4 Ann Street ('Snip')

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Very small, (almost vernacular), two storey terrace shop possibly created c.1840 by filling in the carriage gateway of a previous property. The property is set on the NW side of Ann Street, at the centre of Ballycastle.

The front elevation is very narrow with the ground floor taken up with a plain relatively recent looking shop front with recessed partly glazed door and large three pane timber shop window, above which the shop name is painted on to the render. To the first floor is a large vertical window with modern two pane timber frame. The front elevation is finished in painted render.

The rear elevation consists of a timber door with ‘sidelight’ single pane window to the ground floor. To the first floor is a window as front. The rear elevation is largely finished in painted roughcast.

The gabled roof is covered in asbestos slates (the roof merges completely with that of the property to SW- no.2 Ann Street). The rw goods appear to be metal.

Historical information

The OS map of 1832 appears to show this portion of Ann Street developed at that stage. However the property recorded on this general site in the valuation of 1834 does not appear to match the dimensions of the present and later annotations suggest that that the site was redeveloped between that date and 1859 (when it is recorded in the second valuation). The narrowness of the building and certain interior details suggest the ground floor was formerly a carriage archway; if this was the case then the building could conceivably represent a surviving portion of the property recorded in 1834 valuation- the only difficulty with this is that no gateway is mentioned in the 1834 description.

The occupant in 1859 is recorded as one Peter McAuley, with the property containing a ‘shop, parlour off, 2 rooms [above] and garret’. The next occupant appears to have been a Mary McKinley who is first listed in 1873, then a John McCann (?1874-76), John Higgins (1876-77), Mary-Ann Darragh (1877-87), Mary Russell (1887-88), James Bakewell (1888-1910), John Clarke (1910-21), and Charles Patrick Bakewell (1921-57+).

[*Note on primary sources- Though Ballycastle has its full compliment of valuation books dating back to 1834, the earliest extant valuation plan of the town (indeed the earliest large scale plan) is that dating from 1898. This means that though the first and second valuations (of 1834 and 1859 respectively) present the usual detailed accounts of properties throughout the town, bereft of their contemporary plans it is almost impossible to discover exactly to which buildings the valuers are referring. The writer has circumvented this problem however by adopting the somewhat involved method of reading the records backwards- i.e. taking the more recent (mid 20th century) valuations and tracing each building back from these, using the 1898 map as a marker along the way.]

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
2 OS Memoirs, Parish of Ramoan, 1831-39, reprinted in ‘Ordnance Survey memoirs of Ireland…’ ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Noirin Dobson (Belfast, QUB, 1994), p.92 etc
3 PRONI OS/6/1/8/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sh 8, 1832
4 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish, 1834
5 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
6 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
7 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
8 PRONI OS/6/1/8/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sh 8, 1856
9 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish, 1859
10 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a-g Annual valuation revision books, Ballycastle ED, 1864-1921
11 ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1870)
12 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1898-c.1935
13 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905
14 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a-c Annual valuation revision books, Ballycastle UD, 1921-31
15 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50
16 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
17 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
18 Information supplied by the owner (May 2003)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Very small, (almost vernacular), two storey terrace shop possibly created c.1840 by filling in the carriage gateway of a previous property. The simplicity and small scale nature of this property (compared to its neighbours) adds interest to this side of Ann Street. It is not considered to be of special architectural or historical interest.