2 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay single-storey with attic rendered house, built c.1830 with gable-ended two-storey return. T-shaped on plan facing northeast and set back slightly on the southwest side of High Street on a sloping site.

Pitched natural slate roof with corbelled eaves; black clay ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack with a single terracotta pot to either gable end. Replacement steel rainwater goods. Painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and horizontally-glazed 2/2 sliding timber sash windows and exposed sash boxes (unless otherwise stated).

Asymmetrical three-bay single-storey front elevation with an off-centre square-headed door opening having replacement timber panelled door and possibly original spoked iron fanlight. Door is flanked by single horizontally-glazed 2/2 sliding timber sash windows (some panes with historic glass) and exposed sash boxes.

Southeast gable fronts onto the garden of Turnly’s Tower (HB05/02/001) and has a pair of square-headed attic-storey window openings with replacement top-hung timber casement windows.

Rear elevation abutted by gable-ended two-storey return with further two-storey projection to the left side. Painted rough-cast rendered walling with square-headed door and window openings having replacement top-hung timber casement windows.

Northwest elevation faces onto side access lane. Gable at left side has a pair of square-headed attic-storey window openings with replacement top-hung timber casement windows. Gable at right side (attached projection) has a painted rubblestone gable with rendered chimneystack.

Materials:
Roof Natural slate (replacement)
RWG Replacement steel
Walling Painted ruled-and-lined render
Windows Timber sliding sash / replacement top-hung timber casements

Setting:
Located on a small sloping site on the southwest side of High Street with small paved front area enclosed by low rendered wall and a single wrought-iron pedestrian gate. Bitmac paved laneway runs along the northwest gable providing shared access to the rear with small garden enclosed by hedging.

Historical information

No. 2 High Street, a single-storey three-bay cottage 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. 2 High Street may date from as early as the Townland Valuations (1834), although 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 recorded that No. 2 High Street was valued at £9 and 15 shillings and was leased to a Mrs. Anne McDonnell by the Turnly estate. Anne McDonnell continued to reside at the address until her death in 1877 at which time the cottage passed to Charles McDonnell, her nephew (PRONI Wills). The Annual Revisions note that Charles McDonnell did not reside at the address but that No. 2 High Street was occupied by a number of tenants over the following three decades. The cottage was depicted along its current layout (possessing a rear return and outbuilding) on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1903 suggesting that no major alterations have been made to the structure of the building since at least the early-20th century. The Annual Revisions recorded No. 2 High Street as a vacant structure from c. 1903 until the 1930s. The cottage was occupied by a Mr. Andy Close under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). The valuer noted that Close operated a shop from the premises which had been increased in value to £7. The occupants of the site continued to change frequently throughout the 20th century and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) No. 2 High Street appears to have been solely utilised as shop premises with its total rateable value standing at £11 and 10 shillings.

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. PRONI Wills Catalogue (18 Jul 1877)
14. 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

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

Evaluation

A small detached three-bay single-storey with attic rendered house set behind a low rendered wall with wrought-iron pedestrian gate, built c.1830, located on the steeply sloping High Street, adjacent to Turnly’s Tower (HB05/02/001) at the central crossroads of Cushendall village. Although the house has been modified to the rear and windows have been replaced, exterior historic fabric and character remains such as timber sliding sash windows and a spoked iron fanlight above the front door. It operated as a shop for a number of years during the mid 1900s, adding to its local interest. Its setting is authentic within the town centre; the building makes a valuable contribution to the Cushendall Conservation area.