16 MILL STREET AND POST OFFICE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced symmetrical four-bay three-storey rendered commercial building, built c.1891, with two shopfronts to the ground floor. Rectangular on plan facing northwest with garage structure to the rear yard. Undergoing extensive external refurbishment works.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles and two tall rendered profiled chimneystacks with black pots. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on modillion eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Ruled-and-lined cement rendered walling with rusticated render quoins and render plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and horizontally-glazed 2/2 sliding timber sash windows.

Symmetrical four-bay three-storey front elevation with two shopfronts to the ground floor. The shopfront to the left has fixed-pane triple-light timber-framed shop display window on stall riser and glazed timber door to the right, all framed by fluted stucco pilasters and hood cornice over. The shopfront to the right, c.2006, with fixed-pane timber-framed shop display window and recessed entrance to the left having glazed timber door, also framed by fluted pilasters.

Northeast side is abutted by adjoining building No.14 (HB05/02/018).

Three-bay three-storey rear elevation with central half-landing windows.

Southwest side is abutted by adjoining building No.20A (HB05/02/016).

Materials
Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Ruled-and-lined cement render
Windows Horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sliding sash

Setting:
Forming part of a continuous terrace of street-fronted buildings lining the southeast side of Mill Street at the centre of Cushendall. Rear yard enclosed by tall rendered wall with late twentieth-century single-storey garage structure opening directly onto public road and car park.

Historical information

No. 16 Mill Street, a three-storey four-bay late-Victorian building possessing two shopfronts, was constructed in c. 1891. The construction of the building, along with the adjoining No. 18 and No. 14, 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. 16 Mill Street was constructed by at least 1891 (it was first recorded in the valuation sources in that year) on land that continued to be owned by the Turnly family. The three-storey building was initially valued at £16 and was occupied by John Hamilton, a local farmer who remained at the address until 1895 when the Rev. Patrick [Convery] took possession. No. 16 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 (all now demolished). Contemporary photographs of Mill Street record that the building originally possessed a single shopfront; the retail unit currently occupying the two-bays nearest No. 18 Mill Street is the original shopfront. The Annual Revisions suggest that Patrick Convery remained at No. 16 Mill Street until c. 1930. Daniel McAlister, a local auctioneer, had acquired the dwelling and shop under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which increased the value of the building to £32. McAlister purchased No. 16 Mill Street outright from the Turnly estate in 1967 and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the building stood at £50.

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described No. 16 Mill Street in the following terms: ‘a fine tall terrace of about 1850 [sic], of stucco, with quoins, regency glazing, and ornamental modillions at the eaves’ (UAHS, p. 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. 16 Mill Street was subsequently listed in 1976. The NIEA HB Records note that the building underwent a renovation in 1988 which included the reslating of its roof in natural slate. A further refurbishment was carried out in c. 2006 when the building’s second shopfront was installed (NIEA HB Records; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide). At the time of the Second Survey No. 16 Mill Street was being used as business premises for a local estate agents and hairdressing salon.

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. PRONI Wills Catalogue (17 Aug 1965)
12. First Survey Record – HB05/02/017 (1971)
13. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/017

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

Mid terraced four-bay three-storey rendered commercial building, built c.1891, with two shopfronts to the ground floor. No.16 Mill Street was constructed at the same time as No.18 (HB05/02/016), creating a distinct paired grouping. It originally possessed a single shopfront, with the second shopfront on the left side being installed in c. 2006. Despite much alteration to the interior, the building has retained its external historic proportions to the upper floors with Regency-type windows, quoins and a decorative cornice to the eaves. The historic village centre setting is enhanced by this pair of late nineteenth century buildings.