Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB05/15/002

Address :
Presbyterian Church hall Castle Street Ballycastle County Antrim BT54 6AS

Townland:
Ballycastle Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
11/03/1981 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
School

Former Use
Hall

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
8-12

IG Ref:
D1113 4055

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Owner Category

Church - Presbyterian

Exterior Description And Setting

Single-storey gothic style church hall, built as a lecture hall in 1886, and greatly extended to the west and south sides in the mid to later 20th century. The hall is set within relatively spacious grounds on the south side of Castle Street, to the west of Ballycastle town centre, with the church itself to the immediate east and a graveyard to west. To the north of the hall is a large tarmac-covered car park. The building was originally a plain rectangular structure with a projecting porch to the front, it is now roughly square in plan and over twice its original size. The front elevation consists of the original symmetrical section with a flat-roofed portion to the W, added post 1972. To the centre of the façade of the original section is a large projecting gabled porch. To the centre of the front (N) gable of this porch is a pointed arch doorway with timber sheeted double door and moulded in-out dressings and archivolt (all of the original openings have similar dressings). Directly above the doorway is a small painted date stone, and above this are three pointed arch recesses. To the E face of the porch there is a pointed arch window with timber frame with horizontal glazing bars, with a similar window to the W face. Either side of the porch there is a tall pointed arch window which rises into a gable. Both windows have double lancet (or Y-tracery) frame with horizontal glazing bars. There is a similar, but slightly shorter and broader, window to the extension. The E elevation consists of the gable of the original section to right, with a large single-storey flat-roofed extension to left. The extension has a long squat window with modern frame, and a recessed doorway, with modern glazed door and sidelights. To the gable there are two windows, as front, with a roundel recess above these. The W elevation consists of the flat-roofed side extension to left, with an earlier extension to right. The latter has two roughly square windows with modern timber frames. The rear elevation consists of the flat-roofed side extension to left, the gable of the earlier extension to the right of this, with the larger flat-roofed extension to right. To the far left (on the side extension) there is a square window with modern frame, with a door to right of this, with modern flat-panel door. On the gable there are two more square windows, also with modern frames. There are two more windows to the flat roofed section to right, one very large the other long, squat, and set at a high level. Both have modern timber frames. The whole façade is finished in dry dash render with in-out quoins to the original section (and the front of the side extension). The gabled roof of the original section has an overhang with plain bargeboards and exposed rafter ends. The roof is slated as is the roof of the gabled section to the rear. The other sections have asphalt covered roofs. There is a combination of cast-iron and PVC-u rainwater goods. The church grounds are enclosed from the street to the N with a low rendered wall with decorative late Victorian railings. The grounds are entered via a gateway with square pyramidal-capped rendered pillars and gates of similar design as the railings. There is a similar vehicle gateway leading into the car park. To the W end of the wall there is another vehicle gateway with similar pillars but a much plainer, mainly wrought-iron gate.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

As the date stone on the front tell us this building dates from 1886. It was built as a ‘lecture hall by the neighbouring Presbyterian church, but in 1898 it became an ‘Intermediate School’, which was brought into the National School system in 1906. This school,l latterly ‘Castle Street Primary School’, continued until 1968, after which the building reverted to the church once again, serving as a the congregations’ main hall ever since. The gabled rear return appears to have been added some time in the mid 1900s, with the flat-roofed extensions added some time between 1972 and 1981. [*Note on primary sources- Though Ballycastle has its full compliment of valuation books dating back to 1834, the earliest extant valuation plan of the town (indeed the earliest large scale plan) is that dating from 1898. This means that though the first and second valuations -of 1834 and 1859 respectively- present the usual detailed accounts of properties throughout the town, bereft of their contemporary plans it is almost impossible to discover exactly which buildings the valuers are referring. The writer has circumvented this problem however by adopting the somewhat involving method of reading the records backwards- i.e. taking the more recent (mid 20th century) valuations and tracing each building back from these, using the 1898 map as a marker along the way.] References- Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3d Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1884-93) 2 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3e Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1892/3-98) 3 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3f Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1898-1907) 4 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plans of Ballycastle (1898-c.1935) 5 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905 6 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3g Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1908-21) 7 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North and South Wards (1921-27) 8 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North Ward (1927-30) 9 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD South Ward (1927-30) 10 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50 11 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935 12 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57 13 PRONI VAL/4B/1/12 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD (1956-72) Secondary sources 1 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…The Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast, 1971), p.47 2 Godfrey Brown, Rev. A.W., ‘Ballycastle Presbyterian Church- A Visitor’s Guide’ (2nd ed., Ballycastle, 1981) Other
references 1 EHS HB05/15/001 First Survey report (10 October 1972)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

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

Evaluation

Single-storey gothic style church hall, built as a ‘lecture hall’ in 1886 and later served as a National School. This attractive late Victorian building has group value with the adjacent presbyterian church.

General Comments

Date of Survey

30 September 2004