18 MILL STREET

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced five-bay three-storey rendered building, built c.1891, with shopfront to ground floor. Rectangular on plan facing northwest on the southeast side of Mill Street.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and rendered profiled chimneystacks to either end with clay pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on corbelled eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Half-round cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets to the rear with cast-iron downpipe. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with projecting render plinth course and rusticated render quoins. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and uPVC windows (unless otherwise stated).

Five-bay three-storey front elevation with a central square-headed door opening and traditional shopfront to the right. Original horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns to the ground floor only. The central door opening has a deeply recessed original flat-panelled timber door with bolection mouldings , brass furniture and two-pane fanlight opening onto a single masonry step. Shopfront comprises quatrepartite fixed-pane display window and double-leaf timber door with stop-chamfered panels and bipartite overlight, all framed by scored timber pilasters and surmounted by painted timber fascia stating; 'THE VILLAGE TEA ROOMS' and hood cornice with moulded gutter.

Northeast side abutted by adjoining building No.16 (HB05/02/017).

Three-bay three-storey rear elevation with a central square-headed door opening having replacement timber and glazed door in centre of elevation. Replacement uPVC windows to all floors, irregular arrangement.

Southwest side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.20 (HB05/02/015A-C).

Setting:
Forming part of a terrace of buildings of varying heights lining the southeast side of Mill Street. Bitmac paved rear yard with a pair of lean-to structures abutting the lateral boundary walls, all enclosed to the rear public car park by a tall cement rendered wall with sheeted timber gate.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted ruled-and-lined render
Windows UPVC (Some timber sliding sash)

Historical information

No. 18 Mill Street, a three-storey five-bay late-Victorian building possessing a pilastered shopfront, was constructed c. 1891. The construction of the building, along with the adjoining nos 14-16 in 1889-91, closed one of the few remaining gaps along Mill Street which had been developed by the Turnly family from the turn of the 19th century; the majority of the two and three-storey buildings along the street were erected in the first half of the century by the Turnly family. Cushendall’s proprietor, Francis Turnly, had travelled to China in 1796 where he raised a fortune of around £75,000. In 1801 Turnly used this money to purchase the estate of Newtownglens from the Richardson family at a cost of £24,000; Turnly subsequently renamed the settlement Cushendall. Brett states that Turnly was an eccentric character who ‘effected extraordinary improvements in buildings and roads on his property.’ Cushendall consisted of little more than a number of insignificant cabins, a mill and a bridge at the time of the purchase however, due to an increase in the number of tourists travelling through the area (on the way to the Giant’s Causeway) the village was developed into a coastal resort with the erection of hotels (such as the Glens of Antrim on Shore Street) and numerous commercial properties (Dallat, p. 45; Brett, Buildings of Co. Antrim, p. 288; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

The Annual Revisions note that No. 18 Mill Street was constructed by at least 1891 (when it was first recorded in the valuation sources) on land that continued to be owned by the Turnly family. The three-storey building was initially valued at £17 and was first occupied by Hugh Delargy, a local auctioneer who remained at the address until 1895. No. 18 Mill Street was recorded on the 1903 Ordnance Survey Town Plan which depicted it along its current rectangular layout but noted that the building originally possessed a number of out offices in its rear yard (now demolished). The Census of Ireland records that No. 18 Mill Street was occupied by a Ms. Minnie Agnew in 1911. Agnew operated a shop from the premises (the census does not specify what type) and the census building return described the building as a 1st class dwelling which consisted of 14 rooms and included a stable, two cow houses, a piggery and a potato house amongst its outbuildings to rear. Minnie Agnew continued to occupy No. 18 Mill Street until 1944 when a Ms. Mary McKay took possession of the building. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the value of the house (which was described as a dwelling and shop) was increased to £30. Mary McKay purchased the building outright from the Turnly estate in 1967 and continued to be recorded as occupant of the building by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the value of No. 18 Mill Street stood at £32.

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described nos 18-29 Mill Street in the following terms: ‘good two- and three-storey houses sharing a common roofline: 18 and 20 have mostly Regency glazing … an outstandingly good street by Ulster standards; there is almost nothing to jar the eye … this street demands, and deserves, the most careful and sensitive consideration of any change of any kind’ (UAHS pp 34-36). The buildings along Mill Street were subsequently included in the Cushendall Conservation Area in 1975, only the second conservation area in the province to have been designated at that time, ‘testimony itself to the special qualities of the village.’ In that year the village was also chosen as one of Northern Ireland’s four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. No. 18 Mill Street was subsequently listed in 1976. The NIEA HB Records note that the building underwent an extensive renovation in 1990 which included the reslating of its roof in natural slate and the installation of new cast aluminium rainwater goods (NIEA HB Records; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide). At the time of the Second Survey No. 18 Mill Street was utilised as a Bed & Breakfast with the ground floor shop occupied as a tea room.

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 OS/8/84/1 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/14 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
9. Ulster Town Directories (1880-1918)
10. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
11. First Survey Record – HB05/02/016 (1971)
12. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/016

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. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of Co. Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1996.
3. Dallat, C., ‘The road to the Glens’ Belfast: The Friar’s Bush Press, 1989.
4. ‘Cushendall Village Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1975.
5. ‘Cushendall Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1993.

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

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Terraced five-bay three-storey rendered building, built c.1891, with shopfront to ground floor, located on the south east side of Mill Street. No.18 was constructed at the same time as its neighbour No.16 (HB05/02/017), creating a distinct paired grouping. Despite the installation of inappropriate windows to both front and rear, No.16 retains a fine traditional shopfront with hand painted signage. The original plan form appears largely intact, as do the historic proportions of the front facade. This pair of late nineteenth century buildings enhance the historic village centre setting.