35-37 Castle Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain two-storey terrace block containing two houses, built in 1877-78, with a flat-roofed two-storey return of 1907. The block is set on the south side of Castle Street, to the west of Ballycastle town centre.

The asymmetrical front elevation faces N. To the left of centre is a flat-arch doorway, (to No.37), with moulded surround and a timber door whose glazed panel is now boarded over. To the right is a similar doorway whose opening has been boarded up. To the right of this there is a square-ish flat arch window with a modern timber frame (this window opening looks to have been altered). To the far left is a segmental-arched carriage entrance, with timber double door. To the first floor there are four unevenly-spaced flat-arch windows with moulded surrounds. The two windows to left have timber sash frames with horns and plate glass. The two windows to left have modern timber frames. The front façade is finished in painted render. There is a recently added projecting street lamp to the first floor, between the second and third windows.

The rear elevation, to the left (W) of the carriage arch is a large L-plan two-storey flat-roofed extension. This could not be seen in its entirety, but there is a small boarded over window to the right on the ground floor of the S face and a large window to both floors on the E face, with that to the ground floor boarded up and a modern timber frame to that to the first floor. To the rear elevation of the main section of the building there is the back end of the carriage arch to the ground floor with a window, to the first floor, with a modern timber frame. Within the carriage archway there is a window to the W wall (its frame could not be seen clearly). The extension is finished in painted render, with the main section finished in dry dash and the walls within the carriage archway whitewashed rubble.

The gabled roof of the main section has a relatively high pitch and is covered in artificial ‘slate’. The roof of the extension appears to be covered in asphalt. There is a small rendered ridge chimneystack to the right of centre on the roof of the main section, with a tall rendered chimneystack to the S side of the roof of the extension. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast-iron and PVCu.

Historical information

The first valuation of January 1835* records an old, (probably mid 18th century), house on this site, occupied by a Daniel McLean and measuring 32ft x 23½ x 12, with a thatched outbuilding to the rear of 20 x 17 x 5 ½. This property was exempt from rating, suggesting it may not have been in particularly good condition. By 1859 the house had passed to a Michael Higgins, who was leasing it directly from the Boyd estate. The valuers describe the building at this point as a ‘low house in very bad repair’ containing ‘eight small rooms’.

In 1878 the valuation revision book notes two dwellings on the site, suggesting that the present properties were either built new or the old structure radically remodelled / extended in this year or shortly before. Whether the fabric of the old building was indeed entirely replaced is not certain. The valuers usually use the phrase ‘house down’ for something that has been totally demolished, however the current appearance of the building, and the fact that it now contains two properties, indicates a rebuild.

The tenants of the new houses of 1878 are listed as the leaseholder Michael Higgins, (in the house to the west- present no.35), and John McAuley (in the present No.35). McAuley was followed by a quick succession of tenants, including a John McGrath, William Glass and John Higgins, before the property passed to a Charles McKay in 1884. Michael Higgins occupied the western house until 1885, when it too then witnessed a quick turnover of tenants- William and John [?Harman] (to 1891), John Mitchell (1891-95), John McGuckin (1895-96), Daniel Grant (1896-97), and Jane McCormick (1897-98).

In 1898 the valuers note the appearance of a new, (and presumably freestanding), ‘house in rear’, measuring 16ft x 20 x 9 and built of ‘rubble masonry’ with an ‘iron’ -undoubtedly corrugated iron- roof. The leaseholder Michael Higgins lived within this new dwelling for a year, moving to the present no.37 the following year. In the same year the lease of no.37 itself was taken up by a Robert Colgan, with that of No.35 taken up by a Charles Kane. Robert Colgan himself had become the tenant of No.35 by this date also, his family remaining there until 1935. No.37, in contrast witnessed another quick succession of residents including Anne McKinley (1901-02), Samuel Douthard (1902-03), Hugh Mitchell (1903-05), Henry Kane (1905-07), with the leaseholder, Charles Kane, recorded as resident between 1907 and 1925 Charles Kane added the extension and carried out ‘alterations’ to No.37 in 1907. The extension, incidentally, appears to have been flat-roofed from the beginning, for the valuers specificially refer to it has being covered in Vulcanite. The house to the rear is listed as vacant from c.1900 to 1905, after which time it was home to a William Chestnutt, only to become vacant again in 1912, and disappear from the valuations entirely two years later.

In 1925 the leases of No.35 and No.37 were acquired (?or passed to) the Ramoan Parish Church Committee,who retained them until 1958, when it was acquired by William Smyth, and was still holding it in 1972. No.35 was occupied by the Watson family after the Colgans left in 1935, with members of the family also resident in No.37 from 1940 to 1956. No.35 is listed as vacant between 1963 and 1972, with a Robert Anderson occupying No.37 from c.1957 until at least 1972.

Both properties were sold in mid 2004, and at the time of writing (October 2004) both are vacant.

[*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 which buildings the valuers are referring. The writer has circumvented this problem however by adopting the somewhat involving 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 Taylor, George, and Skinner, Andrew, ‘Taylor and Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland, surveyed 1777’ (Dublin, 1778), Map 20 etc.
2 Linen Hall Library, Belfast, ‘A Map of County Antrim…by J. Lendrick’ (1780)
3 ‘Pigot & Co’s City of Dublin and Hibernian Commercial Directory (Manchester 1824)
4 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
5 PRONI OS/6/1/8/1 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1832)
6 PRONI VAL/1B/135 First valuation, Ramoan parish (1834)
7 Lewis, Samuel, ‘Topographical history of Ireland’ (London, 1837)
8 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1846)
9 ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1856)
10 PRONI OS/6/1/8/2 OS map, Co Antrim, sheet 8 (1856)
11 PRONI VAL/2B/1/28c Second valuation, Ramoan parish (1859)
12 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1862-64)
13 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1865-76)
14 Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland (Manchester, 1870)
15 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1876-84)
16 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3d Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1884-93)
17 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3e Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1892/3-98)
18 Bassett, George Henry, ‘The Book of County Antrim’ (Dublin, 1888), pp.92-102
19 PRONI VAL/12A/1/20 p.3 Valuers’ office notebook, Ballycastle Union (1898)
20 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3f Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1898-1907)
21 PRONI VAL/12E/8/1/1-3 Valuation plans of Ballycastle (1898-c.1935)
22 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ (Belfast, 1905)
23 PRONI VAL/12E/8/2/1 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, c.1905
24 PRONI VAL/12A/1/23 p.5 Valuers’ office notebook, Ballycastle Union (1907)
25 PRONI VAL/12B/2/3g Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle ED (1908-21)
26 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5a Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North and South Wards (1921-27)
27 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5b Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD North Ward (1927-30)
28 PRONI VAL/12B/2/5c Annual valuation revision book, Ballycastle UD South Ward (1927-30)
29 PRONI VAL/3G/6/1/1-3 Valuation plan of Ballycastle, 1934-50
30 PRONI VAL/3B/1/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD, 1935
31 PRONI VAL/3C/1/6 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, 1936-57
32 PRONI VAL/4B/1/12 Second General Revaluation of Northern Ireland, Ballycastle UD (1956-72)

Secondary sources
1 Brett, C.E.B., ‘Historic Buildings…The Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast, 1971), p.47
2 Information supplied by the owner (September 2004)

Other
references
1 EHS HB05/15/003 First Survey report (12 October 1972)
2 EHS HB05/15/003 Photograph (?1972)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Plain two-storey block containing two houses, built in 1877-78