15 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two-storey terrace house and shop, built c.1840, but its enlarged present form dates from 1996, when part of the (probably contemporary) property to the west was ‘annexed’ to form a bigger shop. The building is set on the N side of Main Street.

The front elevation faces roughly S. To the right of centre is the house doorway which consists of a panelled timber door and plain rectangular fanlight encased with a moulded surround with keystone. To the left of the doorway is a large shop front with modern ‘period’ features and corporate signage and panelled timber door. There is a post box set within the shop front (which predates the present enlarged front). To the right of the doorway is a window with horned double sash frame with plate glass and surround similar to the doorway. To the first floor there are three similar windows and a single sash window. Between the second and third windows there is a curious projecting figure of a lion. The front elevation is finished in painted lined render.

To the rear there are two long two-storey returns, with that to the E taller than that to W. That to E abuts the wall of the neighbouring property to the E side. To the N-facing gable there is a single-storey lean-to extension with large window with modern frame to its N face. To the first floor of the gable there is a small narrow window to left, with a modern timber frame. To the ground floor of the W face of the return there are three uniform windows, with timber sash frames as front. To the first floor there are two windows with modern frames. Where the W face of the return meets the main section of the building, there is a full-height bevel. To the ground floor of this there is a doorway with recent part glazed door, whilst to the first floor there is a window with a modern frame. The W return is finished in plain painted render.

The E return appears to have been extended to the W side with the addition of a lower flat-roofed section, finished in dry dash and devoid of openings. To the N side the return abuts an outbuilding (now modernised). To the E face of the return there are two windows to the ground floor, both with horned timber sash frames (two panes over two). There are two more similar, but squatter, windows to the first floor. The E face of the return is finished in painted render at ground floor level with the upper floor painted.

There is a window (with modern frame) to the right hand side of the rear façade of the main section of the building.

The gabled roof of the main section of the building is slated and has two large rendered chimneystacks. The gabled roof of the W return is also slated and has at least one cast-iron skylight to the E side. The roof covering of the E return could not be seen, however the roof of the lean-to to its N gable is slated. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast-iron and PVCu.

Historical information

This site is shown developed on the OS map of 1832. Unfortunately the map to accompany the first valuation of 1834 is missing, so it is difficult to tell what exactly occupied the site at that point. Most of the buildings recorded in this valuation are single-storey, so it is probable that the present two-storey structure had not yet been built.

A two-storey house is recorded in position in the second valuation of 1859, however, whose dimensions of 11yrds x 8 x 2½(storeys) match those of the present building before it was altered in 1996. The valuer’s grade the building ‘1B+’ suggesting that it could have appeared shortly after 1834. As such, it may have been one of the new houses ‘lately built’ referred to in the OS Memoirs of September 1835. Interestingly, the dimensions of the building are exactly the same as those quoted for the house to the west (the present No.17, also altered in 1996), suggesting both may have been built at the same time.

The occupant in 1859 is noted as a Melinda McCloy, and a James Smyth the immediate lessor. By 1864 an Alexander McCloy was leasing the house to a Thomas Wilson, whose family appear to have remained there until at least 1930. The valuation records for this area dating from c.1935-56 are not open to the public at present, so we have little idea of the fate of the property between these dates, however, by the latter year (at least), the freehold was in the hands of a G. Smyth, who is also noted as the resident. In 1959 the building was sold to a Jean (or Jeannie) Cusick, with whose relation it remains.

When surveyed in September 1972, the property already had a shop front, (it acted as the local post office and as a grocers- much as today), however the valuations give us no indication of when this shop front appeared. Nor do they give any idea of when either of the returns were added; map evidence suggests both ay date from the early 1900s.

The building survived in its original double-fronted form until 1996, when most of the eastern half of No.17 was amalgamated with the property, resulting in the large shop unit we see today.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/1/13/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 13 (1832)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/130 First valuation, Armoy parish [Cary Barony] (1834)
3 OS Memoirs, Parish of Armoy, (1832-38), reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.4
4 PRONI OS/6/1/13/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 13 (1857)
5 PRONI VAL/2D/1/20d Valuation plan of Armoy (1859)
6 PRONI VAL/2B/1/23a Second valuation, Armoy parish [Cary Barony] (1859)
7 PRONI VAL/2B/1/23b Second valuation, Armoy parish [Cary Barony] (1859)
8 PRONI VAL/2B/1/37 Second valuation, Armoy parish [Upper Dunluce Barony] (1859)
9 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1a Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1864-78)
10 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1b Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1878-85)
11 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1c Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1885-1900)
12 Bassett, George Henry, ‘The Book of County Antrim’ (Dublin, 1888), p.87
13 EHS (MBR) Photograph showing Armoy Presbyterian church, (c.1900)
14 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1d Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1901-12)
15 PRONI VAL/12E/5/1/1 Valuation plan of Armoy (1906-35)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/2/1e Annual valuation revision book, Armoy ED (1912-29)
17 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
18 PRONI VAL/3B/1/4 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle RD (1935)
19 PRONI VAL/3G/3/1/1 Valuation plan of Armoy (1935-56
20 PRONI VAL/3C/1/4 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland [annual revisions], Ballycastle RD (1936-57) ) [This valuation book is currently closed ‘according to the criteria set out in the White Paper on Open Government’.]
21 PRONI VAL/4B/1/9 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland [annual revisions], Ballycastle RD (1957-72)

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/05/005(A, B) First Survey report (26 September 1972)
2 EHS HB05/05/005(A, B) Photographs (Oct 1972, May 1979)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two-storey terrace house and shop, built c.1840, however its enlarged present form dates from 1996, when part of the (probably contemporary) property to the west was ‘annexed’ to form a bigger shop.