50 Toberwine Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Plain, two storey stuccoed terrace house of perhaps c.1840, possibly originally built as a police barracks. The property is set on the E side of Toberwine Street.

The front elevation faces roughly W and is asymmetrical. Slightly to the left of centre of the ground floor is a panelled door with a four-pane rectangular fanlight over. To either side of the doorway is a sash window with horizontal glazing bars (2/2) with three similar windows to the first floor. The windows have moulded reveals. The front façade is finished in plain render and painted

To the right side of the rear E elevation is a long two storey return which has a mono-pitch roof. The E face of the return abuts a small single storey outbuilding/shed while the upper section is blank. The N face is the boundary wall to the rear yard of no.48 Toberwine Street and is blank. To the left of the ground floor of the S face there is a small fixed light window; to the right of this is a timber sheeted door while to the further right is a second timber sheeted door and to the far right is a now boarded over window opening. To the first floor are three unevenly spaced large casement windows; that to the far left is slightly wider than the remaining two. Much of the ground floor is comprised of storerooms. To the centre of the ground floor of the rear elevation of the main section of the building is a modern half glazed door; to the left is a plain fixed light window; to the right is a plain sash window. To the first floor there are two plain sash windows. Rising from the right of centre of the eaves is a large gabled half-dormer within which is a semicircular arch headed window opening with a modern frame. The gable has plain barges. The rear elevation is finished in painted rough cast.

The main gabled roof is slated and has two small cast iron skylights to the rear. There are two rendered chimneystacks. The roof covering of the two storey return could not be seen. Cast iron rw goods.

To the S side of the rear yard is a large single storey gabled outbuilding; this is set close to (but free standing from) the main rear elevation. This may have been a cell house (dating from the properties from police barrack function). Cast iron rw goods and roughcast render.

Historical information

TOBERWINE STREET
Toberwine Street (‘Street of the ‘sweet well’) may represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm, its narrowness betraying something of its antiquity. The original 13th century castle of Glenarm, around which the village developed, is believed to have stood at the south west corner of the street, on the site now occupied by the former court house. The castle itself was deliberately ‘broken’ by Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1597 and, seemingly, not repaired- Sorley’s descendant, Sir Randal McDonnell, building a new residence on the other side of the river. Some historians state that the old castle was occupied by tenants (and therefore presumably repaired in some fashion), in the later 17th century, but Richard Dobbs makes no reference to it in his 1683 description of the village.

The first mention of ‘Toberwine’ within the Antrim Papers appears to be in a lease of November 1672, which refers to a house within the area, with ‘Toberwine Street’ mentioned in a lease of August 1709. On John O’Hara’s 1779 map of Glenarm (the earliest extant plan of the village) the street is shown fully developed on both sides, with the market / court house to the south west end. There is no verifiable indication of any remains of the old castle shown on the map, but the remark made in the 1835 OS Memoirs concerning ‘the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago’ indicates that ruins of some kind may have lingered into the early 19th century.

Evidence provided by the valuation of 1833 suggests that most of the buildings we now see on the west side of the street were present (in some form) at that date and that many were probably 18th century. The east side of the street witnessed a much greater degree of development after 1833 however, with nos.4-12 all c.1840, and nos.14, 20-34, 40-42 and 62 post c.1860- some of the latter replacing modest single storey dwellings. There is evidence to suggest that large three storey former Antrim Arms Hotel (and possibly its neighbour no.56) may have been standing in the early 1830s, but this is not certain.

No.50
A building/s is shown on this site on John O’Hara’s map of 1779 and all others thereafter. A relatively newly constructed building matching the dimensions of the present is recorded in the valuation of 1859. Like its two immediate neighbours to the north (the present nos.44-46 and 48) it is possible that this property was built in c.1840. In 1859 the property was serving as the local constabulary barracks (it may have been built as such), with the single storey outbuilding to the rear probably acting as a cell house.

The building appears to have remained as the local barracks until c.1900, when the police moved to a property a few doors down (the present no.56). After this no.62 became a private dwelling.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.2977/3A/4/65/2, 30, 34A, 36, 37A-B, 43-45, 70A-B etc. Antrim Papers Leases relating to property in ‘Toberwine’ / Toberwine Street, 1672, 1709, 1736/7, 1753 etc.
2 PRONI D.2977/36/3/1A Antrim Papers Map, showing the Town of Glenarm, plus Glenarm Castle and demesne, by John O'Hara, 1779. [Includes a list of the tenants in Glenarm town.]
3 Ulster Museum A view of Glenarm Castle (painting dating from some time between 1768 and 1812) [This painting also shows the town itself.]
4 View of Glenarm c.1769-c.1812 (painting in possession of Lord Dunluce)
5 “The town and castle of Glenarm, Co. Antrim” [1830] by T.M. Baynes in ‘Ireland illustrated’ (London 1831)
6 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland…’ vol.13 [c.1830-35] ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1992), p.127
7 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33
8 PRONI VAL/1B/149 First valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1833 [The map to accompany this valuation is now lost making it extremely difficult, (and in most cases impossible), to tell which properties the valuation book is actually referring to. In some cases (most notably the west side of Toberwine Street) the writer has been able to successfully correlate the information contained within the second valuation notebook for 1859 with that of the first valuation, in order to decipher some of the details contained within the latter, but for most properties within Glenarm this has not been possible.]
9 Samuel Lewis, ‘A topographical dictionary of Ireland’ vol.1 (London 1837), p.658
10 William Makepeace Thackery, ‘Irish sketchbook’ (1843), p.238
11 Mrs and Mrs S.C. Hall, ‘Ireland: Its scenery, character etc., vol.III (London 1843), p.130
12 PRONI VAL/2D/1/11 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1859 [with later annotations- ?c.1900]
13 PRONI VAL/2B/1/41B Second valuation [notebook], village of Glenarm, 1859 [In the light of the problems concerning the first valuation this notebook and its accompanying map are both invaluable. For many areas the details of the second valuation only survive in the final printed form, with the names of householders and leaseholders and the rateable value for each property supplied only. For some areas, Glenarm among them, the working notebooks compiled by the valuers have survived, providing information such as dimensions of buildings, their use, the number of rooms they contain, notes on age and condition, and, (occasionally), comments regarding the overall appearance of properties. In many respect these notebooks closely resemble those of the first valuation, but frequently contain more detail.]
14 PRONI OS/8/103/1 OS town plan of Glenarm, 1903
15 PRONI VAL/12E/31/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm, 1907-[1935]
16 PRONI VAL/3G/20/1 Valuation town plan of Glenarm. 1936-57

Secondary sources
1 C.E.B. Brett, ‘Historic buildings…Glens of Antrim’ (Belfast 1971), p.16
2 Eileen Black, “A view of Glenarm Castle” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.7 (1979), pp.29-30
3 Jimmie Irvine, “A map of Glenarm- 1779” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.9 (1981), pp.52-61
4 Hon. Hector McDonnell, “The building of the parish church at Glenarm” in ‘The Glynns- Journal of The Glens of Antrim Historical Society’ vol.10 (1982), pp.31-36
5 Felix McKillop, ‘Glenarm- A local history’ (Glenarm 1987)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Plain, two storey stuccoed terrace house of perhaps c.1840, probably originally built as a police barracks. To the rear there is a long two storey return which appears to be largely original, whilst just to the south of this is a large single storey free-standing outbuilding, which may have originally been a cell house. Sufficient detail and character survives to merit listing at the B1 grade.