5 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace two-storey over basement with attic-storey redbrick house, built c.1820, with integrated carriage arch. Irregular on plan, facing east terminating a terrace of varied houses lining the west side of Main Street Hillsborough.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles and rebuilt redbrick chimneystack with terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to stepped redbrick eaves course and cast-iron downpipe. Redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing, rendered to side and rear elevations. Square-headed window openings with smooth rendered surrounds, brick jack arches, painted masonry sills and timber sash windows with cylinder and horticultural glass.

Front east elevation, two windows wide with integrated three-centred carriage arch to the south bay and railed basement area. Ground floor window and door openings below voussoired brick flat-arch remaining from an earlier commercial shopfront. Round-headed door opening with deep moulded architrave surround, impost mouldings and containing a four-panelled timber door with brass furniture and webbed timber fanlight with original glazing. Door opens onto paved platform bridging basement enclosed by original cast-iron railings embedded into low sandstone plinth wall. Original vertically-sheeted double-leaf doors to carriage arch with cement and stone paving.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.7 (HB19/05/017).

Rear west elevation, three windows wide, with carriage arch opening sloping to basement level. Painted rendered walling with a double-height round-headed stairhall window opening having original multi-pane timber glazing. 6/6 timber sash windows to all windows except 8/8 to the basement window. Segmental-headed door opening at basement level with deep moulded surround and glazed panelled timber door with replacement console brackets, lintel cornice and original spoked fanlight.
Blank painted rendered north gable fronting onto public paved area in front of park.

Setting:
Terminating the north end of a terrace of varying house types lining the west side of Main Street. The rear of the house opens onto a paved rear terrace overlooking an extensively landscaped rear plot enclosed by tall rubblestone wall to the north boundary. Small narrow modern single storey lean-to extension with natural slate roof attached to rear west elevation and lining original north boundary wall.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Redbrick / rendered
Windows 8/8 and 6/6 timber sash windows

Historical information

No. 5 Main Street first appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map for Hillsborough where it is depicted as a square building situated at the bottom of Main Street. The Ordnance Survey and Townland Valuation maps show us that in the 1830s No. 5 Main Street was a terraced house situated between No. 7 Main Street and Hillsborough’s Old Brewery (which was taken down in 1873). A large oblong out office is visible on the maps situated to the rear of the house, however by the second Ordnance Survey map in 1858 this out office been taken down. The Townland Valuation tells us that the house was valued at £10. and occupied by Mr. William Gibson.

Griffith’s Valuation records that the house was used as part of the Hillsborough Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks in 1861. It is likely that this building was used as a residence for serving officers; William Gibson being noted as the Head Constable of the village in 1861. The Police Barracks occupied Nos. 5 and 7 Main Street which were let by a Mr. Hercules Bradshaw. Bradshaw was a magistrate at Hillsborough and owned a Distillery and large house in Culcavy. He owned a number of properties in Hillsborough. In 1861 No. 5 Main Street was jointly valued with the Barracks at £35; annual rent of £40. was paid to Bradshaw. The valuer recorded the house as a 1B class building measuring nine by nine yards and two-storeys high; the valuer also notes that the building possessed a coach arch and lane and a basement level.

In 1863 a Ms. Mary Anne Moorhead came into ownership of the smaller No. 5 Main Street after the death of Hercules Bradshaw. The building continued to be used as part of the Barracks until 1st January 1877 when it was converted into a dwelling valued at £9. 5s. The first occupant of the house, a Mr. Hugh Davis, occupied the house in 1878 and resided there until a Mr James Toland came into possession in 1885. In that year the Marquis of Downshire purchased the house from Mary Anne Moorhead and was recorded as the landlord until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. No. 5 Main Street fell vacant between 1887 and 1892 before being occupied by a Mr. James Crawford. Census records tell us that the house was still occupied by police constables between 1901 and 1911. The 1901 census records that Crawford (69) was a retired R.I.C. officer who lived at No. 5 with his wife Margaret (74). The census records the house as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of seven or eight inhabited rooms. Crawford occupied the house until 1910 when another police constable, Archibald Wilson (40) moved into the house with his family. Archibald Wilson resided at the house until 1913 when the occupant is noted as a Mrs. Elizabeth Walker, probably the wife (or widow) of Sergeant Walker who worked in the R.I.C. Barracks in 1910 (Ulster Towns Directory). The final recorded resident was a Mr. James Howard who lived in No. 5 Main Street from 1918 until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Walker states that the house was almost certainly built at the same time as the Barracks but that both were probably built on the foundations of earlier 17th century houses as ‘the building material changes from brick to stone beneath the level of the railings, indicating that the street level in this area was raised substantially at some stage’ (Walker). Field research suggests that this particular building was constructed sometime between 1820 and 1839 and was originally the residence of the Brewery Manager. In 1980 the owners of No. 5 Main Street claimed that the fan-light at the rear entrance of the house was salvaged from Cherryvale House on the Ravenhill Road in Belfast when it was demolished (NIEA File). In 1976 Brett described the house as ‘lower two-storey brick, similar wide windows but in simple architraves with brick coach arch.’ The former barracks was listed in 1976 and was renovated in 1980. At some stage in the mid-20th century a shop front was added to the house; it has since been removed and the original façade style of the house has been restored.

Since its listing the house has been repeatedly repaired and restored in 1985, 1995 and most recently in 2008 when the windows were renovated.

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. Ulster Towns Directory (1910).

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 – HB19/05/016.

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

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

End of terrace two-storey over basement with attic-storey redbrick house, built c.1820, with integrated carriage arch. Irregular on plan, facing east terminating a terrace of varied houses lining the west side of Main Street Hillsborough. Restored over the last twenty years, a previous 20th century shopfront has been removed and the original 19th century front elevation re-instated. Retaining some original internal features It has interesting historical connections with its neighbouring no. 7 Main St.(HB19/05/017), as both houses operated as a Police Barracks during 19th century. Well proportioned and detailed and terminating the lower end of a prominent historic terrace it is a significant historic building in Hillsborough.