Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/02/024

Address :
Presbyterian Church 34 Altmore Street Glemarm Ballymena Co Antrim BT44 0AR

Townland:
Glenarm Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
23/10/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Church

Former Use
Church

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
45/12

IG Ref:
D3109 1495

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

Relatively plain, single storey hipped roof Presbyterian church of 1835 with projecting gabled front and side porches, stucco finish and gothic arch headed openings. To the east side is an adjoining church hall The building is slightly set back within the terrace on the W side of Altmore Street. To the centre of the symmetrical W elevation is a small gabled porch. To the S face is a plain timber sheeted door which is set within a plain flat arch opening. To the W face is a pointed arch headed window. Astragals form ‘Y’ tracery to the upper portion with a ventilation ‘hopper’ to the centre and two plain panes to the lower section. The window is surmounted by pointed arch moulded dripstone with label stops. Corners of the porch have in-out quoins while the plain verge overhangs slightly. To the left and right of the porch (on main building) are two gothic-arched window, all as before. The N elevation of the church which has two tall pointed arch windows with stained glass. To the left is the gable of the church hall which is blank. To the S elevation of the church is a small sash window (2/2), set at a high level to the left. To the centre is a tall gabled porch projection. To the W face of this is a plain timber sheeted door with shallow pointed arch headed fanlight with ‘Y’ tracery. The S face of the porch merges with a flat roofed section which forms a link block with church hall. To the left of this section are three pointed arch headed windows. To the right of this is a plain door and to the far right is a small square window. The E face of the church proper faces into a narrow light well to which there was no access. This face has a central roundel with margins and this is flanked by a gothic arch headed window to either side. To the left side of the E elevation of the rear hall section is a small window opening with a modern frame. To the right of this is a large, recently built, flat roofed extension. To the far right is a small sash window (2/2). The main church is largely finished in painted lined render while the hall to the rear is in unpainted rough cast. Pitched roofs are covered with natural slate. Cast iron rw goods. There is a low rendered wall to the front of the church topped iron railings with decorative cast iron (fleur de lis-like) heads, These railings appear to be late 19th / early 20th century.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

