Gate, 44 Gloverstown Road, Toomebridge, Co Antrim, BT41 3PL

Gate at Gloverstown Road, Toomebridge

A pair of mid-nineteenth-century cast-iron gate piers with a decorative composite cast and wrought-iron gate, located on the north side of Gloverstown Road. The piers, which provided pedestrian access to a farmhouse, represent an innovative use of cast and wrought-ironwork that displays the versatility of each material to remarkable effect. The detailing is similar to that found in high Victorian street furniture and is particularly unusual in this rural setting.

Each pier is set on a painted rendered octagonal pedestal. They have a foliated plinth and exaggerated fluted shaft with contrasting candy stripe paintwork throughout. The left pier has a straight fluted cap, while the right pier has a twisted fluted cap. The gate itself comprises a cast-iron frame with floral and anthemion motifs, and wrought-iron detailing including three human faces and radiating barley-twist snakes, with bird, cat and monkey finials.

The gates are the work of John Carey, a prominent local figure who left a varied and eclectic architectural legacy in the environs of Toome. Carey lived at the cottage, known as Rarity Cottage, from 1850 until his death in 1891 at the age of 91. He also erected the Water Fountain at Toome (dated 1860) and his own memorial at Duneane Presbyterian Church. Other works attributed to him include the exotic "Hindoo" style Temple of Liberty, built in 1866 but destroyed by fire in 1911.

The gates are all that remains of Rarity Cottage, which has since been demolished. In addition to their artistic merit and historical associations, they form an important and unique landmark in the area. The group is shown on the 1830 Ordnance Survey map. The remaining piers originally formed one of a pair; those flanking a vehicular entrance to the east were demolished in the latter part of the twentieth century.

To the rear of the modern farmhouse (1970s) stands a pump, a cow-tail closed head lever type with a plain spirally decorated column and a fluted cap with an acorn finial. A bucket hook is mounted on the spout. The pump has been decorated to match the gates. To either side of the gate piers is a roughcast boundary wall with unpainted cement coping. The farmyard contains a range of single-storey outbuildings with pitched corrugated metal and asbestos roofs, roughcast walling and tongue-and-groove sheeted doors.

Historical records show some discrepancy regarding occupancy. While Carey is credited as the resident from 1850, the 1830s Townland Valuation and the Griffiths Valuation of 1859 record the occupant as James Kelly. The first valuation records the house and offices as valued at £3 17 shillings.