighted by a 2x4 casement. To the right of this window a timber shed has been erected. The remaining side of the former garage has a small plain metal-framed casement and a door with one panel below a 2x3 upper light.

The flat-roofed structure that extends along the rear of the main house has a pair of casements with each light divided into 2x3 panes, and with a sill of traditional depth, flanked on either side by a pair of double doors with 2x3 panes over single panels and with three vertical panes over a single panel on either side.

All of the extensions have a rendered finish and the flat roofs are provided with timber fascias. A chimneystack constructed of concrete brick rises over the position of the boiler that is located within an enclosure in the kitchen

Historical information

A date stone suggests this house was built in 1790. The date stone itself does not appear to be original (it was probably added when the house was renovated in 1958), but the property’s doorcase and surviving internal detail does tie in with such a date.

The building is shown on the OS map of 1832 and recorded in the near contemporary valuation as a well-built and well-maintained thatched house occupied by a Mr Swan. Swan had a flax mill nearby, as well as at least one bleach mill within the same townland. The dimensions of the house are given as 52ft x 20½ x 10½, with a slated section of 52 x 8 x 6½ and a thatched ‘office’ (i.e. outbuilding) of 48 x 18 x 7, with the combined rating for both house and the flax mill (which, incidentally, was also thatched), amounting to £33-17-0. The fact that the house and the flax mill were valued together, suggests that dwelling was built to serve as the mill owner’s residence.

By the time of the second valuation of c.1860 the house and the mill (which by this stage had grown into a ‘linen dye works’) was in the hands of a Thomas Wallace, held on a lease from the Templeton Estate. The house, whose measurements are as the previous valuation, is rated separately from the industrial complex at £8. Three single storey outbuildings are recorded alongside the house, measuring 16½yrds x 9, 19 x 5 and 8 x5, respectively, the former two thatched, the last ‘felted’.

C.E.B Brett in ‘Buildings of County Antrim’ states that ‘the garden was laid out by John Cowan, who came from Scotland about 1880, and whose successors sold to the to the Webb family in 1958’ and that the house was later occupied by Mr Charles Kinahan. The present owner acquired the property in 1994.

The house was originally gabled, but was given its present hipped roof form in 1958, when thatchers from Nortfolk used material from their own district to produce a bonnet roof. Re-thatching was carried out in 1978 by Gerry Agnew, with repairs completed by him in 1984, with straw used on both occasions. The ridge was repaired in 1988 by Reedland Development of Sligo, using rye straw, with patching of the thatch undertaken by Billy Kilpatrick in 1990. Thatching Advisory Services worked on the next thatching scheme in 1992, using combed wheat reed, and two years later a major restoration of the entire building was carried out by its then new owner. The rear extension was altered in c.2000.

Master Thatchers North used Scottish water reed, and a block cut patterned straw ridge, to re-thatch the roof in 2002. This was agreed with EHS as the building is a gentleman’s or cottage orné residence and the design matched the existing style. The rear returns were altered in 2003.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/1/50 OS map, County Antrim sheet 50, with valuation
references (1832 / 33-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/129A-B First valuation, Templepatrick (c.1834)
3 ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland…vol.35, ed Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams, (QUB, 1996) (1835) [The Memoirs mention Swan’s mills in Straidballymorris townland]
4 PRONI VAL/2A/1/50A OS map, County Antrim sheet 50, with valuation references (1857-c.60)
5 PRONI VAL/2B/1/55A Second valuation, Templepatrick (c.1860)

Secondary sources
1 Girvan, W.D., ‘Lists of Historic Buildings…West Antrim’ (Belfast, 1970), p.27
2 Dixon, Hugh, ‘An Introduction to Ulster Architecture’ (Belfast, 1975), p.43
3 Pierce, Richard, Cooey, Alistair and Oram, Richard, ‘Taken for Granted…’ (Belfast, 1984), p.66
4 Brett, C.E.B., ‘The Buildings of County Antrim’ (Belfast, 1996), pp.217 [Brett quotes from a different valuation book than that I have used and comes up with a completely different tenant and rateable valuation.]

Other references
EHS files. ( includes details of thatching and other maintenance since listing.)
EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings. (Colin Hatrick)1992

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A one and a half storey three bay direct entry house with a half hipped thatch roof and exposed random rubble stone to the front elevation, the north-west gable and part of the rear. The remainder of the external finish is of render.The building is located off the Templepatrick / Antrim road a mile and a half southwest ofTemplepatrick.
The house has been altered from the appearance and detailing that apparently was the case prior to the gentrification of 1958.
The various themes of detailing that originated apparently at the time of the mid-19th century alterations have been continued throughout the house and perpetuated in the extensions.The house appears to be of late eighteenth century origin.