Ashville, 25 Greystone Road, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 1HJ

Ashville is a mid-19th century house built in an unpretentious Italianate cottage style, likely dating from the late 1840s and appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857. It is a well-preserved and largely unspoiled example of its type, set within its own grounds in Antrim. The listing covers the house, outbuildings, yard wall, gates, and gate screen.

The house is two storeys, three bays, built of roughly coursed basalt rubble. The main entrance faces south. The south elevation is symmetrical, with one window to each floor on either side of a central projecting entrance bay. The roofs are of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with oversailing eaves on exposed rafter ends and oversailing verges to the gables. Moulded cast iron gutters are fitted, with a cast iron downpipe to the left-hand side of the entrance bay and a PVC downpipe to the right-hand side. The walls have a projecting smooth cement-rendered plinth, painted, with similar rendered end pilasters and frieze. The stonework has been repointed with modern reticulated pointing.

The windows to the main front are rectangular timber sliding sash without horns: 6-over-6 panes to the first floor, and 6-over-6 with margin lights to the sides at ground floor level. All are set in moulded stucco surrounds with red brick block dressings. Ground floor surrounds additionally include a frieze panel and moulded cornice. The projecting window sills are of Tardree granite, painted.

The main entrance consists of an original rectangular timber 9-panel door with a rectangular fanlight containing margin lights, recessed within a moulded cornice and bounded by full-height corner pilasters. There are two original steps of Tardree granite. An original bronze bell-pull of circular form is mounted to the right of the front door. Above the entrance, at first floor level, is a window matching those elsewhere on the main front, surmounted by a small round-headed fixed light with brick dressings set in the apex of the gable.

The sides of the projecting entrance bay are of similar walling to the main front, each with one ground floor window sashed 4-over-4 with side margins, and a blind window at first floor level with matching surrounds but blocked with basalt rubble.

The west elevation is of similar character to the south front: two storeys, with matching walling, roofs, and cast iron rainwater goods. It comprises the end gable of the front rooms, with the rear rooms set back to the left. The main gable has a shallow canted bay at ground floor level, finished in stucco with plain moulded capitals to the corner pilasters, a moulded entablature, and a plain blocking course. The windows here are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, without horns: the central light is 6-over-6 with side margin lights, and the narrow canted side lights are 2-over-2. Sills are of projecting painted Tardree granite. At first floor level in the gable is one window matching those on the entrance front, though the moulded surround is damaged to the right-hand side. In the attic is a semi-circular headed timber sliding sash window, 1-over-1 with margin lights and without horns, set in a brick arch with brick block dressings and a projecting sill. The set-back block to the left has one window at ground floor and one at first floor, both similar to those on the main entrance front. Slightly further set back at the left-hand extremity is a screen wall to the rear yard, of basalt rubble with brick dressings to the yard door. There is a rectangular ledged timber door, brick block quoins to an extension of the wall projecting forward to the left, and a smooth cement-rendered coping.

The rear elevation is two storeys with twin gables and a double-pile roof. The walling matches the rest of the house but there is no plinth. A PVC downpipe runs from the central valley and to the left-hand extremity. At ground floor level, to the right of a projecting single-storey rear return, are two rectangular timber sliding sash windows, 4-over-4 without horns, fitted with attached iron bars, set in brick surrounds with projecting painted granite sills. To the right of these windows is a rectangular blind opening dressed with brick and blocked with basalt rubble, which appears to be an original rear entrance. The rear return has a west wall of basalt rubble containing a rectangular door sheeted on its outer face, set in roughly rendered red brick reveals with a painted timber lintel and a rendered step. To the left is a rectangular timber window, a modern fixed light with a top-hung vent, in roughly rendered brick reveals with a plain timber lintel and a projecting granite sill. The rear return has a lean-to roof of Bangor blue slates covered with asphalt and metal guttering, and is enclosed to the north by a screen wall to the outer yard.

A small inner yard has a surface of large quarry tiles. On its west side stands a single-storey outbuilding with smooth cement-rendered walls, lined and blocked, containing a rectangular ledged timber door, a lean-to slated roof, metal gutters, and a cast iron downpipe. At the west end of the inner yard, an alley leads through a rectangular ledged timber door with a timber lintel and a red brick flat arch above to the garden. The screen wall to the outer yard is of basalt rubble with a smooth rendered coping. It contains a brick-dressed flat-arched open doorway in the centre; to the right is a modern rectangular timber fixed light with a top-hung vent in smooth rendered reveals with red brick block dressings and a concrete sill; to the left of the doorway is a yard gateway containing a pair of double doors, timber slatted and framed, set in brick piers with concrete copings.

