3 COAST ROAD, GATES, RAILINGS AND WALLING

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey with attic rendered former rectory, built c.1850, with front entrance porch. Extensively refurbished and converted into four flats with additional two flats to converted outbuildings to rear yard. Irregular on plan facing north and set back slightly on the south side of Coast Road.

Pitched natural slate roof (artificial slate to rear pitch) with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, lead valleys and rendered profiled chimneystacks to either end with octagonal black clay pots. Three gabled dormer windows to the front pitch with uPVC clad cheeks and console brackets to gablets. Replacement steel rainwater goods and bracketed overhanging eaves to either gable end. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling with rendered quoins and projecting plinth course to front elevation, painted rough-cast render to remaining elevations. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills, decorative stucco window surrounds and uPVC windows.

Symmetrical three-bay two-storey front elevation with square-plan flat-roofed central entrance porch. Architrave surounds to window openings with bracketed sills and pediments to first floor windows supported on scrolled console brackets. Bitumen covered roof to entrance porch with full-span cornice and frieze supported on Doric corner piers. Square-headed door opening to right cheek with architrave surround and replacement hardwood panelled door.

Single-bay east side elevation with architrave surround and bracketed sill to first floor window only single plain.

Rear elevation extended to the attic as a large gable abutted by steel fire escape. Central square-headed door openings to first and second floors with uPVC glazed doors.

Two-bay two-storey west side elevation with window surrounds as per front elevation and single square-headed door opening to the left having replacement architrave surround and uPVC door.

Setting:
Set back slightly on the south side of Coast Road within its own grounds on an elevated site. Small cobblelock front area enclosed by replacement rendered wall with steel railing with an original panelled red sandstone ashlar pier to either end with moulded capstones. Bitmac paved rear yard enclosed to the south by two-storey former range of outbuildings having pitched artificial slate roof, uPVC rainwater goods, rough-cast rendered walling and square-headed window openings with concrete sills, uPVC windows and hardwood doors. Rear garden on a steep gradient abutting the rear of the former outbuilding and accessed via a flight of concrete steps adjacent to the northeast pier enclosed to the road by rough-cast rendered retaining wall with steel railing.

Materials
Roof Natural (F) / artificial slate (R)
RWG Replacement steel / uPVC
Walling Ruled-and-lined render / rough-cast render
Windows uPVC replacement

Historical information

No. 3 Coast Road, a two-and-a-half-storey three-bay building possessing dormer windows and pedimented windows with an entrance porch at ground floor, was constructed prior to 1857. The building was first recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1857) which depicted along its current layout as a square-shaped dwelling that possessed a large return and a rear outbuilding; the map also noted that the building was originally called ‘Cushendall House.’ The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1859) set the value of Cushendall House at £25 and noted that the building was leased by Henry Hugh McNeile, a magistrate and prominent local landowner who resided at Parkmount in Belfast, to a Ms. Henrietta Frances Baker.

Baker continued to reside at Cushendall House until her death in 1871 when her daughter, a Ms. Frances Eliza Young, took possession of the property (PRONI Wills). The Annual Revisions note that the house became a Rectory in c. 1875 when the Rev. William Thompson of to Layde Parish Church (HB05/02/011) occupied the site. The building continued to be utilised as the parish rectory until at least the 1970s during which time the occupants of the site changed frequently. In 1911 the Census of Ireland records that the site was occupied by the Rev. Thomas Edward Thorpe. The accompanying census building return described the rectory as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of ten rooms and possessed extensive outbuildings to rear including a stable and coach house, two cow houses, a piggery, a turf house and potato house. The Rectory was occupied by the Rev. Thomas G. Sharpe under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which increased the value of the building to £29 and noted that the rectory was owned by the Representative Church Body. The occupants of the dwelling continued to change and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the building stood at £34.

In 1972 the UAHS publication for the Glens of Antrim described the Rectory in the following terms: ‘a rather heavy three-bay stucco building, two-storey with attic; originally probably a summer residence of the 1840’s; rather clumsy pedimented aedicules to the windows; porch; quoins; glazing-bars complete’ (UAHS p. 31). The Rectory was 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 chosen as one of Northern Ireland’s four pilot schemes for conservation during the European Architectural Heritage Year. The Rectory was subsequently listed in 1976.

The NIEA HB Records note that No. 3 Coast Road underwent comprehensive works c. 1981 including repairs to its porch, chimneys and roof. Further general repairs were carried out to the structure c. 1990 and it is likely that the building was subdivided into self-contained apartments at this time. The single-storey extension to the west gable of the building was constructed in c. 2003 (NIEA HB Records; Cushendall Conservation Area Guide).

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 OS/8/84/1 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/40B – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/19A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1913)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/13A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
9. PRONI VAL/12/E/24/1- Annual Revisions Town Plan (1906-c.1935)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/14 – 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 (1911)
14. PRONI Wills Catalogue (31 Oct 1871)
15. First Survey Record – HB05/02/027 (1971)
16. NIEA HB Record – HB05/02/027

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. ‘Cushendall Village Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1975.
3. ‘Cushendall Conservation Area’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1993 – including Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1932.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
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
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Symmetrical detached three-bay two-storey with attic rendered former dwelling, constructed prior to 1857, originally called ‘Cushendall House’. Located on the south side of Coast Road within its own grounds and on the east side of the River Dall, it retains red sandstone ashlar piers at either side of the site. The house became the Rectory to Layde Parish Church (HB05/02/011) c. 1875 and continued in this use until at least the 1970s. Despite much modern alteration to the house including the conversion into flats and the replacement of windows and doors, the house is of social and local importance in the village as the former rectory to the church for around 100 years of its life and it therefore has historical significance in the village.