Tardree Cottage, Tardree Road, Kells, Ballymena, BT42 3PE

Tardree Cottage is an early 19th-century building of modest charm that has undergone several inappropriate alterations affecting its original appearance and character.

Built in 1810 by public subscription as a schoolhouse (marked as such on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833), it was later converted to domestic use and became known as Tardree Cottage, as shown on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map. The building now serves as an office and stands within the area of scheduled monument ANT44:21.

The structure is a single-storey rendered building with slated hipped roof containing accommodation in the roof space. The main entrance faces south. The south elevation is asymmetrical, with two windows to the left of the entrance and three windows to the right. The roof is finished in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with one small original flush rooflight. Two chimneys of modern rustic brickwork with modern red pots puncture the roofline. The walls are smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked with smooth rendered plinth and projecting eaves course. Metal gutters are supported on iron brackets with two cast iron downpipes.

Door and window openings feature Gothic arches with smooth rendered flush surrounds. The windows to the left of the entrance are modern PVC double-glazed units in two panes, while those to the right are vertically hung timber sliding sash windows, 1 over 1, with horns and exposed sash boxes, though these are in poor condition. All windows have angled stone cills, painted. The main entrance is a Gothic-arched timber sheeted door set in a timber frame, fitted with a late Victorian iron knocker and modern aluminium letter box.

The side elevations are plain blank walls of smooth cement render with original rooflight in each end hip. The rear elevation features similar walling and slated roof with an asymmetrical arrangement of openings: three rectangular windows to the ground floor with metal casements and fixed lights; and two small rectangular timber 4-pane top-hung vents to the attic space with concrete cills and plain reveals. The rear entrance is a steel-plated door in steel frame set in a plain rectangular opening. Cast iron rainwater goods serve the rear elevation.

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

The cottage 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, now missing their gates. The front boundary is formed by a stone and sod wall. The main entrance gateway to the east end of the front boundary comprises a large modern steel gate with bounding walls to the driveway formed of rubble stone and sod revetments. To the west end of the 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. The house is immediately surrounded by rough tarmac areas; the rear yard is similar but covered with moss. A large yard to the east contains a white-painted rendered outbuilding and a timber-boarded shed, both of poor quality. To the rear of the property is a forest.