Drapersfield House, 19 Drapersfield, Cookstown, BT80 8RS

Drapersfield House

A two-storey, five-bay gabled and rendered house with a single-storey wing to one side and a long two-to-three storey rear return, fourteen windows long, which itself returns at its end with a single-storey wing. The building stands in a rural area within its own grounds, set well back from the public road, with its main entrance front facing south-east.

The south-east elevation of the main block is symmetrical, with two windows to each side of a central two-storey gabled projection containing the main entrance porch. The walling is of smooth cement render to the main block, with a deep projecting plinth, and rough textured render to the central projection, which also has smooth rendered quoins, a stringcourse and a pedimental feature. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, containing three modern rooflights. There are two chimneys, one to each gable, smooth rendered with a plain cornice and three octagonal pots to each stack. Windows in the main block are rectangular timber vertically hung sashes, six over six, without horns. Windows to the single-storey wing are similarly sashed but with horns. The main entrance comprises a rectangular timber panelled door set in plain reveals on the right hand side of the central projection.

The south-west elevation consists of the blank gable of the main block, smooth rendered, with the single-storey wing projecting from it. The gable of the wing contains a rectangular door and a rectangular window of modern construction consisting of a fixed lower light and a top-hung vent, both with small panes, to give the appearance of a traditionally sashed window. A projecting chimney breast is topped by one modern pot.

The north-west or rear elevation is complex, with the roof of the main front block slated as previous, and the wall of the main front block almost totally obscured by the conjoined and variegated mass of an original rear return, a modern rear return, and a modern infill block between the returns. The original rear return has a slated roof with a blank gable, smooth rendered, surmounted by a red brick chimney. A modern rectangular window of fixed light and top-hung vents is positioned in its partly exposed right hand side. Modern single-storey extensions project from that side and the lower part of its gable. The modern rear return is of three storeys as viewed from the rear yard, with a flat roof on this side and smooth rendered walls. Windows are rectangular, some small-paned but most of them large fixed lights with top-hung vents. A steel fire escape stairway leads from a second floor door. The small infill block between old and new returns is flat-roofed with a slate-hung exposed side and top-hung vent lights. Modern single-storey gabled and slated wings project from both the old and new returns, containing modern fixed lights and top-hung vents. The gable of the modern rear return is asymmetrical, with a raking roofline to the left rising to a flat-roofed attic storey to the right. Three storeys of window openings contain modern framing types, with two doorways to the ground floor.

The north-east elevation consists of the two-storey gable of the main front block with a long two-storey rear return extending to the right. The gable of the main front block is smooth rendered and contains one window to each floor, sashed as to the entrance front but with horns. The return is similarly rendered, has a slated pitched roof incorporating modern flush rooflights, and has rectangular sashed windows.

Setting

The building is approached by a driveway through a main gateway of modern construction comprising square rendered piers with modern iron gates. The driveway is flanked by trees and shrubs and leads to an extensive hard-surfaced car park along the north-east side of the building and round the north side to a hard-surfaced rear yard. At the main entrance front the doorway is approached by a flight of concrete flagged steps bounded by low rendered walls with modern railings. A similarly paved terrace extends across the front of the house. Beyond that is a small area of modern landscaping which includes a crudely designed modern classical open aedicule as a garden feature, bounded on the south side by a modern rendered wall to separate the nursing home grounds from the grounds of an associated private house to the south-west. The rear yard is subdivided by modern timber fencing and has a variety of ground finishes including tarmac and small pavoirs. The garden to the north-east contains modern landscaping including linked ponds with a modern ironwork bridge and similar railings. The front boundary consists of modern rendered piers and plinth walls with railings.