Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/02/043

Address :
25 Toberwine Street Glenarm Ballymena County Antrim BT44 0AP

Townland:
Glenarm Town Parks

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

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:
D3111 1518

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Plain, relatively low three storey rendered terrace house of possible early to mid 19th century construction, whose front façade was altered in recent years when a modern style shop front was replaced with a more traditional style domestic arrangement. The property is set on the W side of Toberwine Street. The front façade is symmetrical. To the centre of the ground floor is a 4 panel door with the upper two panels glazed. To the left is a sash window with Georgian panes (6/6); to the right is a similar window, with three more to the first floor. To the second floor there are three much smaller sash windows (3/3). The front façade is finished in painted lined render with chamfered quoins. To the left side of the exposed uppermost section of the N gable there is a small single pane window, with a slightly larger window to right with Georgian panes (6). To the rear elevation there are three extensions which are all linked. That to the N is flat and is relatively low but appears to contain two storeys. To the left side on the W face of this is an upper level modern window while, to the right, there is a smaller window (also modern) set at a higher level. To the immediate S of this is a smaller but slightly taller. To the ground floor of the W face of this is an open doorway which leads though to the rear door proper. To the first floor is a modern window. To the S side of the rear elevation is a large two storey flat roofed return. The W face abuts a large former ‘outbuilding’ while the S face faces onto no.27 and is therefore blank. To the ground floor of the N face is a modern window to the right and a modern door to the left, with two modern windows to the first floor. The former ‘outbuilding’ block to W abuts a similar size block belonging to the neighbouring property to the N. To the E face of this block there is an open passageway (which leads right through the building). To the immediate right (N) of this passageway there projects a single storey shed with a mono-pitched roof. This has a casement window and a sheeted door to its S face. To the left side of the W façade of the former ‘outbuilding’ block there extends a single storey flat roofed shed which abuts a glass house further to the W. The rear façade of the main house is only exposed to much of the first and second floor levels, where there is a sash window (as first floor front) set at an intermediate level. This section of the façade is finished in painted plain render. The rear extensions are finished in painted rough cast, with the W façade of the ‘outbuilding’ block largely unrendered. The gabled roof of the main house is slated with two brick chimneystacks. The rear extensions all have flat roofs with a gabled roof to the ‘outbuilding’ block, covered in artificial ‘slate’. The rw goods appear to be a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

TOBERWINE STREET Toberwine Street (‘Street of the ‘sweet well’) may represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm, its narrowness betraying something of its antiquity. The original 13th century castle of Glenarm, around which the village developed, is believed to have stood at the south west corner of the street, on the site now occupied by the former court house. The castle itself was deliberately ‘broken’ by Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1597 and, seemingly, not repaired- Sorley’s descendant, Sir Randal McDonnell, building a new residence on the other side of the river. Some historians state that the old castle was occupied by tenants (and therefore presumably repaired in some fashion), in the later 17th century, but Richard Dobbs makes no reference to it in his 1683 description of the village. The first mention of ‘Toberwine’ within the Antrim Papers appears to be in a lease of November 1672, which refers to a house within the area, with ‘Toberwine Street’ mentioned in a lease of August 1709. On John O’Hara’s 1779 map of Glenarm (the earliest extant plan of the village) the street is shown fully developed on both sides, with the market / court house to the south west end. There is no verifiable indication of any remains of the old castle shown on the map, but the remark made in the 1835 OS Memoirs concerning ‘the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago’ indicates that ruins of some kind may have lingered into the early 19th century. Evidence provided by the valuation of 1833 suggests that most of the buildings we now see on the west side of the street were present (in some form) at that date and that many were probably 18th century. The east side of the street witnessed a much greater degree of development after 1833 however, with nos.4-12 all c.1840, and nos.20-34 and 62 post c.1860- some of the latter replacing modest single storey dwellings. There is evidence to suggest that large three storey former Antrim Arms Hotel (and possibly its neighbour no.56) may have been standing in the early 1830s, but this is not certain. No.25 This site is shown occupied on John O’Hara’s map of 1779 and all others thereafter. The valuation of 1833 indicates that there was an old two storey house in position at that stage, occupied by a Daniel McAuley. A Matthew Wilson was in residence in 1859, but the height of the house had increased from 17½ft to 22ft in the interim, suggesting that the property was entirely rebuilt or the wall height raised. Given the low proportions of the building overall (and the uppermost floor in particular) it is perhaps more likely that the wall height was raised, (as it appears to have been in several other properties in Toberwine Street in the mid 1800s), but this is not certain. In more recent times the property contained a shop, but reverted solely to domestic use once again in the 1980s. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI D.2977/3A/4/65/2, 30, 34A, 36, 37A-B, 43-45, 70A-B etc. Antrim Papers Leases relating to property in ‘Toberwine’ / Toberwine Street, 1672, 1709, 1736/7, 1753 etc. 2 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.] 3 Ulster Museum A view of Glenarm Castle (painting dating from some time between 1768 and 1812) [This painting also shows the town itself.] 4 View of Glenarm c.1769-c.1812 (painting in possession of Lord Dunluce) 5 “The town and castle of Glenarm, Co. Antrim” [1830] by T.M. Baynes in ‘Ireland illustrated’ (London 1831) 6 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…’ vol.13 [c.1830-35] ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1992), p.127 7 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33 8 PRONI VAL/1B/149 First valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1833 [The map to accompany this valuation is now lost making it extremely difficult, (and in most cases impossible), to tell which properties the valuation book is actually referring to. In some cases (most notably the west side of Toberwine Street) the writer has been able to successfully correlate the information contained within the second valuation notebook for 1859 with that of the first valuation, in order to decipher some of the details contained within the latter, but for most properties within Glenarm this has not been possible.] 9 Samuel Lewis, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland’ vol.1 (London 1837), p.658 10 William Makepeace Thackery, ‘Irish sketchbook’ (1843), p.238 11 Mrs and Mrs S.C. Hall, ‘Ireland: Its scenery, character etc., vol.III (London 1843), p.130 12 PRONI VAL/2D/1/11 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1859 [with later annotations- ?c.1900] 13 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.] 14 PRONI OS/8/103/1 OS town plan of Glenarm, 1903 15 PRONI VAL/12E/31/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1907-[1935] 16 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)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Plain, relatively low three storey rendered terrace house of possible early to mid 19th century construction, whose front façade was altered in recent years when a modern style shop front was replaced with a more traditional looking domestic arrangement. Not of architectural interest.

General Comments

Date of Survey

09 May 2002