ALTMORE STREET Altmore Street takes its name from the Altmore River, a narrow brook which flows from the high ground to the south-east to the Glenarm River to the west. The earliest reference to building plots within its vicinity occurs in a lease of August 1673 which mentions a ‘housestead, garden of tenement…extending back to Altmore Brook’, with others of December 1678 referring to ‘tenements’ on the ‘south side of Altmore’. The presence of a ‘street’ is also mentioned in some 1678 leases. Many of the earliest houses within the street may have been built on the western side, for prior to the walling in of estate grounds in the immediate vicinity of Glenarm Castle in the 1750s, the village fronted on to both sides of the Glenarm River. Some buildings on this side of the street may even originally faced the river: the present no.15, for instance, appears to have originally had an almost symmetrical ‘rear’ elevation -facing the river- and a markedly asymmetrical ‘front’ elevation- facing the street; whilst no.29 has a 1739 date stone on its river facing side, as opposed to its street facing ‘front’. The earliest extant map of Glenarm, drawn up by John O’Hara in 1779, shows the street fully developed on both sides, the terrace to the west stretching further to the south than today, beyond the line of the present ‘Town Gate’ to the Glenarm Castle estate. The construction of the Town Gate some time between 1832 and 1857 appears to have lead to radical changes to the layout the street, with the line of much of the terrace to the eastern side pushed further eastwards allowing for a broader, and slightly grander, approach to the estate itself. The writer has found no mention of this widening of the street in any account of the development of Glenarm, however, the discrepancy between the orientation of the line of much of the eastern terrace on the 1832 OS map and that of 1857 suggests it was indeed the case. The theory is also supported by an 1830 illustration of the town (primary source no.6), which shows the two sections of terrace on the eastern side out of line, and the fact that many of the buildings recorded in the 1833 valuation of this side of the street seem to bear no relation to those recorded in the valuation of 1859 (as if all had been demolished). The age / condition grading of properties employed in the latter valuation indicates that most of these rebuilt dwellings were twenty years old or slightly more in 1859, which would date much of the redevelopment to the mid to later 1830s. This ties in with a remark made in the OS Memoirs of 1835 that ‘some two storey houses of a tolerable description have been recently built in Glenarm…intended for the accommodation of lodgers during the bathing season…’. The western side of Altmore Street may have remained largely untouched by the changes of the mid 1800s, with some of the buildings we see today possibly pre 1830s, however, some properties to the very southern end were cleared away with the construction of the Town Gate, and the land incorporated within the estate itself. The Presbyterian church In the wake of the Arian controversy of the late 1820s, the Presbyterian congregation of Glenarm, (like many other Irish Presbyterian congregations), split into subscribing and non-subscribing factions. As with many Co Antrim congregations the non-subscribers were in the majority and such remained in possession of the church building itself, forcing the orthodox minority to meet elsewhere. Felix McKillop in his 1987 history of Glenarm, states that the minority were forced to worship in the open air for a number years following the 1829 split, and later in local houses and barns, because of the fact that local magistrate, Thomas Davidson, refused them use of the court / market house. The OS Memoirs of 1835 contradict this, however, stating that the court room itself was used at that time by the congregation ‘as a place of worship’. Whatever the case, by summer 1833 the congregation had secured a site on the east side of Altmore Street and commenced the building of a new church (as we have seen much of this side of Altmore Street appears to have been undergoing redevelopment around this time). The new church opened in July 1835. In the wake of the ‘1859 Revival’ the numbers of those attending the church increased so much that a new congregation had to be formed. To accommodate this another church was built in 1862 at Carnalbanagh, a townland some miles to the west of Glenarm. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI D.2977/3A/4/1/24 Antrim Papers Lease from Alexander MacDonnell of Glenarm to John White of Glenarm, 12th August 1673 [See also D.2977/3A/4/65/8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 28- all late 17th century leases concerning the vicinity of Altmore Brook in Glenarm] 2 PRONI D.2977/4/65/33 Antrim Papers Lease from Alexander, Earl of Antrim, to John Richy of Glenarm, of a tenement in Altmore Street, 1 March 1736 [See also D.2977/3A/4/65/40, 41, 42, 48, 52, 55, 56, 59, 61, 72, 73, 74, 81, 94, 95, 99A, 99B, 101, 102A, 104- mainly 18th century leases relating to Altmore Street.] 3 PRONI D.2977/36/3/1A Antrim Papers Map, showing the Town of Glenarm, plus Glenarm Castle and demesne, by John O'Hara, 1779. [Includes a list of the tenants in Glenarm town.] 4 Ulster Museum A view of Glenarm Castle (painting dating from some time between 1768 and 1812) [This painting also shows the town itself.] 5 View of Glenarm c.1769-c.1812 (painting in possession of Lord Dunluce) 6 “The town and castle of Glenarm, Co. Antrim” [1830] by T.M. Baynes in ‘Ireland illustrated’ (London 1831) [This illustration indicates that much of the terrace on the eastern side of Altmore Street was slightly differently orientated at this point- it also suggests that most of the houses to this side were single storey in 1830.] 7 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…’ vol.13 [c.1830-35] ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1992), p.127 8 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33 9 PRONI VAL/1B/149 First valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1833 10 Samuel Lewis, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland’ vol.1 (London 1837), p.658 11 William Makepeace Thackery, ‘Irish sketchbook’ (1843), p.238 12 Mrs and Mrs S.C. Hall, ‘Ireland: Its scenery, character etc., vol.III (London 1843), p.130 13 PRONI VAL/2D/1/11 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1859 [with later annotations- ?c.1900] 14 PRONI VAL/2B/1/41B Second valuation [notebook], village of Glenarm, 1859 [In the light of the problems concerning the first valuation this notebook and its accompanying map are both invaluable. For many areas the details of the second valuation only survive in the final printed form, with the names of householders and leaseholders and the rateable value for each property supplied only. For some areas, Glenarm among them, the working notebooks compiled by the valuers have survived, providing information such as dimensions of buildings, their use, the number of rooms they contain, notes on age and condition, and, (occasionally), comments regarding the overall appearance of properties. In many respect these notebooks closely resemble those of the first valuation, but frequently contain more detail.] 15 PRONI OS/8/103/1 OS town plan of Glenarm, 1903 16 PRONI VAL/12E/31/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1907-[1935] 17 PRONI VAL/3G/20/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm. 1936-57 Secondary sources 1 C.E.B. Brett, ‘Historic buildings…Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast 1971), p.16 2 Eileen Black, “A view of Glenarm Castle” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.7 (1979), pp.29-30 3 Jimmie Irvine, “A map of Glenarm- 1779” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.9 (1981), pp.52-61 4 Hon. Hector McDonnell, “The building of the parish church at Glenarm” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.10 (1982), pp.31-36 5 Felix McKillop, ‘Glenarm- A local history’ (Glenarm 1987) [Though detailed, this book, (nor any other publication the writers have consulted), appears to make any reference to the widening of Altmore Street.]

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form E. Spatial Organisation

Historic Interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Relatively plain, single storey hipped roof Presbyterian church of 1835 with projecting gabled front and side porches, stucco finish and gothic arch headed openings. To the east side is an adjoining church hall. The building merits being listed in the B2 grade.

General Comments

Date of Survey

04 April 2001