Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/02/019

Address :
27-29 Altmore Street Glenarm Ballymena Co Antrim BT44 0AR

Townland:
Glenarm Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B+

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

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:
D3106 1496

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Part two, part one and a half storey gabled and rendered terrace block consisting of two formerly separate houses / offices all probably built at various dates between 1737-39 and c.1780, with minor 19th century alterations. To the north end of the block is a substantial symmetrical two storey dwelling house of perhaps c.1780s, with central full height gabled bay and a (possibly c.1810) recessed elliptical arched entrance. To the rear is a long gabled return. To the centre of the block is a much lower one and a half storey portion with two small gabled dormers. To the south end is a long, slightly taller, (but low proportioned), two storey block containing what used to be the Antrim estate office and a large outbuilding. In part at least, this south section is probably the oldest part of the whole block, having a date stone and internal evidence which state that it was built as a dwelling house in 1737-39, however it may have originally faced in the opposite direction and its two large carriage arches are possibly later insertions. The decorative door surround (to the former estate office portion) is undoubtedly early to mid 19th century. To the rear there have been several recent changes, mainly minor apart from the adding of a large gabled open ‘porch surround’ to the back end of the larger carriage arch. This long composition sits on the S end of the W side of Altmore Street, next to the ‘Town Gate’ entrance to the Antrim estate. No.27- ‘Dwelling house’ section to north The front E elevation of the large dwelling house section to N is symmetrical. To the centre is a projecting full height gabled bay. To the ground floor of the bay is the main entrance, which is set within a relatively large elliptical arched recess with moulded dripstone and label stops. The doorway itself consists of a four panelled timber door having glazed side panels with margin panes, and an elliptical fanlight, with spiders web pattern tracery. At first floor level of the bay is a centrally placed 2/2 sash window which rests on a projecting cill course. At second floor, within the gable is a small plain casement window. The gable of the bay has copestones which return slightly at eaves level to create a suggestion of a broken pediment. A small moulded Greek urn surmounts the apex. In/out moulded quoins rise to the underside of the ‘pediment’. The N and S faces of the first floor of the bay each have a very narrow plain sash window. To the left and right of the bay, at ground and first floors, is a 2/2 sash window. To the corners there are in-out quoins, as before, which rise to the projecting eaves course. The S gable in mainly obscured by the rest of the block to the S. There are two small plain [?fixed light] windows to the attic level. The N gable has two Georgian-paned sash windows (6/6) to the right side of the ground floor. To first floor right is a 2/2 sash window (as front) while to the right of the second floor attic is another Georgian-paned sash window (8/8). To the right (W) the N gable merges with the W façade of a long two storey hipped roof return. The return sits on ground which slopes to the W; it also appears to have been extended further westward at some point- all of which has created odd floor levels. To left at semi-basement level are three small boarded-up openings. To far right (where the ground level in considerably lower) there is a timber sheeted ground floor doorway with four-pane fanlight. To the right of this is a Georgian-paned sash window (6/6). To left at ground floor level are three more sash windows, as previous, all of which are set at slightly differing heights. To left on the first floor is a squat six-pane window, very close to the eaves; to far right (where the first floor is significantly taller) there is a sash window, as previous sash windows. To the left of the rear (W) elevation of the dwelling house section is the large hipped roof return. As stated above, this is mainly two storey but a portion sits over a semi-basement. The W face of this return is partly obscured by a single storey, rubble-built, gabled outbuilding; the exposed upper portion is blank. To the left of the S face of the return is a Georgian-paned sash window (6/6) with a timber sheeted door to right of this, and to far right (where the ground floor is set at a higher level) is another sash window, as previous. To first floor left there are two more identical windows. Abutting the very right hand edge of the S face of the return, and the rear of the main section of the house, is a small, gabled, two-storey return. To the W face of the ground floor of this return is a squat six-pane window