The Cobweb House

The Cobweb House, Templepatrick, County Antrim

The Cobweb House forms part of the Adam Yard stable complex, designed by Robert Adam and built in approximately 1790. It incorporates two former dwellings (numbers 6 and 7) and now includes the central arched tower and its flanking blocks, as well as the north-east corner of the south yard, including the central east tower. The complex sits to the east of Castle Upton and is reached by a long tree-lined avenue running perpendicular to the main street of Templepatrick (the Belfast Road). The yard was converted to twelve dwellings between 1988 and 2000, with the work understood to have been completed between 1998 and 2000.

Historical Background

The Castle Upton estate is thought to contain fragments of a 13th-century fortified Priory of the Knights of St John. The late medieval castle, a significant portion of which survives today, was built by Sir Robert and Humphrey Norton in approximately 1610. The Plantation Commissioners of 1610 recorded: "we beheald materialles sufficient to finish a faire castle already built two stories high with two greate Towres of flankers the worke of Humfrey Northon Lieutenant of the Lo: Deputies foot companie, at a place called Tymple Patricke upon the said Sir Arthur Chichester's lande by the River of Sixmylewater. He means to build a stonge bawne of lyme and stone about it towards w'ch said Sir Arthur gives 100 li ster and a lease of the lands for many yeares at a small rent." The castle was sold in 1625 to Captain Henry Upton of Cornwall, later Viscount Templeton, and remained in that family until the early 20th century. Clotworthy Upton, the first Lord Templeton, and his son, later the first Viscount, commissioned Robert Adam in 1783 to remodel the house "with a castle air." Adam never actually visited Ireland and many of his proposed works were not carried out; nevertheless, the asymmetrical castellations are notable — the picturesque castellated style was only just becoming fashionable at this time, while classical symmetry was still highly regarded. Works included the raising of two round towers, which were finished with conical roofs, and the addition of a wing with a further round tower. The stable complex is entirely Adam's work and is rigidly symmetrical, as is the neo-classical mausoleum on the estate, which displays typical Adam detailing. According to Lady Kinahan, the former owner, the stable yard is an exact replica of the old Fish Market in Edinburgh, which was demolished in 1930. Original drawings for both the house and the yard are held in the Soane Museum in London. When the Kinahan family purchased the estate in 1963, the yard was in a state of advanced decay and housed a number of pigsties. The 1860 Griffith's Valuation valued the estate at £207.

Architectural Description

The Adam Yard is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey, multi-bay stone former stable buildings. The complex is defined by six square-plan towers with chamfered corners at the corners of two yards. There is a main arched entrance clock tower to the south, a further arched rear entrance block to the north, and a central range on an east-west axis with an additional arched tower flanked by a pair of square-plan blocks.

The roofs are natural slate with lead to the ridge rolls. The linear sections are pitched, the towers and north and south arched entrance blocks are hipped. The entrance clock tower has an octagonal-plan spire with lead ridges, natural slate to the lower half, and metal louvres to the upper half, surmounted by a lead globe and weather-vane. The central arched tower has a square-plan lead spire added around 2008. The south and central arched towers and five of the six corner towers (all except that to the north-west) have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping resting on a corbelled course of red brick. This parapet treatment is also employed on the front (south) elevation of the two linear ranges, which have slender arched recesses with red brick heads. The central arched tower has four bartizans at its corners, formed in red brick with sandstone corbelling and replacement sandstone capstones. Replacement cast-iron rainwater goods are carried on iron drive-through brackets fixed to projecting rubblestone eaves courses, with some lead hoppers. Red brick chimneystacks have octagonal clay pots and lead flashing. Walling is coursed and snecked rubblestone with lime pointing and a projecting rubblestone plinth course.

The south entrance tower is flanked on both elevations by a pair of full-height projecting stone piers with parapet walls and sandstone coping on red brick corbelled courses. These piers carry blind balistrariae to the upper stage and blind loop-holes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also adorn the outward-facing chamfered corners of the four outer towers, with a double-height round-headed recess to the south-facing elevations of the two front corner towers only. The rear entrance block has a series of balistrariae to the ground floor of its south elevation, some glazed on the interior wall, while the north elevation has loop-hole openings to the ground floor, also glazed on the interior wall.

Windows are generally square-headed with rendered reveals, concrete sills, and timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, dating from around 2000. Between the paired piers flanking the arched entrance tower, the ground floor has a slender round-headed window opening fitted with 4/4 timber sash windows; the first floor has slender 4/4 timber sash windows. The window openings facing into the two yards are 6/6 timber sash to the ground floor with oculi openings to the first floor, formed in red brick with circular timber casement windows. Some large round-headed window openings occupy former carriage arch openings in the central linear range, with voussoired stone arches and multi-pane timber windows with integrated fanlights. The linear east and west ranges each have a lucarne opening at the centre of the range facing into the yards, with timber weatherboard to the gable and timber casement windows. Some tripartite sash windows have been inserted to the outward-facing elevations, with a central 6/6 flanked by 4/4 timber sash windows. The first floor of the outward-facing elevations has 3/6 and 6/3 timber sash windows.

The main south entrance clock tower has a large round-headed carriage arch with a sandstone architrave surround, plinth blocks, and impost blocks. Above impost level is a timber panel with glazing, while a pair of 19th-century vertically-sheeted timber doors on iron hinges give access to the yard. The walls and soffit within the arch are smooth lime rendered, with a small square-headed door opening to either side fitted with replacement timber panelled doors. Door openings are generally square-headed with multi-paned glazed timber doors, some double-leaf. To the corner towers of the front south elevation, within the double-height recesses, are round-headed door openings formed in voussoired stone with double-leaf multi-paned timber glazed doors, Gothick tracery fanlights, and oculi to the upper stage with circular timber casement windows.

The two yards are surfaced in gravel. The rear (north) yard contains a flower-bed formed in stone setts in the shape of a Prussian iron cross, with a carved stone pedestal and iron sun-dial on a moulded red brick base. Stone flags surround the east, north, and west elevations.

Setting and Surroundings

To the north of the rear is a lawned area with a stone ha-ha and a small stone bridge, with a bitmac driveway providing vehicular access to the north yard. To the north-east is a seven-bay single-storey stone-clad garage, built around 2000, which abuts the wall of the Upton graveyard.

Condition and Conversion

The Adam Yard represents a fine example of Robert Adam's work in a rural setting and demonstrates fine stonemasonry from the late 18th century. The conversion to dwellings resulted in heavy remodelling of the stable interiors, though the majority of the roof structure and some joinery have been retained. The conversion also involved the insertion of new timber sash windows and an increase in the number of window and door openings, with concrete sills and historically correct fenestration. Overall, the yard retains its original format with many appropriate replacement features, including the lead spire to the central arch, and the works have secured the long-term sustainability of this architecturally significant 18th-century complex.