The east elevation is similar to the west, except that there is no canted bay at ground floor level; the window here is sashed 6-over-6 with margins to the sides in a surround similar to those on the ground floor of the main front. Slightly set back to the right is the single-storey rear return, which contains two windows: the walling is basalt rubble with a smooth cement-rendered coping, and there is a brick nib in poor condition at the right-hand end. The windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 4-over-4 without horns, with projecting painted granite sills.

The exterior face of the yard wall to the west is of basalt rubble with a moulded rendered coping. Part of the wall and coping has been whitened where a conservatory formerly stood, and a small segmental brick-arched opening in the base of the wall at this point contains pipework that previously connected to the conservatory.

The two-storey barn is of roughly coursed basalt rubble. Its west gable has brick block quoins at the extremities and one narrow unglazed ventilation opening in each floor, with similar brick dressings. The north elevation of the barn is of similar character, with narrow ventilating openings in each floor and a rectangular timber small-paned brick-dressed window at ground floor level with a granite sill. The east gable of the barn has a rectangular timber single-pane fixed light at first floor level. The exterior face of the yard wall on the east side is of roughly coursed basalt rubble with a rendered coping, with brick dressings to a rectangular timber sheeted doorway. To the left of the doorway is a blind opening dressed with red brick and blocked with basalt rubble. At the right-hand extremity, set back in the angle with the two-storey barn, is a single-storey potting shed with brick plinth walls surmounted by tongued and grooved sheeting on concrete sills, a corrugated iron roof, and PVC guttering and downpipe. At the left-hand end is a derelict timber-framed and sheeted lean-to shed. The outer yard is surfaced with concrete.

The west side of the outer yard contains a single-storey outbuilding with a lean-to slated roof, continuous to an open shelter to the left. The shelter has a timber beam supported on a circular cast iron column, basalt rubble walls lining the interior, a simple open roof, and a compacted earth floor. The single-storey outbuilding has walls of basalt rubble and red brick, one modern rectangular timber fixed light window, two rectangular ledged timber doors, and one brick-dressed open doorway with a half-height flat iron gate.

The north side of the outer yard contains a two-storey gabled barn of basalt rubble with brick block quoins and brick dressings to all openings. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with black ridge tiles, cast iron gutter, and cast iron downpipe. At ground floor level there is a large rectangular garage or coach doorway fitted with a pair of sheeted timber doors, two smaller rectangular sheeted doors, and one rectangular timber horizontally pivoting window with roughly rendered reveals and a projecting granite sill. At first floor level are two rectangular timber sheeted doors with rendered reveals and flush granite sills, with a later gabled timber dovecote between them, its sides clad in corrugated iron and mounted on the wall with iron brackets. Projecting from the right-hand extremity of the barn is a single-storey lean-to block in red brick with a slated roof, metal gutter, cast iron downpipe, a rectangular sheeted door, and a rectangular small-paned fixed light with a projecting granite sill.

The east side of the outer yard contains a single-storey outbuilding with a lean-to slated roof, metal guttering, and walls of basalt rubble with red brick dressings. It has three rectangular timber boarded half-doors, modern rectangular timber sheeted double doors to a garage, and an open-fronted wood store with a smooth rendered plinth wall.

The building stands within its own grounds with its entrance front facing away from the main road. It is approached by a tarmac driveway through an entrance gateway comprising a pair of ornamental cast iron gates set between square rendered and painted piers with moulded bases, courses, and weathered caps, flanked on each side by outward-curving rendered screen walls with moulded copings terminating in end piers of similar detailing to the gate piers. The gateway faces onto a tarmac slip road, formerly the main road, which lies at a lower level than the current main public road. The front boundary is formed by a basalt rubble wall with rock copings, overgrown with creeper. The boundaries to the east, west, and south are formed by a belt of mature trees with hedges and fences. The grounds are laid out with lawns, shrubs, and mature trees, with a tarmac area in front of the entrance elevation bordered by grass. Compartmented areas within the garden are marked by hedges; one to the west of the yard is entered through a gateway comprising a looped iron gate set between two square purple brick piers with large rendered caps surmounted by vases. A timber garden shelter stands in the compartmented garden to the north of the barn. To the east of the house, in the garden, is a now-isolated gateway that formerly led to the farm, comprising a flat iron gate set between large circular piers of basalt rubble with rounded-topped rendered caps. Beyond the garden on all sides lies modern suburban housing.

The precise date of construction is not known, but the house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and stylistically appears to date from the late 1840s. It was at one time the residence of the Reverend Charles Morrison, minister of First Antrim Presbyterian Church from 1840 until his resignation in 1859, when he left to become principal of Hackney Theological College in London. The house was purchased by Dr Adams in 1859 and subsequently sold by the Adams family to the Graingers, mill owners, around 1940.