4 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Attached two-storey four-bay late-Georgian style house. Built early 1800's. Rectangular on plan, principal elevation faces East, built on the South side of High Street perpendicular to the street. Set within its own grounds behind modern rendered and painted low level wall with pillars and modern hooped-top railing with attached two storey outhouses to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and two rendered chimney stacks with circular black pots; half-round replacement uPVC guttering fixed to painted timber fascia terminating to circular uPVC downpipes to front elevation.

Principal elevation (E) is smooth block-lined render painted finish with stepped plain quoins to each end of main house. All window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills with painted plaster band to reveals; All windows are 2/2 exposed box timber sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars to both ground and first floor levels; square headed door opening with metal canopy above; replacement four panel painted timber door, plain side lights and narrow fanlight above, door opens onto threshold one concrete step up from the ground level. The front door bay has one window bay to the right side and two bays to the left, the extreme left side window being of the same type but smaller than the others. The four window bays to first floor level align with the bays below.

To left side of house two storey outhouse extends along boundary with splayed corner, smooth rendered walls, single timber sheeted door with window above blocked up with timber sheeting, other openings blocked up with masonry. Pitched corrugated metal roof with uPVC rainwater goods.

South elevation to rear not visible at time of survey.

West elevation abuts adjacent property No.6 High Street.

Gabled north elevation facing onto High Street of smooth block lined render painted finish with stepped plain quoins to each corner; all window openings are square-headed on painted masonry sills with painted plaster band to reveals; One 2/2 timber sliding sash (horizontal bars) with exposed box to extreme left side on ground floor level, two smaller windows of same type to first floor level, window to left side aligned with window below. Smooth rendered and painted chimney to apex with two black pots and stepped cornice.

Roof Natural Slate
RWG Cast iron & PVC replacement
Walling Painted render, ruled & lined
Windows Timber sliding sash

Setting:
Attached Georgian-style house, set within its own grounds behind modern rendered and painted low level wall with pillars and modern railing, forming part of a group of similar houses lining the South side of High Street. Set within the Cushendall Conservation Area.

Historical information

No. 4 High Street, a two-storey three-bay house located on the south side of High Street, was constructed prior to 1857. The majority of the buildings located along High Street were erected in the first half of the 19th century by the landowning 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).

No. 4 High Street may date from as early as the Townland Valuations (1834), however it is difficult to identify specific structures in that source due to the loss of the accompanying Townland Valuation Town Plan for Cushendall. The building was first recorded with certainty on the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1857) and Griffith’s Valuation (1859) which noted that No. 4 High Street was valued at £2 and 15 shillings and possessed a forge to its rear. The building, which originally possessed a thatched roof, was leased by the Turnly family to a Mr. James Nicholl who remained at the address until c. 1889 when his son Denis took possession of the site. The building was first recorded on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1903) and Annual Revisions Plan of Cushendall (1906-c. 1935) which depicted the house along its current layout. The Census of Ireland noted that Denis Nicholl was employed as a local coal dealer and resided at No. 4 High Street with his brother whom he employed. In 1901 the census building return described the house as a 2nd class thatched dwelling that only consisted of two inhabited rooms and possessed a store as its sole outbuilding. The building’s original thatched roof appears to have been removed by at least 1911 as the census of that year recorded it possessed a slated roof. The Nicholl family continued to reside at the address until 1947 when Charles McLernon, a local baker, purchased the site outright and partially converted No. 4 High Street into a bakery. The conversion, and presumable extension, of the site resulted in a huge increase in its value to £40 by the end of the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). The bakery continued to operate from the rear of the house until 1961 when it was occupied as a store by J. B. Kennedy Ltd. Charles McLernon continued to be recorded as occupant of No. 4 High Street until the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the total rateable value of the site had been increased to £34.

In 1972 the UAHS Guide for the Glens of Antrim described High Street as ‘an outstandingly attractive street, of quite exceptional merit and character, climbing very steeply indeed from the crossing of the main street to Court McMartin, almost every building in it of individual merit apart from the value of the group as a whole; the roofs, gables, doors and windows rise in an irregular staircase up the hillside’ (UAHS Guide, p. 34). The buildings along High Street were 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 (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/1/B/148 – Townland Valuations (1834)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/1/40B – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/7A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/12A– Annual Revisions (1923-29)
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 (1880-1918)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)

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
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Two-storey four-bay late-Georgian-style house with low wall, piers and railing to gable end, built early 1800's, located on the south side of the steeply sloping High Street, adjacent to No. 2 High Street (HB05/02/055) and abutted by No. 6 High Street, close to the central crossroads of Cushendall village. It was thatched until c.1911. The house was converted into a bakery in 1947 and operated as such until 1967, contributing to the social and economic aspects of the village. Despite the modern front door with modern canopy, the exterior retains much historic character and style such as timber sliding sash windows and stepped quoins. Its interest is further raised by its unusual aspect within the street, with the gable wall fronting onto High Street. Its setting is authentic within the town centre; the building makes a valuable contribution to the Cushendall Conservation area.