39 Cockhill Road, Hannahstown, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT42 2JP

39 Cockhill Road is a largely intact thatched vernacular dwelling located a few miles south-west of Ballymena, in the townland of Cromkill. Built between 1820 and 1839, it represents a good survival of early 19th-century rural building tradition.

The house is single storey with whitened plastered stone walls and a thatched roof covered with corrugated iron sheets, with cemented segments where the thatch rises above these coverings. Two corbelled red brick chimneys serve the building: one with two pots positioned over the kitchen hearth, and another without pots on the north-east gable serving the parlour fireplace.

The north-west facing front contains the main entrance, protected by a square-jambed windbreak porch with a tiled roof and cast iron gutter. To the left (north-east) of the entrance is a margined-paned vertically sliding window, and to the right (south-west) are two plain sashed vertically sliding windows. All frames are exposed, with splayed sash stops and sills of traditional depths at the leading edges. The rear elevation features, from left to right, two four-square metal-framed windows, two vertically sliding timber windows with exposed frames and splayed sash stops, and a pair of vertically sliding timber windows each with 2/4 panes in exposed frames, again with sills of traditional depths.

The timberwork of the early roof remains unaltered, as confirmed by the owner. The only significant modern alterations are the insertion of two metal-framed windows at the rear and the conversion of a bedroom into a bathroom and scullery, changes carried out in an acceptable manner that have not affected the original layout.

An outbuilding to the north-east of the dwelling consists of two compartments, each entered by sheeted half doors. The first compartment has exposed random stone interior walls, sawn timbers, and a ladder to a loft; the second has plastered stone walls with joists supporting wide boards. Both have corrugated iron roofs and pressed metal rainwater goods. Beyond these is a further corrugated iron-roofed room and an additional building with two corbelled brick chimneystacks, the first with one pot.

The property appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832-33 and is recorded in the second valuation of around 1860, where it was leased either by Hugh Campbell (rated at £1 from Robert Dull) or William McCartney (rated at £1-15-0 from the representatives of George Joy), though the contemporary map references are unclear. A grant for re-thatching was offered on 12 April 1995 based on a quotation of £8,280 from thatcher Gerry Agnew, who intended to use wheat straw. Although no evidence exists that the formal grant scheme was completed, archive photographs confirm that re-thatching had been carried out by 26 April 1996, involving the infilling of dormer openings in the rear roof slope.

The building is accessed from the Antrim-Ballymena Road by turning north-west at Ballycowan, about 2.5 miles south of Ballymena, towards Cromkill, then turning south-west after a short distance to reach the farmyard after some five hundred yards. A short entrance drive passes outbuildings, from which the dwelling may be glimpsed from the road.