'Aborfield', 25 Charles Street, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, BT53 6DX

Aborfield, 25 Charles Street, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim

A two-storey plus attic Edwardian Freestyle house built in 1908 in brick and render, part of a matching semidetached pair designed by James Scott of Belfast. The building stands on the north-east side of Charles Street, approximately 0.3 kilometres north of Ballymoney town centre.

The house has an asymmetric plan built around a roughly square main two-storey block. To the east is a single-storey entrance porch, while shallow full-height gabled bays project from the front (south) and rear elevations, the front bay also featuring a canted single-storey bay. A single-storey L-shaped outhouse projection extends to the north-east, and a small single-storey lean-to spans between this property and its neighbour, with a later single-storey double garage and outbuilding addition to the north.

The main block carries an overhanging gabled roof of T-shaped structure, covered in natural Welsh slate and clay ridge tiles with plain moulded bargeboards on brackets. Two brick chimneystacks with pronounced corbelling and clay pots rise through the roofline, one shared with the neighbouring property. Gabled dormers pierce the roof to front, east and rear elevations. The kitchen projection has a hipped roof in matching materials. The canted bay features a shallow hipped roof of lead sheeting, as does the porch, though the porch roof does not appear to be original.

Ground floor walls are finished in red brick; the upper floor is rendered in pebbledash with cement render quoins and lugged and heeled surrounds to the front and west windows. Window openings are primarily segmental-headed, though those to the canted bay, dormers, and some ground floor rear windows are flat-headed. Most are fitted with plain one-over-one timber sash frames. The two larger front windows and the upper floor rear windows feature mullioned and transom frames with Art Nouveau-style glazing to the upper panes, as do the west side of the porch and the dormers. Window cills appear to be sandstone, though now painted. Rainwater goods appear largely to be replacement uPVC.

The south elevation features the porch to the far right with a timber door having Art Nouveau-style glazing over a shelf feature on brackets, flanked by three tall vertical panels. The entrance is marked by a sandstone keystone. The right half of the main block contains a full-height canted bay with four windows at ground level, a pair of first-floor windows (with replacement frames), and a roundel window at attic level. To the left of the bay stand a large ground floor window and a similar but smaller first-floor window directly above; both have narrow sandstone keystones. A brick mullion with sandstone coping separates this house from its neighbour.

The east elevation shows a window to the left of the porch, one to the porch itself, and two to the right. A first-floor window sits directly above the porch.

The north elevation displays an L-shaped projection to the far left with part of the shared lean-to merging into the large outbuilding addition. Three windows of varying sizes occupy the first floor (one with a replacement frame), with another window at upper landing level to the left. A gabled dormer pierces the roofline.

The front garden, enclosed by a brick wall with square brick piers topped with stone caps and a gateway with decorative wrought-iron gates, fronts onto a tarmac drive and forecourt. The rear of the property comprises a large yard with a freestanding garage to the north-east, and beyond lies a large back garden.