with upper opener, while to the first floor is a six-pane fixed light window. To the S face is a nine-pane fixed light window. To the right of the returns is the exposed portion of the rear elevation of the main house. To the left of the ridge of the smaller return is a six-pane fixed light window (which undoubtedly lights the stairwell). To the right of this, (at first floor level), is a tripartite sash window (1/1, 2/2, 1/1). To the ground floor is a French window. The dwelling house section is finished in painted render. The whole of the roof is covered in natural slate, with two rendered chimneystacks to the gables of the main section and two to the return. There is a small skylight to the S side of the return roof, with another to the N. Cast iron rw goods. No.29 Former estate office etc.- lower section to north Attached to the south of the dwelling house is the former estate office and associated outbuildings. As described above, this is a long, part two, part one and a half and part single storey building. To N it is one and a half storey. To the front (E) façade of this section there is a double sash window to left (Georgian panes 6/6, 6/6), with two further single sash windows to right; that to left is as previous, whilst that to right is 2/2. To either side of the first floor to front is a small gabled dormer each with a fixed 6 pane window and asphalt cheeks and roofs. To the right of centre is a cast iron skylight. The front façade is finished in painted render. To the rear façade there is a recently inserted French window to left, to timber sheeted door with four-pane fanlight to right of this. To the right again a wall projects. To the right hand side of the rear of the roof there is a large gabled dormer with double sash window (both 6/6, but mid 19th century rather than Georgian panes). Much of the render has fallen away from the rear façade to reveal rubble construction. Roughly to the centre of the façade there is an outline (in brick) of a large segmental arch, indicating that this section once had a large carriage entrance. The gabled roof of this section is covered with natural slate. The owner informed the writers that some of the ridge tiles are carved from solid stone. The ridge line has a marked dip to the S side [could this indicate sagging or was the ridge built like so?]. Rendered chimneystack to S. No.29 Former estate office etc.- two storey section to south To the left of centre on the ground floor of this section there is a timber sheeted door with rectangular fanlight with ‘Antrim estate office’ painted thereon in mid 19th century looking lettering [?c.1850s]. The door case has thick pilasters each with a ‘colonette’ cluster. The pilasters support a moulded cornice and blocking stone. To the right of the doorway are two relatively small Georgian-paned sash windows (6/6), with a similar window to the first floor. To the left of the doorway there is a very large segmental arch headed carriage arch with timber sheeted double doors. Until relatively recently [?c.1980s] this arch was much lower in height and had a flat arch head, moreover, above it there was a small window To the left of this is a high level ‘loft’ opening with sheeted [?]door. The whole of the front façade of this section is finished in painted render, however a short portion to the very S (left), where the block meets the Town Gate, is in basalt rubble (the same as the gate itself). This short portion left is a Tudor arched carriage entrance; this is somewhat smaller than that to right. The S gable has one high level roundel window and is largely finished in render. Pre c.1840, this end of the building linked to a further terrace block but this was demolished with the erection of the Town Gate. To the left on the rear elevation of this section are two small ground floor windows; that to the left has external security bars while that to the right has late Victorian tracery / panes which include a semicircular arch motif with margins. To the first floor are two plain sash windows. To the right of this is a, recently added, large projecting gabled bay which covers the larger of the carriage arches. To the centre of the bay is one large square headed carriage opening. There is no door. Within the projection, on the rear wall of the main building, there is a date stone which reads: ‘This Howes Was Builded by Abraham Powes 1739’. The N and S faces of the bay are blank. To the right again are two ground floor window openings with modern frames while to the first floor there is one boarded over ‘loft’ opening. To the far right is the second (Tudor arched) carriage opening. The rear elevation is finished in unpainted render. The gabled roof of this section is slated and has two rendered chimneystacks to N, that to far N shared with the lower central section. To the NW side of the rear garden is the remains of a green house. Portions of the brick base and rear wall are all that remain. To the S end of the garden are the remains of some former outbuildings.

