Survey Data
Reg No
31201006
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
In Use As
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
Date
1910 - 1915
Coordinates
110672, 337354
Date Recorded
07/03/2011
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey parochial house, built 1911; extant 1917, on a T-shaped plan with single-bay (single-bay deep) two-storey lower central return (west). Refenestrated, ----. Hipped slate roof on a T-shaped plan centred on hipped slate roof (west) with terracotta ridge tiles, paired rendered central chimney stacks on rendered bases having "Cavetto"-detailed corbelled stepped cornices below capping supporting terracotta pots, and cast-iron rainwater goods on "Cyma Recta"- or "Cyma Reversa"-detailed cornice retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls on rendered chamfered plinth with rusticated rendered quoins to corners. Camber-headed central door opening with drag edged tooled cut-limestone step threshold, timber mullions on drag edged tooled cut-limestone padstones supporting timber transom, and concealed dressings having bull nose-detailed reveals framing timber panelled door having sidelights on panelled risers below overlight. Square-headed window opening (first floor) with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sill, Y-mullion, and concealed dressings framing fixed-pane fittings having leaded stained glass panels. Square-headed window openings with drag edged dragged cut-limestone sills, and concealed dressings framing replacement uPVC casement windows replacing two-over-two timber sash windows. Interior including (ground floor): central hall retaining carved timber surrounds to door openings framing timber panelled doors; and carved timber surrounds to door openings to remainder framing timber panelled doors with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set in landscaped grounds with rendered panelled chamfered piers to perimeter having "Cavetto"-detailed curvilinear gabled capping.
Appraisal
A parochial house erected to a design produced (1911) by William Henry Byrne and Son (formed 1902) of Suffolk Street, Dublin (Irish Builder 1910, 317), representing an integral component of the early twentieth-century built heritage of Ballycastle with the architectural value of the composition, one annotated as "Saint Brigid's Parochial House" on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey (surveyed 1917; published 1922), confirmed by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a restrained doorcase; and the diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression with the principal "apartments" or reception rooms defined by Classically-detailed polygonal bay windows. Having been well maintained, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior: the introduction of replacement fittings to most of the openings, however, has not had a beneficial impact on the character or integrity of a parochial house forming part of a neat self-contained group alongside the nearby Saint Brigid's Catholic Church (see 31201005) with the resulting ecclesiastical ensemble making a pleasing visual statement in a rural village street scene.