14 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace two-bay two-storey over basement with attic, mid - eighteenth-century rendered former house, formerly a single house with No.12 (HB19/05/008A). Rectangular on plan facing west with railed front and rear basement areas. Renovated c.2000 with the rear plot developed for residential use.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, redbrick chimneystack to the south and flat-roofed dormer windows to the rear pitch. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to moulded masonry eaves course. Painted pebble-dash rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins to the south only, smooth rendered to the basement level and rear elevation. Square-headed window openings with smooth rendered surrounds, painted masonry sills and 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes.

Front west elevation is four windows wide with the north two bays and entrance to a shallow breakfront beneath single eaves level and shared with adjoining house. Round-headed door opening with smooth rendered surround, replacement timber panelled and glazed door with original webbed timber fanlight over. Door opens onto single concrete step flanked by decorative cast-iron railings on low plinth wall enclosing basement area with iron supporting brackets. Clay riles to basement area with slightly battered walls.

North elevation abutted by No.12 (HB19/05/008A).

Rear elevation is three windows wide with mid twentieth-century flat-roofed dormer window spanning entire elevation and a rear railed basement area accessed via flight of granite steps to the north. UPVC windows to dormer, original 6/6 timber sash windows to first floor and replacement timber casement windows to the ground floor and basement. Timber glazed door to basement level opens onto stone flagged basement area enclosed by retaining wall with stone coping and simple iron railing.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.16 (HB19/05/009).

Setting:
Previously forming one large house with No.12 on the east side of Main Street facing west on a steep incline of the street.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Pebble-dash render
Windows 6/6 timber sash

Historical information

No. 14 Main Street first appears on a map of Hillsborough dating from c.1800, where it is shown as a rectangular building situated half way up the east side of Main Street. At that time it was a single property with No. 14 Main Street (HB 19/05/008A) and both were owned, or occupied, by a Mr. Bradshaw. The first Ordnance Survey map (1833) and the contemporary Townland Valuation map depict a large L-shaped out office to the rear of the house in the 1830s. The Townland Valuation records that a Mr. William Nash occupied the house which was valued at £11.

For a time the house lay vacant until Mr. James A. Vaughan, a local accountant, purchased a lease in 1861 from the Marquis of Downshire at £20 per annum. In that year Griffith’s Valuation recorded the house as a 1B class dwelling measuring 11 yds by 5 yds and two-storeys high, with a basement level. The house and its offices were valued at £14 which was upheld until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. Vaughan occupied No. 14 Main Street until 1874 when a Mr. W. P. Williams came into possession of the house. Over the next few decades a large number of occupants are recorded. The most famous occupants of the house were the Harty family whose son Hamilton Harty went on to become one of the most distinguished conductors and composers ever produced in Ireland. Hamilton Harty’s father William Harty is recorded as the occupant of the house from 1880 until around 1889 when he moved his family to the Church Organists house on 25 Ballynahinch Street (HB19/05/046). In 1901 census records tell us that Joseph Lockhart (44), a local Solicitor, occupied the house with his wife Annie (29) and his daughter Annie (2). The building return records No. 14 Main Street as a 1st class dwelling consisting of at least seven inhabited rooms and possessing four out offices which were situated at the rear of the yard. Lockhart occupied the house from 1890 to 1906; in 1913 a Land Agent Clerk called Charles W. McNulty briefly resided in the house until he was replaced in 1920 by Joseph Thompson a former soldier with the 14th Royal Lancers who fought in France during the First World War. In 1926 the house was occupied by a Mr. Richard McIlwaine who lived at No. 14 until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Field research supports a mid - eighteenth date of construction, a period during which much of Main Street was being altered from earlier thatched buildings to the current Georgian Townhouses. Walker states that the only interesting thing about this house is that it was the birth place of Sir Hamilton Harty (Walker). In 1974 Brett described Nos. 12 and 14 Main Street as ‘two houses under a single roof ... two-storey with masked basement, coach arch, round-headed doorcases with simple fanlights; very well painted and restored.’ At that time the house had recently been damaged by a runaway lorry travelling down Main Street; however the house has since been well restored (Brett, p. 20). From as early as 1983 the building had been used as a photographer’s studio (‘David Graham Studio’), however at the time of writing No. 14 Main Street is currently let as offices (NIEA File). Since being converted into offices, few original features remain in the house. The outbuildings built at the rear of the house on the Ordnance Survey maps have since been taken down and a separate modern house has been built behind No. 14.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI D671/M/8/25 – Hillsborough Map c.1800
2. PRONI D671/M/8/57/1 – Hillsborough Illustrated Map 1803
3. PRONI VAL/1/B/344 A-B – Townland Valuations 1834
4. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/5 – Town Plan 1834
5. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
6. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858
7. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903
8. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
9. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974.
2. Walker, S., ‘Hillsborough: An illustrated history and companion’ Belfast: Cottage Publications, 1994).
3. NIEA File – HB19/05/008B.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A mid-terrace two-bay two-storey over basement with attic, mid - eighteenth century rendered former house, formerly a single house with No.12 (HB19/05/008A). The house retains its original facade composition, albeit slightly altered in the division of the original large house. The interior has been extensively renovated with the loss and replacement of much original fabric but retains its original stair, some original panelled window linings and early roof timbers. It has group value with No 12 and taken together, this early structure constitutes the most substantial building on Main Street. It has historical connections to the famous Irish composer and conductor, Sir Hamilton Harty and contributes significantly to the heritage of Hillsborough.

General comments

This record has been renumbered. It was previously included in HB19/05/008. This record has now been split.