37 Cockhill Road, Hannastown, Ballymena, BT42 2JP

37 Cockhill Road is a nearly intact former vernacular dwelling built around 1830, located within a linear group of similar buildings on the south side of Cockhill Road near Ballymena, in the townland of Cromkill. It represents a nearly intact example of an early to mid 19th century vernacular dwelling type, characterised by a modified direct-entry plan, modest proportions, and the use of locally sourced building materials. Vernacular dwellings of this kind are an increasingly rare building type, threatened as they are by demolition, modernisation, and dereliction. The adjoining buildings and associated outbuildings make an important contextual contribution, and together the group constitutes a significant example of a large traditional farmstead. Settlements of this character, known as clachans, were once a common feature of the rural Ulster landscape but have become increasingly scarce.

The building is a single-storey, asymmetrical, direct-entry attached multi-bay dwelling of lime-washed rubblestone construction. It is rectangular on plan, with a single-storey gable-fronted return abutting to the rear. The principal elevation faces east and comprises three window openings and a door opening positioned to the right of centre. The roof is steeply pitched and clad in corrugated iron, possibly concealing an earlier thatch beneath, with half-round replacement metal rainwater goods on wall-driven brackets to the eaves. There is a 20th century machine-made red brick chimney to the south, retaining a single clay pot.

The walling throughout is of random rubblestone construction with lime pointing to the joints and patches of limewash over lime render, particularly to the eastern elevation. Window openings are square-headed with timber lintels, largely shallow rendered reveals, and generally painted stone sills. The windows are largely 1/1 timber sliding sashes with exposed sash boxes, chamfered horns, and replacement glass, except where otherwise noted. The 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.

On the principal eastern elevation, the window to the right-hand side is a 2/2 timber sash with stop-and-start red brick architraves. The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining building at number 37b. The rear western elevation comprises two window openings: the left-hand opening is blocked by corrugated sheeting, while the right-hand opening has cement-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. The gable-fronted return to the left of centre has a corrugated-iron roof and is connected to the main building by a narrow link-block of rubblestone construction. The return's gable elevation has a single window opening with a metal casement window set in a timber frame, the right-hand pane of which is top-hinged. A single-bay section abutting to the south forms part of the adjoining number 39.

The building and the surrounding group to the south-east are currently vacant. The adjacent listed thatched structure at number 39 does not appear to be permanently occupied but remains in use. The abutting thatched structure immediately to the north, number 37b, is a rare surviving example retaining a lobby-entry plan form and an early example of a raised cruck-framed thatch roof.

Despite its poor condition and some 20th century alterations to the fabric and layout, the historic character and detailing are generally retained.

The building forms part of a linear row of similarly detailed vernacular dwellings, orientated perpendicular to Cockhill Road, with the northern gable of the former number 35 directly lining the southern side of the road. The immediate surroundings are wooded and overgrown, within a rural farmland setting. A small shared yard to the east is overgrown and is bounded by a low rubblestone wall curving from north to south. The building also forms part of a wider complex of vernacular farm structures located within a separate yard to the south and east, thought to be associated with the adjoining thatched dwelling at number 39. This yard of outbuildings, together with number 39, 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 number 37 from the adjacent yard and outbuildings of number 39.

The linear group of buildings is first shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, with two small outbuildings in close proximity to the north-west. The group comprising the present numbers 39, 37, 37b, and the former number 35 remained largely unchanged on the second edition map of 1853, except that the northernmost of the north-western outbuildings had been removed, while the other was either connected to the western elevation of number 37 or was entirely replaced by the present return. This return was subsequently used as a scullery and was later converted into a kitchen around the mid 20th century.

The property is recorded in Griffith's Valuation of approximately 1859, although the handwritten numbering on the accompanying map is difficult to read. As best as can be determined, the group of small dwellings comprising numbers 37, 37b, and the former number 35 appear to have included those leased by a Robert Dill to a Hugh Campbell and a Thomas Tweedy, valued at £1 and 15 shillings respectively, and that leased by a John Hanna to a Samuel McDonnell, valued at 10 shillings. The different owners of buildings within the wider cluster suggest that the settlement may originally have developed as a clachan, though the buildings may alternatively have served as lodgings for farm workers, particularly number 37b to the north, which contains a single space characteristic of workers' lodgings.

Subsequent Ordnance Survey maps confirm that the footprint of the building has remained unchanged since the mid 19th century. By the fourth edition map of 1936, the complex is captioned "Hannastown", reflecting the continuous occupation of a number of the buildings by the Hanna family since at least the mid 19th century. The rateable value of the buildings appears to have remained largely unchanged until at least the First General Revaluations of around 1930. Number 37 remained in use as a dwelling until the late 20th century but has been vacated in recent decades and is recorded as derelict.