29-31 Toberwine Street, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0AP

29–31 Toberwine Street, Glenarm

This is a plain two-storey terraced house of probable pre-1832 origin, set on the west side of Toberwine Street. It was once divided into a shop and a dwelling house, but was heavily altered in the later 1980s when the shop front was removed and the property was converted entirely to a dwelling. A large extension was added to the rear at the same time. The building sits within a conservation area but does not meet the statutory criteria for listing and is not considered to be of special architectural or historical interest.

The front (east-facing) façade is symmetrical and finished in painted lined render with in-and-out chamfered quoins and a plinth. At ground floor level, a panelled timber door sits at the centre, with a plain rectangular fanlight above it. To either side is a sash window with Georgian-pattern glazing (six panes over six panes). Both windows are relatively small, and the level of their heads sits approximately 300mm lower than that of the door. At first floor level there are three evenly spaced sash windows of the same type. There is an eaves course projection along the roofline.

To the rear, a recent full-width single-storey lean-to extension has been added. On the left side of this extension is a French window, with modern strip glazing to its right and a single modern window to its left. Two Velux windows are set into the lean-to roof. Above the lean-to, at first-floor level on the rear façade of the main building, there are three unevenly spaced small windows fitted with recent six-pane frames in a Georgian-like style. This section of the rear façade is finished in unpainted roughcast render. Above this, a large recent flat-roofed dormer window with multi-paned glazing projects from the main roof. Both the main gabled roof and the lean-to roof are slated. The building has two brick chimneystacks and PVC rainwater goods.

Historical background

Toberwine Street — whose name translates as "street of the sweet well" — is thought to represent the original area of settlement within the village of Glenarm, its narrowness hinting at 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 courthouse. The castle was deliberately demolished by Sorley Boy MacDonnell in 1597 and apparently not repaired; his descendant Sir Randal McDonnell subsequently built a new residence on the other side of the river. Some historians record that the old castle was occupied by tenants in the later 17th century, implying some form of repair, but Richard Dobbs made no mention of it in his 1683 description of the village. The earliest reference to "Toberwine" in the Antrim Papers appears in a lease of November 1672, with "Toberwine Street" named explicitly in a lease of August 1709. On John O'Hara's 1779 map of Glenarm — the earliest surviving plan of the village — the street is shown fully developed on both sides, with the market and courthouse at its south-west end. No verifiable traces of the old castle are identifiable on the map, though the 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoirs note "the foundations of a very extensive old castle which stood at the centre of the town until a few years ago," suggesting some ruins may have survived into the early 19th century.

Evidence from the 1833 valuation indicates that most of the buildings now visible on the west side of the street were present in some form by that date, and that many were probably of 18th-century origin. The east side of the street saw considerably more development after 1833, with nos. 4–12 dating from around 1840 and nos. 20–34 and 62 from after around 1860 — some of the latter replacing modest single-storey dwellings. The large three-storey former Antrim Arms Hotel, and possibly its neighbour no. 56, may have been standing in the early 1830s, though this is not certain.

History of this property

The site of nos. 29–31 is shown as occupied on John O'Hara's 1779 map and on all subsequent maps. The 1833 valuation records an "old" grade C+ two-storey dwelling on the site, occupied at that time by an Andrew Snoddy. By 1859 two dwellings are recorded, the smaller of which appears to have occupied part of the ground floor only. The 1859 structure was recorded as two and a half feet taller than that of 1833, suggesting either that the roof was raised or that the building was entirely rebuilt. The grade B- awarded by the 1859 valuers may indicate a rebuilt structure, though in some cases such a grade can also reflect an older building that underwent major refurbishment within the preceding twenty years or so. Of possible significance is the fact that the current owner has discovered a loose datestone marked "1802" at the rear of the property.

In the later 19th century, part of the ground floor was converted to a shop and a small shopfront was inserted on the south side. Photographic evidence suggests this shopfront may have appeared as early as the 1870s. It remained in place until around 1987, when the property was refurbished, extended to the rear, and converted wholly back to use as a dwelling house.