58 High Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey gabled house comprising a long rectangular main block with a large two-storey half octagonal canted projection to the east containing the main entrance.

Entrance elevation: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with dark toned ridge tiles, between gable copings. Three chimneys, one on each end gable and one centrally positioned on the main ridge: smooth cement rendered with plain block cornices; one black pot to each chimney. Moulded gutters, look like cast iron; no downpipes fitted.
Walling is rendered with a wet dash of crushed stones, on a recessed plinth with keyed finish, except for walling at left-hand end bay where there is an outbuilding separate from the main house interiors but with continuous roof and wall planes; walling of outbuilding bay is of rubble stonework lightly coated in cement wash. Main house has one window bay to the right of the entrance bay, and is two windows wide to the left of it, with further unglazed window openings in the end bay to the left. Windows are rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents set in slightly raised smooth cement rendered surrounds, with thin modern concrete cills. One window to each floor in angled faces of entrance bay to each side of entrance.
End bay to south has one open window opening to first floor containing part of a derelict previous window frame; one open window opening to ground floor with a partly blocked-up doorway opening to the left.
The canted projection has a hipped roof, slated as previous, with metal flashings to ridges; entrance bay surmounted by a chimney, rendered as previous, with one black pot. Main entrance in ground floor of front bay is a rectangular opening set in a slightly raised smooth rendered surround which has a pedimental top; temporary flush timber door, not full size, fixed in position.

South gable: blank wall of basalt rubble and fieldstones, with some limestone included, surmounted by a chimney at apex; chimney of concrete blockwork unrendered to south side.

Rear elevation: main house four windows wide to first floor, with one further opening in the end bay to the right; modern gabled single storey projection at right-hand end of main house portion.
Roof of main block slated as previous; moulded gutter as previous; wall cement rendered with keyed finish; end bay to right is of basalt rubble and fieldstones, partly whitened, with some brickwork and fireclay dressings to an open doorway; old doorway lintel of timber.
Windows of main house are as previous to entrance front, but most are boarded up.
Part of rear wall is broken open to reveal original large boulder core.
Later rear return is of modern rectangular blockwork with low pitched slated roof; timber eaves boards; return is unfinished and large rectangular picture window to gable and rectangular doorway in north side lie open.

North gable: wall rendered as previous to entrance front, with smooth rendered chimney to apex; two windows to ground floor and one to attic with similar surrounds to previous but ground floor windows boarded up and attic window open and unglazed.

SETTING: The building stands within the built-up area of the village facing onto High Street; the doorway in the entrance bay opens directly onto the road, without pavement, but the main block is set back from it with a small roughly grassed open patch in the angle to the north of the entrance bay, and a small garden to the left of the entrance bay, bounded to the south by the gable of an adjoining house, and to the front by a stone wall, described below; front garden overgrown.
To the rear is a roughly grassed plot with a yard area to the north side of the house, approached by a gateway between the north gable and the front boundary wall to the side yard area; a temporary tubular steel gate closes the opening.
North boundary formed by a concrete post and wire fence; rear boundary formed by modern timber palisading on a concrete block base; south boundary at rear formed by a basalt fieldstone and limestone rubble wall, overgrown with creeper.

FRONT BOUNDARY WALLING: To front garden of house, to south of main entrance, the wall consists of basalt fieldstones and rubble and limestone rubble, roughly covered with old lime render; some coping stones of basalt fieldstones still remain; wall ramps up at north end to a concrete post, and steps up at the south end where it curves back to abut the neighbouring house. To the front of the side yard at the north of the house, the wall consists of rubble masonry containing basalt, limestone, concrete and what looks like green schist, roughly lime rendered; large square rubble pier at north end, next to house, with truncated pyramidal roof of basalt fieldstones on slate courses.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but it appears on the OS map of 1832 and probably dates from the mid-18th century. Occupied in the late 18th century by Philip Gibbons, a sea captain who married the daughter of the Earl of Antrim's agent in Glenarm c 1788, settled in Carnlough, and built a small stone quay or pier just north of the village; he died in 1815. The house was recorded in the first survey in 1970 as being badly run down; repair work undertaken during the early 1990s.

In the first survey in 1970 it was described as having harled and whitened stone walls, a rectangular fanlight with patterned glazing bars, and sashed windows with full glazing bars; the windows were sashed 6 over 6.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 25.
Secondary Sources
1. UAHS, Glens of Antrim (Belfast, 1971), pp 20 and 21.
2. DOE (NI) Carnlough Conservation Area (1981).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This is a house which dates from at least as early as the 18th century which has lost some of its original features in the course of refurbishment, with a consequent loss of original architectural character, but it still stands as a structure of local historical interest.