6-8 Mill Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey gabled terrace building of possible pre 1830 construction, with shop to ground floor and offices over. The property is set on the west side of Mill Street. To the immediate south is another building of similar size and appearance. Documentary evidence suggests that both formed a single property at some point, but differences in window levels indicates that they were originally separate.

[Note that the front elevation faces east north-east but to simplify the description this will be referred to as east.]

The front façade is asymmetrical. To the left side of the ground floor is a modern timber panelled door with a plain fanlight over. To the right is a modern asymmetric shop front with the entrance door to the left of centre. To the left and right is a plain display window which is chamfered inwards creating a front door recess. The window to the right is larger. The shop door is plain and almost fully glazed. Directly above the shop front is a long (horizontal) box which contains the (retracted) metal roller shutter. Above the ‘shutter box’ is a flat (?plastic) signboard, whilst to the right is a small, internally illuminated, projecting plastic sign.

To the first and second floors are three evenly spaced plain sash windows with moulded cement surrounds. An ogee cast iron gutter rests on top of an eaves course. The front façade is finished in plain render.

To the centre of the rear (west) façade is a large modern two storey gabled return, which almost completely covers the ground and first floors. To the gable of the return there are two modern windows to the ground floor and two to the first floor. The south face of the return has a doorway to the right on the ground floor with a large security shutter hood over. To the first floor of this face there is a single modern window. The N face was not visible. To the second floor of the rear façade of the main section of the building there are two small windows with modern frames (and slim sills). Both the return and the rear façade of the main section of the building are finished in unpainted rough cast.

Main and return roofs are covered with an asbestos ‘slate’. Large sandstone chimney stack to N (presumably shared with No.10 etc.).

Historical information

This section of Mill Street is shown developed on the OS map of 1832. The contemporary valuation returns tell us that at this stage much of the street was occupied with two and three storey shops and houses, but unfortunately the town plan to accompany the valuation is missing, making it very difficult to be certain whether a building matching the dimensions of that described above was in place at this point.

The overall appearance of the property, however, suggests that it could be of pre 1830 construction. This is supported by the OS Memoirs of the mid 1830s which state that Ballymena’s principal streets, (of which Mill Street was one), consisted of mainly 2 and 3 storey houses, ‘built of stone and slated…and…anything but modern in appearance’.

The 1859 plan drawn up for the second valuation shows a single property on the site of the present Nos.2-8, a block containing a house and ‘offices’, (probably a shop or similar business), in the hands of one Archibald Taylor. On the face of it, (and if we assume the building is pre 1830), this would appear to suggest that the block was built as the one property; but the discrepancy in first floor window sill level indicates it was not and that both were simply under the one ownership at this time.

Post 1859 maps show two separate buildings, as today, and a photograph of c.1900 shows that both possessed shop fronts at this stage at least. The properties appear to have remained unaffected by the rebuilding of the town hall in 1924-28, as the new building appears to have kept to the same boundaries as its predecessor (itself largely destroyed by fire in 1919).

Major renovation work was carried out to No.6-8 in 1985 with the façade re-rendered, mouldings added to the front upper floor windows and the roof covering renewed with asbestos ‘slates’. The return, which appears to be entirely modern, may have been added at this stage also, replacing an earlier return which had a much larger footprint.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1B/177 First valuation, Kirkinriola, c.1833
2 ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland- Parishes of Co Antrim VIII’ ed Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB, 1993), pp.96-97 etc.
3 PRONI OS/8/28/1/1-3 OS town plan of Ballymena, 1858-61
4 PRONI OS/9/38/1/1-3 OS town plan of Ballymena, 1858
5 PRONI VAL/2D/1/1 Valuation town plan of Ballymena, 1859
6 PRONI Second valuation, Kirkinriola, c.1859 [in print]
7 PRONI VAL/12E/13/1/1-3 Valuation town plan of Ballymena, 1864 [with annotations of c.1896]
8 PRONI OS/8/28/3/1-6 OS town plan of Ballymena, 1887
9 PRONI VAL/12E/13/2 /1-4 Valuation town plan of Ballymena, 1897 [with annotations of 1907]
10 PRONI OS/8/28/4/1-6 OS town plan of Ballymena, 1905
11 PRONI VAL/12E/13/3/1-6 Valuation town plan of Ballymena, 1907 [with annotations of 1935]
12 PRONI VAL/3G/9/1/1-6 Valuation town plan of Ballymena, 1936-52

Secondary sources
1 ‘Ballymena town hall, 1928, and other aspects of civic history, ed. Eull Dunlop (Braid Books, 1984)
2 ‘Ballymena- No mean town’ ed. Jack Adams (Adams Enterprises, Ballymena, 1984) [This book is a compilation of early photographs of the town, including some of Mill Street.]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three storey gabled terrace building of possible pre 1830 construction, with shop to ground floor and offices over. The shop has a modern front and to the rear there is a large two storey return which appears to be a recent replacement. The mouldings to the upper floor windows were added in 1985.