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. No.27-29 The shear length of this block and the undulating roof levels indicates that it was built in sections. The earliest section may have been the low two storey portion to the south end (the now disused estate office), for high on its rear façade is a date stone which states that ‘This howse was builded by Abraham Powes in 1739’. A deed uncovered by the writers within the Antrim Papers shows that Abraham Powes (or Powis) was granted the land on which this section stands in November 1737. The same deed also tells us that a ‘waste house and garden’ then occupied the plot and that Powes was instructed to build a new ‘good and sufficient house of stone and lime, or brick and lime, with two upright gavels [gables]…in front thirty-two feet, and in depth eighteen feet, one storey high, eight foot in the side wall, fully sashed and slated or thatched’; however, an inscription, dated 1739, uncovered recently on plaster within a first floor room in this section, shows that the dwelling as eventually constructed must have contained two storeys, not one storey as set out in the deed. As stated above, it is likely (given the position of the date stone etc.) that the house also originally faced the river. The sequence of the construction of the rest of the block is difficult to ascertain. The 1737 deed indicates that the land leased to Powes was bounded by ‘Widow Miller’s tenement on the south side’ and ‘Hugh Montgomerie’s tenement on the north end. The ‘Widow Miller’ may be Margaret Miller who received a 21 year lease of a ‘tenement in Altmore Street’, in 1742 and Hugh Montgomery was probably a descendant / relation of the Widow Montgomery who received a lease ‘on the south side of Altmore Street and west side of the street’ in 1678. It is likely therefore that in 1737 there were dwellings to both north and south of Powes’s and that much of this general area of the street had been developed by the early 1700s at least. John O’Hara’s 1779 map of Glenarm shows the entire site occupied with a row of buildings, which, judging by the plot divisions to the west (running down to the river), may have contained three, or possibly four separate properties. The accompanying list of tenants states that the leaseholders of these plots at that stage were (from south), Charles Reason, Robert Montgomery (undoubtedly a descendant / relative of the 1737 Montgomery), Alexander Kergher, and someone whose name appears to be simply given as ‘Andrew’. The OS map of 1832 shows that by that stage all of the formerly separate plots on O’Hara’s map had been amalgamated, and the valuation book* of the following year records buildings on the site of the same dimensions as today, including the large dwelling house to the north end. It is uncertain when block assumed this form and when the large house appeared. The house is shown as today on an illustration of 1830 and the aforesaid valuation of 1833 states that the building was at least 20 years old at that point. Significantly, it always appears to have faced away from the river, and as such was probably constructed some time after c.1756, when the clearing away of much of the housing on the other side of the river may have lead to a re-orientation of dwellings on the west side of Altmore Street. The elliptical arched front doorway and the classical urn to the bay look distinctly late Georgian, suggesting the late 1700s or early 1800s, but this is assuming that both doorway and urn are original- they could easily have been later alterations. In 1833 the whole block was in the hands of a Thomas Davison. Davison served as agent for the Antrim estate between c.1821 and c.1842 and from at least this period until the mid 1900s the block acted as the estate office and agent’s residence. It is possible that establishment of the property as such is connected with the widening of Altmore Street and the construction of the adjoining of the grand ‘town gate’ entrance to the estate itself- which (as discussed above) appears to have taken place some time between c.1835 and the early 1840s. Thomas Davison appears to have been succeeded as occupant / agent by James Hannah, who is recorded in the second valuation of 1859. The same valuation lists Hannah as the leaseholder of five other properties in Altmore Street, including the present nos.28-32, which he was probably responsible for building. Hannah may also have been responsible for building work to his own home, for the return was enlarged some time between 1833 and 1859 and much of the detailing, including the pilasters to the estate office entrance and the internal decoration to the house appear to date from this period also. The last agent to occupy the building was J.J. Wall, during the 1920s. The whole block was acquired by the present owner in 1969-70. The vehicle doorway to the left (south) of the estate office entrance was enlarged some time after 1977 and alterations have been made recently to the rear. 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 [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 and the above property) 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. As stated above, with regards to Altmore Street, the mere fact that very little regarding the eastern side of the street contained within the first valuation book appears to relate with the later valuation is, paradoxically, revealing, for it indicates much rebuilding in the years after 1833. The fact also that the first valuation map is missing may also be revealing- could the post 1833 changes carried out in Altmore Street have rendered it obsolete within a few years of being drawn up?] 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, 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 E. Spatial Organisation H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Z. Rarity V. Authorship

Evaluation

Part two, part one and a half storey gabled and rendered terrace block consisting of two formerly separate houses / offices all probably built at various dates between 1737-39 and c.1780, with minor 19th century alterations. To the rear there have been several recent changes, mainly minor apart from the adding of a large gabled open ‘porch surround’ to the back end of the larger carriage arch. The complex retains its 18th. C character internally and externally. It is well maintained and a rare example in the area of a largely intact Georgian building. The highest B grade is an appropriate listing category.

General Comments

Date of Survey

12 April 2001