884 Antrim Road, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0AH

884 Antrim Road, Templepatrick

This is the second house from the left in a terrace of six, built around 1780 and located on the south side of Main Street in Templepatrick. It is a two-storey, three-bay house of late eighteenth-century date, constructed as part of a defining row of vernacular and estate architecture in the village.

The house is rectangular on plan and faces north. The pitched roof is finished with natural slate and features replacement brick chimneys at the party wall shared with the neighbouring property. The walls are painted roughcast over a contrasting smooth rendered plinth.

The principal north-facing elevation is asymmetrical. An offset entrance contains a modern replacement part-glazed timber door with transom light and architrave. To the left and right of the entrance are ground-floor windows. The first-floor left bay contains two windows, while the first-floor right bay has a window of diminished size. All windows are multi-pane timber sashes with exposed sash boxes, painted slightly projecting rendered architraves, and painted masonry cills, unless otherwise stated.

The rear elevation has been substantially altered, with replacement uPVC windows and rainwater goods. Window reveals are painted but lack architraves. An offset uPVC door provides rear access.

To the rear of the house stands a small enclosed yard containing a single-storey outbuilding of rubble stone with a pitched slated roof and chamfered corner. This outbuilding features a 16-light fixed timber window. Rainwater goods are half-round metal.

The house has been much altered internally and in its original fabric, but the integrity of the terrace as a group is maintained through the retention of original multi-paned windows with exposed boxes and understated ornamentation including the rendered plinth and architraves. The terrace is a relatively unusual example of urban vernacular and estate architecture.

The terrace appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. Local tradition records that the house was burnt down and rebuilt, most likely following total destruction by Royal Troops after the Battle of Antrim on 7 June 1798. Griffiths Valuation of 1859 lists a combination of houses, yards, workshops, and a forge in this area, though there is insufficient information to identify the description pertaining to each property. All properties were leased from Viscount Templeton, and it is possible that the terrace originally functioned as workers' cottages associated with the adjacent Castle Upton estate. The associations with the Battle of Antrim and the Castle Upton estate enhance the historical value of the terrace.