6 Purdysburn Village, Ballycowan, Belfast, County Down, BT8 8LJ

6 Purdysburn Village is a single-storey end-terrace cottage built around 1830, located in Purdysburn Village to the north of Ballycoan Road in Ballycowan, Belfast. It forms part of a distinctive group of three cottages comprising a symmetrical central one-and-a-half storey block flanked at east and west by single-storey L-plan terrace houses. Number 6 occupies the western end of this group.

The cottage is constructed with smooth rendered walling and retains many original features. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles, with a small cast-iron roof light at the south side. Deep overhanging eaves with exposed rafter ends are supported by painted bargeboards on exposed timber corbels. A single redbrick chimney stack with decorative clay pots rises from the east gable. Rainwater goods are modern uPVC u-profile replacements.

The principal north elevation contains a central replacement timber sheeted entrance door flanked by single windows on each side. The original windows throughout are painted lattice casements set within square-headed openings with plastered reveals and painted projecting masonry sills, though some have been replaced with timber casements, particularly at the rear. The east gable is abutted by a single-storey return with pitched natural slate roof; the exposed section of the gable is blank. The single-storey return on the north elevation contains one window and has a blank east gable. The rear elevation has a replacement timber glazed door at the right (east return) and two replacement timber windows at the left. The west gable is abutted by the one-and-a-half storey block of Number 5.

The cottage stands in a small enclosed garden, bounded by timber fencing to the north and painted mild steel railings to the east. Vehicular access is from the east, with pedestrian access also possible to the south-east through an area of modern development.

Historically, Number 6 first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 as part of a three-cottage terrace. According to the contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833, Purdysburn Village was located at the south wall of the Purdysburn estate, then occupied by landlord Narcissus Batt. The village was predominantly Protestant, with 120 of its 125 inhabitants of that faith. The 1844 Parliamentary Gazetter records that Purdysburn Village originally contained 28 single-storey cottages, with Bassett's County Down Directory of 1886 noting about 30 houses occupied chiefly by farm labourers. Historical records indicate the village was constructed to house servants and farm labourers working on the adjoining Purdysburn Estate. The estate had been purchased by Narcissus Batt in 1811; Thomas Hopper constructed three gate lodges around 1825, and it is possible the village was built at a similar date, though this cannot be confirmed. The Purdysburn House was occupied by the Batt family until its sale in 1895, when it became a lunatic asylum.

Number 6 is one of two single-storey cottages abutting Number 5, formerly the village post office. Together with numbers 1 to 11, it is one of the original farm labourers' cottages associated with the Purdysburn Estate. In the mid-1970s the village came into the possession of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which subsequently expanded the site with 19 new cottages. The cottage preserves its original layout and character, though doors and several original lattice windows have been replaced.

The building has significant group value with the adjacent cottages (particularly Numbers 4, 5, and other estate terraces at HB19/23/022 and 023), which together form an intact group making a substantial contribution to the character of Purdysburn village.