30 Greenmount Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 1½ and 2-storey house of asymmetrical plan in basalt rubble with sandstone dressings and steep-pitched hipped roofs. Main entrance faces south.

South elevation: roof of Westmorland green slates in diminishing courses; flat soffits to overhanging eaves with timber eaves board; PVC gutter and downpipe. Walls of basalt rubble with tooled edges to corners at extremities and to corners of reveals to openings; raised sandstone platband at first floor cill level. Central chimney of roughly coursed basalt rubble with tooled edges to corners and plain block cornice. Two windows to first floor, coupled rectangular timber 6-pane side-hung casements, with soffit of eaves to head; one window to ground floor similar casements to first floor, with timber drip board, recessed cill, and flat arch to head. All windows to the house are modern replacements.
Entrance is a rectangular timber stained and varnished glazed and panelled door recessed in plain reveals with an angled top to the flat arched head; concrete doorstep.

Extending to the right-hand side and set well back from the main wall is a lower 1½ storey block with most of ground floor behind a curved screen wall to a small yard. Screen wall of similar basalt to main house with sandstone block coping in line with stringcourse to east elevation. West side of yard wall contains a semi-elliptical archway with a rectangular ledged and braced timber door. Yard surface concrete; yard inner walls basalt rubble. South elevation of house within yard: basalt rubble with a sandstone stringcourse; four square ventilation openings at top of wall, presumably to an original drying room in loft above; two recessed doorways, rectangular ledged timber door to right in flat basalt arch; modern rectangular flush timber door, glazed, to left set in a tongued and grooved sheeted screen, in a segmental headed basalt flat arch. PVC gutter and downpipe.

West elevation: roof, walling, and rainwater goods as previous to entrance front.
One window to each floor: first floor double casement, as previous to entrance front; ground, small rectangular timber 4-pane top-hung, with timber drip board in a flat arch.

North elevation: similar to previous, with PVC soil pipe; two windows to each floor, double casements as previous to entrance front. Set back to the left-hand side is the lower 1½ storey block, with roof, rainwater goods, and walling similar to main block; four small square ventilation openings to top of wall; one window, double casement, similar to previous on ground floor but head formed by projecting sandstone stringcourse. Gravelled area to corner between blocks, containing oil tank, partly screened by modern wooden fence.

East elevation consists of the main 2-storey block with hipped roof, with the lower 1½ storey block projecting forward centrally. 1½ storey block has one window, in centre, rectangular timber coupled 4-pane casements, deeply recessed with rusticated sandstone block dressings to reveals, sandstone cill, and rusticated flat arched sandstone head which extends to each side to form a stringcourse; below cill is a shallow recessed panel of basalt stonework with tooled edges to reveals but rough finish to ledge below. Modern flush rooflight in roof above; television aerial on chimney.

SETTING: The building stands in a rural area on a corner site, facing onto an entrance road to an agricultural college; directly opposite is a similar but not identical house (HB20/13/003D) built at the same time as part of an overall architectural composition. Approached by a short pedestrian path and a vehicular driveway off the entrance road; tarmac path across main entrance and tarmac area to west; lawns to rear and east; well kept flower beds. Front and east boundary formed by a black stained timber fence containing an original wrought iron pedestrian gate of geometrical design on iron posts, and a pair of modern iron vehicular gates on steel posts to the driveway.

Historical information

Built c 1925 as a cottage for the farm foreman at Greenmount Agricultural College, designed under the direction of R. Ingleby Smith, chief architect to the Government of Northern Ireland; contractors, T. McKee and Sons, of Belfast. Still used as a staff residence for Greenmount College but not specifically for the farm foreman.

References – Primary Sources
1. The Architects' Journal, 11 November 1925, pp 719-725.
2. OS Map 1962-3, Co Antrim 50.
Secondary Sources
1. J.A.K. Dean, The Gate Lodges of Ulster (UAHS, Belfast, 1994), p 17.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an early 20th century building of distinctive form and style. It has undergone some inappropriate alterations but still enjoys a pleasant setting at an entrance to an agricultural college, and together with the similar but not identical building opposite it, and other buildings elsewhere in the grounds in similar materials and architectural idiom, by the same architect, forms part of an interesting group.

General comments

This building was originally listed in the wrong ward and was previously to be found as part of HB20/14/019.