'Dunvaron', 27 Charles Street, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, BT53 6DX

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey plus attic Edwardian ‘Freestyle’ house of 1908 in brick and render, one of a matching semidetached pair by James Scott of Belfast. The property is set on the NE side of Charles Street, Ballymoney, about 0.3km N of the town centre.

[The building faces SW, but for the purposes of this description, SW will be read as S.] The house is of asymmetric plan and consists basically of the roughly square main two-storey block with a single-storey flat-roofed entrance porch to the W side and shallow full-height gabled bays to front (S) and rear, that to the front having a further single-storey canted bay. To the NW there is a single-storey L-shaped outhouse projection, which has a later garage extension, and to the N, spanning between this property and its neighbour, is a small single-storey lean-to projection which to the N is abutted by a large, later single-story double garage extension (of no interest.)

The main block has an overhanging gabled roof (T-shaped in structure) covered in natural Welsh slate and clay ridge tiles, with plain moulded bargeboards on brackets, two brick chimneystacks (one shared) with pronounced corbelling and clay pots, a gabled dormer to the front and W, and a Velux window to the rear. The kitchen projection has a hipped roof covered in the same materials, and a relatively slim brick chimneystack to the NE corner with a single clay pot. The canted bay has a shallowed hipped roof covered in lead sheeting. The ground floor walls are finished in red brick with the upper floor in pebbledash with cement render quoins and lugged and heeled surrounds to the front and W windows. The window openings themselves are mainly segmental-headed, with those to the canted bay, dormers, and some to the ground floor rear, flat-headed. Most are filled with plain one over one timber sash frames, with mullioned and transom frames (with Art Nouveau Style glazing to the upper panes) to the two larger windows to the front and upper floor back, the W side of the porch and the dormers. The cills appear to be sandstone [TBC]. The RW goods appear to be largely replacement uPVC [TBC].

S elevation - To far left is the gable of garage, with vehicle access. Next, the front side of porch has timber door with Art Nouveau Style glazing over ‘shelf’ feature on brackets, Art Nouveau Style brass letterbox, and three tall vertical panels under. Entrance has sandstone keystone. Full-height bay to left half of main block with four windows to canted bay, pair of windows to the first floor and a roundel window to attic level. To the right of the bay there is a large window to the ground floor and a similar, but smaller one directly above to first floor; the former has a narrow sandstone keystone, as the entrance. There is a brick mullion with sandstone coping between this house and its neighbour.

W elevation - Side of later garage to far left (of no interest). Two windows to main block, then another window to the entrance porch. The first two windows have patterned glazing to their respective lower sashes. One window to the first floor, directly over the porch.

N elevation - To far left, part of the shared lean-to (which has a window to its W-facing ‘inner’ side). Window on main block, with another on projection (three doors to E and S sides of kitchen projection). Three windows of various sizes to first floor, with another to left above at upper landing level. The lean-to merges with the large garage addition (of no interest.)

To the front of the house there is a garden and a tarmac drive and forecourt. The front garden is enclosed by a brick wall with square brick piers with stone caps and a gateway with decorative wrought-iron gates. To the rear of the house there is a large tarmac yard to the N of which is the back garden.

Historical information

Nos.25-27 Charles Street (‘Arborfield’ and ‘Dunvaron’ respectively) were built in 1907-08 on a previously undeveloped site on what was then practically the northern edge of Ballymoney, with only a scattering of what were largely institutional buildings (most notably the Union Workhouse) further to the north-west. Their construction followed closely after the building of the neighbouring Technical School in 1905-06, and marked the beginnings of the gradual ‘suburbanisation’ of this end of Charles Street as it merged in Coleraine Road.

Commenting on the construction of the pair on 27 February 1908, the ‘Ballymoney Free Press and Northern Counties Advertiser’ remarked that ‘the semi-detached villas…which are now nearing completion’ were being built for a Mr. Robert Holmes and a Mr. William J. Beattie. These names are confirmed by annotations of 1909 in the valuation book which tell us that Mr. Beattie went on to occupy no.25, and Mr. Holmes, no.27, with the houses themselves erected on part of a plot that had been previously held from the Antrim Estate by a John Henry. The present owners of no.27 state that the original owner of their house - i.e. Robert Holmes - was a travelling salesman, and that he was responsible for the building of the pair, keeping no.27 for himself and selling next door. Holmes was indeed a commercial traveller, for local chemists and grocers ‘Baxter’s Limited’ (a company in which Beattie was the Secretary), but the available evidence suggests that both he and Beattie built the properties jointly. The architect appears to have been James Scott of Belfast, and the contractor was William Currie of Coleraine.

In the 1911 census, Holmes is recorded as residing here with his wife, Eliza, their four young children, and a domestic servant, Lizzie Chestnut. Following the death of John Baxter in 1918, Robert became Managing Director of Baxter’s Limited, later changing the name of the firm to ‘Robert Holmes Limited’. He died in 1945 and after the death of his widow in 1951, Dunvaron passed to their youngest son, Norman, and his wife Marie. Dunvaron remained within the family until 2017. It is believed to have been sold in that year, and again in 2019.

The 1931 map (the earliest on which nos.25-27 appear) shows a smaller outbuilding on the site of the present double garage, which appears to have been shared between both properties. By 1951 this had either been completely rebuilt or extended, and the single garage is shown - the latter probably added in the later 1940s. The house was underwent extensive refurbishment in 2017.

References - Primary sources
1 OS 1:1250 / 2500 map 1893-94
2 OS 1:1250 / 2500 map 1904
3 Architect's drawing of present Nos.25 and 27, c.1907
4 ‘Coleraine Chronicle’, 8 June 1907, p.2
5 ‘Northern Constitution’, 21 September 1907
6 ‘Ballymoney Free Press and Northern Counties Advertiser’, 27 February 1908
7 PRONI VAL12B/4/3F (1907-15)
8 ‘Ballymena Observer, 2 July 1909, p.4
9 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’, Henderson & Co., 1910
10 Census of Ireland, 1911 - http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie
11 OS map 1:1250/2500 1931
12 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 19 February 1945, p.4
13 ‘Northern Whig’, 28 January 1948, p.2
14 OS map 1:1250/2500 1951
15 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 28 March 1951, p.1
16 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 12 January 1961, p.2
17 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 5 April 1967, p.8
18 OS map 1:1250/2500 1970

Secondary sources
19 Information from sale advert - https://www.mcafeeproperties.co.uk/property/ballymoney/mbl669276/27-charles-street/ - accessed 31 March 2020
20 Information from owners, March 2020

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Red brick and roughcast-finished suburban house in a restrained Edwardian Freestyle, one of a matching semi-detached pair of 1908 by architect James Scott of Belfast. This house and its neighbour (HB04/15/021) are both well-preserved, (and in this area relatively rare), examples of their type, retaining their original form and much of their original external detailing and setting, the latter complimented by the nearby contemporary listed school building, which is executed in a similarly Free manner.