17 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced single-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1820 as part of a pair with No.15 (HB19/05/021A). Rectangular on plan with gable-ended two-storey brick extension abutting rear elevation, built c.1980.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and rebuilt brown brick chimneystack with terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipe. Painted rendered walling, machine-made redbrick walling to rear. Square-headed window openings with replacement 6/6 timber sash windows, exposed sash boxes and concrete sills; timber casement windows to rear.

Front east elevation has a pair of window openings to each level on a shared concrete sill. Square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled door opening onto a concrete step to the pavement.

South side elevation abutted by No.19 (HB19/05/022). Carriage arch to No.19 reveals lime-washed rubblestone walling.

West rear elevation abutted by gable-ended two-storey extension with lean-to glazed porch.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining building No.15 (HB19/05/021A).

Setting:
Part of a terrace of buildings of various dates and styles lining the west side of Main Street. Gravel rear yard shared with No.15 & No.19.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted render
Windows Replacement timber sash

Historical information

No. 17 Main Street appears on the first Ordnance Survey map for Hillsborough (1833) as small building, forming part of a terrace extending from No. 23 to the bottom of Main Street. An early map of Hillsborough (c. 1800) shows that Nos. 13 to 19 Main Street were constructed between 1800 and 1833 on former ‘wasteland.’ The Townland Valuation plan of Hillsborough depicted it as a small square building lacking accompanying out offices. The Townland Valuation recorded a Mr. Alexander Logan as the occupant of the house which was valued at £4. 12s.

In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation recorded the owner of No. 17 as Thomas Scott, a retired Merchant who also owned the adjoining No. 15 Main Street and later also owned No. 19. Thomas Scott let the house in 1861 to a Mr. John Whatley at £8. rent. The valuer recorded No. 17 Main Street as a 1B- class dwelling measuring five by seven yards; the house was two-storeys high and valued at £6. In 1864 the house was occupied by a Mr. William Crofts and between that year and the end of the Annual Revision in 1930 the house was occupied by a large number of people. Thomas Scott’s will tells us that he died on 17 November 1890 and left Nos. 15, 17 and 19 Main Street with effects of £339. 15s. 6d. to a Francis Scott (either his son or brother) (PRONI Wills – 03/12/1890).

Census records tell us that in 1901 No. 17 Main Street was occupied by Edward Wilson (24), a local Grocer, and his wife Frances (25). At that time the landholder of the house was recorded as the Marquis of Downshire; the house being noted as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of three or four inhabited rooms. In 1911 the house was occupied by a Mr. Thomas Moore (67), an agricultural labourer who lived there with his wife Sarah (72); Moore later moved into the adjoining No 15 in 1913. In 1916 the house was revalued at £4. after it had been bought by a Mr. David Donaldson. A large number of occupants resided in No. 17 Main Street between 1911 and 1930; the last being a Mr. Thomas Baxter Jnr who occupied the house in 1924.

Field inspection supports an early nineteenth-century date of construction, most likely at the same time as No. 15. In 1974 Brett described Nos. 15, 17 and 19 Main Street as ‘two-storey houses, probably of stone underneath’ the windows of which had been recently ‘unhappily altered’ (Brett, p. 22). The house was listed in 1976 and in 1986 was converted from a house into a tea shop with the dwelling situated on the first floor; the tea shop was later removed and the dwelling restored. Similar to No. 15, a red brick extension was added to the rear of the house in the 1980s. In 1990 renovation work was carried out and an extension added to the building. Since the First Survey of Historic Buildings in the 1970s the house and its door have been repainted, nicely matching the neighbouring No. 19 and 15 Main Street (NIEA File).

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 1856-64
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 (1890).
16. 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. NIEA File – HB19/05/022.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A mid-terraced single-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1820 as part of a pair with No.15 (HB19/05/021A). This house has been altered substantially both externally and internally several times during the twentieth century. The latest change has improved the appearance of the front elevation but the historic interior and rear elevation have been almost completely lost. It remains with its neighbour a building that contributes significantly to Hillsborough Conservation Area but is not of special interest.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered is was previously recorded as HB19/05/021