28 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace two-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1760. Rectangular on plan facing west lining the east side of Main Street, Hillsborough with lower two-storey return and large rear garden.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles, redbrick chimneystack to north and cast-iron rainwater goods on iron brackets to brick eaves course. Painted rough-cast rendered walling, battered to the front elevation with plain render quoins. Rubblestone to north gable wall rising above neighbouring house. Square-headed window openings with smooth render surrounds, painted masonry sills and original early timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and historic glass.

Front west elevation is four windows wide with square-headed door opening to the right having smooth render surround and original vertically-sheeted timber door with brass furniture, rectangular overlight and opening onto single concrete step. 9/6 windows to the first floor, 9/9 to the ground floor.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.24 (HB19/05/012).

Rear elevation has a catslide roof to a stairhall projection with the remainder of the facade abutted by a gable-fronted two-storey return and a modern timber-frame conservatory to the re-entrant angle. Rough-cast render walling with original timber sash windows and concrete sills to the return.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.30 (HB19/05/013B).

Setting:
Part of a pair of interlocking houses and set among a terrace of varying dates and scale lining the east side of the main street of Hillsborough as it rises to meet The Square.Original large rear garden extends to East.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron / plastic
Walling Rough-cast render
Windows Original timber sash

Historical information

This house (along with No. 30) is one of the earliest constructed Georgian townhouses situated on Main Street which was greatly modified to its current layout between the late 18th and early 19th century. The deeds of the house record that the building was constructed in 1769; No. 28 Main Street later appears on a c. 1800 map of Hillsborough where it is depicted as an oblong building possessing two large office buildings in the yard; in 1800 nos. 28 and 30 Main Street appear to have been a single property owned by a Mr. McPherson. At that time the house was valued at £10 and was later occupied by a Mr. Mark Blythe in the Townland Valuation (c. 1830s). The Townland Valuation map and first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows that the two out offices at the rear of the building were replaced by the 1830s with a coach house which is now included in the property of No. 30 Main Street (HB 19/05/013B).

Between c. 1830 and 1861 nos. 28 and 30 Main Street became separate properties; Griffith's Valuation records that in 1861 No. 28 was let by the Rev. James Moorhead to a Miss Jane E. Clarke at annual rent of £12. The valuer described No. 28 as a 1B- class two-storey building which measured ten by seven yards and was valued at £11. The valuer also tells us that the current two-storey rear return of the house had been constructed by 1861 along with a rear outbuilding which has since been taken down and does not appear on later editions of the Ordnance Survey map. Jane Clarke occupied the house until 1869 when the building came into the possession of a Mr. John [McGroody]; in 1885 a Ms. Mary Jane Patterson came into possession of the house and resided there until her death in 1917 (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 26/07/1917). The 1901 Census tells us that Mary Jane Patterson (30) lived at No. 28 Main Street with her sisters and that they were employed as dressmakers. The census building return describes the house as a 1st class dwelling which consisted of eight rooms and possessed a stable and barn as its only outbuildings (both of which have since been taken down). Mary Jane Patterson died in 1917 after which time the house once again passed between a number of occupants until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

A previous owner of No. 28 possessed the original deeds to the property which date it and the adjoining No. 30 to 1769. During the late 20th century this property was used as commercial premises but is now chiefly used as a private dwelling. Nos. 28 and 30 Main Street were listed in 1976; in 1974 Brett described this building as a ‘fine two-storey building ... the windows now altered ... the rough cast very dreary’ (Brett, p. 20). The rough cast render has since been repainted much improving the houses appearance; a conservatory has also been added to the rear of the house.

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
15. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1917)
16. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

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 First Survey Card – HB 19/05/013A (1975)
4. NIEA File – HB19/05/013A.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Mid-terrace two-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1760 located on the east side of Main Street, Hillsborough. The battered wall and early windows to this house provide one of the more impressive and intact elevations on the Main Street. Retaining much of its interior, some of which was inserted during the late twentieth-century when in use as a commercial premises, it was originally constructed as part of a pair with its neighbouring house at No. 30 Main St.(HB19/05/013B). Still retaining its original long rear garden to the east, it represents one of the better preserved early Georgian townhouses in Hillsborough and constitutes an important part of the heritage of the Lisburn area.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB19/05/013
Listing Criteria R, S & T also apply.