80 Coast Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-bay two-storey semi-detached rendered house, built c.1885 with front entrance porch and two-storey return; the name of the architect is unknown. L-shaped on plan and set back slightly on the east side of Coast Road, also referred to as Glenariffe Road, which runs between Cushendall and Waterfoot.

Natural slate roof hipped to the north with black clay ridge tiles and plastic guttering supported on overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails and discharging to plastic downpipes. Two rendered profiled chimney stacks with octagonal clay pots. Painted rough-cast rendered walling with tooled flush masonry quoins. Segmental-headed window openings with painted splayed masonry sills, painted tooled flush toothed quoined surrounds and replacement sliding timber sash windows with slender ogee horns and six-over-six lights. Walls and window frames are painted white, whilst base plinth, window and door surrounds, rainwater goods and rafter ends are all painted black in contrast.

Two-bay front (W) elevation with central entrance porch. Hipped natural slate roof to entrance porch with multi-pane timber casement windows and glazed timber door. Door opens onto concrete step and front yard, shared with adjoining house.

Blind north elevation of main house with a central chimney stack rising through the eaves. North face to return beyond has a single timber framed door with multi-paned upper panel that opens on to five concentric steps; opening is square-headed within a segmental arched surround and toothed quoins.

Rear elevation (E) has a single window opening to each level either side of a two-storey return. The east end elevation to the return has square-headed window openings with uPVC windows and concrete sills, set within segmental arched surrounds and toothed quoins.

South side abutted by adjoining house No.82 (HB05/01/034B).

Materials:
Roof Natural slate
RWG uPVC
Walling Painted rough-cast render
Windows Replacement sliding timber sash; return has uPVC casements to its east face

Setting:
Set back slightly and at a lower level to the road, this building originally comprised four dwellings and now contains three; No.80 is at the north end-of-terrace. Shared concrete hard-standing to front area enclosed by low rough-cast rendered walling with concrete coping and replacement steel gates hung on square pillars. Concrete driveway to the north opening into shared rear yard with modern dwelling to the east. Flat roofed outbuilding, also roughcast rendered and painted white sits to the north-east of the row and has three vertically boarded painted timber doors.

Historical information

No. 80 Coast Road, a two-storey two-bay semi-detached house located in the townland of Bellisk (or) Waterford, was constructed along with the adjoining nos 82-84 Coast Road in c. 1885. The buildings were erected as dwellings for the officers of the local coastguard station (HB05/01/025) which was located at No. 70 Coast Road to the north-east of the site. The coastguard station was charged with the protection of the shipping and passenger steamers which frequently sailed along Co. Antrim’s east coast. Wilson’s Shipwrecks of the Ulster Coast notes that there were a number of wrecks along the rocks between Cushendall and Red Bay in the early-19th century including the transatlantic barque New Zealand (1841), the Mediterranean-bound brig Scotia (1842) and the Helen (1849), a ferry which operated between Glenarm and Glasgow (Wilson, p. 117).

The two-storey coastguard station at No. 70 Coast Road was constructed prior to 1832 and was utilised as living quarters by all the officers of the local coastguard until the late-19th century. The Annual Revisions notes that nos 80-84 Coast Road was constructed in c. 1885 as the Mess Quarters for the officers, whilst the Chief Officer’s quarters remained at No. 70 Coast Road. The Annual Revisions noted that nos 80-84 Coast Road were leased by the Admiralty and were originally divided into four dwellings; each dwelling occupied a two-storey single-bay of the current building and was valued at £6 at the turn of the 20th century. The third edition Ordnance Survey map (1903) depicted the houses as a simple rectangular-shaped structure located to the south-west of the coastguard station. The 1911 Census of Ireland records that only three of the dwellings on the site were inhabited and that they were occupied by George Whayman, a Petty Officer, Frank Ernest Richards, a loading boatman, and John Caine, a Royal Navy Coast Guard. The census building return described each of these apartments as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of four rooms and possessed a fowl house, turf house and a shed to rear.

No. 80 Coast Road, a two-storey house which comprised the northernmost two bays of the row, was increased in value to £14 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). Nos 80-84 [sic] Coast Road do not appear to have been utilised by the coastguard by the 1930s when they were leased out to private tenants by Dixon Estates Ltd. The occupants of No. 80 Coast Road changed with great frequency over the following three decades but in c. 1967 the house was purchased outright and occupied by a Mr. James O’Neill. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of No. 80 Coast Road stood at £20. In 1972 the UAHS Guide for the Glens of Antrim described nos 80-84 Coast Road in the following terms: ‘A semi-detached pair, under a single hipped roof, of whitewashed roughcast with black-painted quoins and long-and-short window surrounds; the windows segmental-headed; not built to the normal Board of Works coastguard-house pattern’ (UAHS Guide, p. 31).

References
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921)
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/20 – Townland Valuation Map (c. 1830)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/148A-D – Townland Valuations (c. 1834)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/40A-B – Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1859)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/19A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/7/13A – Annual Revisions (1923-29)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
12. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. First Survey Record – HB05/01/025 (No Date)

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. Wilson. J., ‘Shipwrecks of the Ulster coast: From Carlingford Lough to Inishowen Head’ Coleraine: Impact-Amergin, 1979.

Townland: Bellisk or Waterford
Architect: Not Known
Criteria: S, U, X, Y, Z

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Two-bay two-storey semi-detached rendered house, built c.1885 as living quarters for coastguard officers within a row that originally comprised four dwellings; now two, it shares group value with the adjoining No.82 Coast Road (HB05.01.034B). Despite PVC windows to the rear, the simple, almost symmetrical composition of hipped slate roofs, profiled chimneys, segmental-arched windows and rough-cast render walling with dressings highlighted in black, allows the two houses to read as a well proportioned, unified pair. The association with the coastguard station (HB05.01.025) adds to the interest and group value while its external appearance as a maritime structure, overlooking the sea to the east and set down from the main road behind matching rendered walls, is distinctive within the coastal setting.

General comments

This property has group value with HB05.01.034 B&C and also the coastguard station HB05.01.025