37 Cockhill Road, Hannastown, Ballymena, BT42 2JP

37 Cockhill Road, Hannastown, Ballymena

An asymmetrical, direct-entry attached multi-bay single-storey vernacular dwelling of lime-washed rubblestone construction, built around 1830. The building is located within a linear group of similar buildings on the south side of Cockhill Road near Ballymena and is currently vacant.

The building is rectangular on plan with a single-storey gable-fronted return abutting to the rear. It has a steeply pitched corrugated-iron roof, possibly over thatch, with half-round replacement metal rainwater goods on wall-driven brackets to the eaves. A 20th-century machine-made red brick chimney stands to the south with a single clay pot remaining.

The walling is random rubblestone construction with lime pointing to the joints and patches of lime wash over lime render, particularly to the eastern elevation. Square-headed window openings have timber lintels, largely shallow rendered reveals, and generally painted stone sills. Most windows are 1/1 timber sliding sashes with exposed sash boxes, chamfered horns, and replacement glass. The principal elevation faces east and comprises three window openings and a door opening to the right of centre. One 2/2 timber sash window to the right side has stop-and-start red brick architraves. A single square-headed door opening to the east elevation has a timber lintel, plain rendered reveals, and a painted timber-sheeted door within a timber frame.

The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (No. 37b). The rear elevation faces west and comprises two window openings; the left window is blocked by corrugated sheeting, whilst the remaining window has cementatious rendered reveals and a metal casement window set in a timber frame. The rear walls are constructed over a projecting exposed base course of bedrock or fieldstones. A corrugated-iron roof covers the gable-fronted return to the left of centre, abutted to the main building by a narrow link-block of rubblestone construction. A single window opening to the gable elevation contains a metal-casement window set in a timber frame with the right pane top-hinged.

The building forms part of a linear row of similarly detailed vernacular dwellings orientated perpendicular to Cockhill Road, set within a rural farmland context with wooded and overgrown immediate surroundings. A small shared yard to the east, bound by a low rubblestone wall curving from north to south, is overgrown. The building is part of a wider complex of vernacular farm structures in a separate yard to the south and east, thought to be associated with the adjoining thatched dwelling at No. 39. This yard of outbuildings is separately accessed from Cockhill Road via a sweeping path to the north-east. A lime-rendered concrete or brick wall abuts the south end of the eastern elevation, separating No. 37 from the adjacent yard and outbuildings of No. 39.