4 Seaview Terrace

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced three-bay two-storey stone and brick former worker’s house, built c.1872, as one of nine similar houses and set on an elevated site on the south east side of Garron Road overlooking Red Bay.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and red brick chimneystacks to either end, shared with adjoining houses. Steel guttering to timber box fascia and steel downpipes. Coursed and snecked rough-hewn white limestone walling with cement pointing. Camber-headed red brick window and door openings with flush brick quoined surrounds, red sandstone sills and replacement 2/2 sliding timber sash windows with ogee horns.

Three-bay two-storey front elevation with a paired ground floor window opening to the left and a central door opening with a replacement timber panelled and glazed door. The door opens onto a concrete paved walkway, shared with the entire terrace.

Northeast side adjoining No.5A (HB05/01/006E) Seaview Terrace.

Three-bay two-storey rear elevation with single-storey return to the right (shared with adjoining house No.5A). All detailing as per front elevation.

Southwest side adjoining No.3 (HB05/01/006C).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of nine similar houses set on an elevated site on the south side of Garron Road with small sloping front gardens, enclosed to the road by hedging and rubblestone walls with concrete steps descending to the road.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Steel
Walling Rough-hewn white limestone
Windows Replacement sliding timber sash

Historical information

No. 4 Seaview Terrace, a two-storey three-bay rubble-limestone house forming part of a terrace of nine similar dwellings, was originally constructed in c. 1872. The Annual Revisions noted that the worker’s houses were leased by the Glenariff Iron Ore & Harbour Company. McCutcheon notes that the firm was a railway and harbour company which that was established in 1872 and was responsible for the operation of a narrow gauge railway line which transported iron ore from the Cloughcor mines (at Glenariff) to cargo ships bound for England and Scotland. The railway line operated for only a brief period of three years before falling out of use in 1875. Seaview Terrace was constructed in c. 1872 to house the Glenariff Iron Ore & Harbour Co.’s workers and a lease, dated 1875, records that the terrace was originally known as ‘the railway cottages.’ Seaview Terrace was not recorded in the Annual Revisions until 1885. It was in that year that the Glenariff Iron Ore & Harbour Co. defaulted on its rent to the Earl of Antrim and was forced to sell off all of its assets in the area (McCutcheon; First Survey).

In 1885 the Annual Revisions set the value of No. 4 Seaview Terrace at £3 and 10 shillings and noted that the building was occupied by a Mr. W. Burrell. The house continued to be occupied by the Burrell family until the 1940s and, although the house cannot be found on the 1901 or 1911 Census of Ireland, the building was depicted as a simple terraced structure under the third edition Ordnance Survey map. No. 4 Seaview Terrace was increased in value to £6 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which noted that the terrace was leased out to tenants by the Rev. Father O’Rawe, parish priest at the neighbouring Church of St. Patrick and St. Brigid (HB05/01/007). Hannah Burrell vacated the site in c. 1945 and over the following three decades the occupants of the house changed frequently. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the value of No. 4 Seaview Terrace stood at £9 with the valuer noting that the house was leased to a Mr. Henry O’Neill by the church Trustees.

In 1972 the UAHS Guide for the Glens of Antrim described Seaview Terrace in the following terms: ‘[A] terrace of nine two-storey houses of squared limestone blocks, with brick dressings to doors and windows, set on a bank immediately above roadway and seawall; dating from the second half of the 19th century but attractive for their period’ (UAHS Guide, p. 28). Field inspection of the site, carried out as part of the Second Survey, has found that No. 4 Seaview Terrace continues to be occupied as a private dwelling and holiday home.

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
4. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/1A-E – Annual Revisions (1863-1929)
5. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/21 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
6. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/35 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
7. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
8. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
9. First Survey Record – HB05/01/006 (1970)

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings and areas of architectural importance in the Glens of Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
2. McCutcheon, A., ‘Railway history in pictures: Ireland Vol. 1’ Newton Abbot: David & Charles (1969).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Terraced three-bay two-storey limestone with red brick detailing, former worker’s house, built c.1872, to house the Glenariff Iron Ore & Harbour Co. workers. While No 4 retains some of its late nineteenth-century appearance with its original window openings, the interior has been modernised and the house has therefore lost some of its authenticity. It is of local interest but does not meet the statutory test for listing.