25 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-storey pebbledash rendered nineteenth century former house with modern shopfront to ground floor and modern two-storey extension to rear. Set in line with the terraces lining the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough.

Pitched natural slate roof, black clay ridge tiles and rendered chimneystack rising from both gable ends (that to right is a replacement). Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets and cast-iron downpipes. Dry-dash rendered walling with rusticated rendered quoins and smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with replacement single-pane timber sash windows and painted masonry sills.

Front east elevation is three windows wide with an off-centre rendered shopfront, inserted 1974 and fascia over.

South gable has a single diminutive window opening to both floors, fronting onto a gravel rear access lane.

Rear elevation abutted by two-storey extension, built 1983. Flat-roofed entrance bay connecting front and rear structures, having door opening to the south.

North gable is blank and fronts onto access passageway to adjoining building No.23 (HB19/05/023).

Setting:
Street-fronted on a north-south axis among the terraces lining the west side of Main Street on a steep incline of the street.

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

Historical information

A building on this site first appears on a map of Hillsborough dating from c.1800 as an oblong building situated half way up the hill on Main Street. Unlike many of the buildings on Main Street, No. 25 is not a terraced house; it is depicted as an oblong building possessing a rear return giving the building an L-shape. The first edition Ordnance Survey map (1833) and Townland Valuation map (c. 1830s) show no alteration to the house from 1800. The Townland Valuation recorded the occupant as Mr. Hugh Sterling and valued the house at £8.

By 1861 Griffiths Valuation records that James Sterling, probably Hugh’s son, had come into possession of the house which he let to a Ms. Abigail Armstrong and then a Mr. James Jordan at £10 rent. The valuer describes the building as a 1B- class dwelling measuring ten yards by six-and-a-half yards and two-storeys high; he also noted that the house was valued at £8. 10s. and at that time possessed a wooden roof. The 1858 Ordnance Survey map shows that the rear return may have been extended at some time since the 1830s.

The house had fallen vacant by 1864 and was not occupied until 1874. Sterling seems to have sold the house between 1861 and 1864 as the Annual Revisions record the Marquis of Downshire as the lessor of the house from 1864. The house was occupied in 1874 by a Mr. William Walker who resided there until his death in 1902. In 1880 the Ulster Town’s Directory recorded that William Walker was a Butcher, however the 1901 census tells us that Walker was a ‘Victualler’ or licensed grocer. In 1901 William Walker, a 60 year old Anglican, lived in No. 25 Main Street with his wife Mary, a Roman Catholic, and their five children. William’s four sons worked with him in the shop whilst his only daughter was employed as a dressmaker. The 1901 building return recorded No. 25 Main Street as a second class dwelling which possessed a stable, coach house, cow house, calf house, barn, shed and store amongst its rear out offices. William Walker died in April 1902 and left effects of £381. 17s. to his son William Walker Jnr. (PRONI Wills – 09/05/1902). William Walker, a 45 year old Anglican, is recorded in the 1910 Ulster Town Directory as a butcher. In 1911 he lived in No. 25 Main Street with his wife Bessie (27) and their two sons; his brother James Walker also resided with the family and worked with William as a Butcher. The 1911 Census tells us that the brothers operated out of the house which they had converted into a ‘Butcher’s Shop.’ The census records William Walker as the Landholder in 1911; he was to occupy the house up until 1930 when the Annual Revisions for the Hillsborough end.

Field inspection reveals little precise dating evidence due to incremental changes, although the first survey images dating from the mid 1970s show what appears to be a fairly basic nineteenth century house. In 1974 Brett described this building as a ‘two-storey quoined house of stucco, which used to have a simple granite keystoned doorcase, but alas this has very recently been swept away.’ He noted the house as a ‘simple and modest, but seemly and charming’ dwelling but criticised the inclusion in 1974 of a new modern shop-front. Brett commented that the new shop was an unsuitable addition to a previously elegant building (Brett, p. 18; 22). This shop and dwelling was listed in 1976. In 1983 a two-storey extension was added to the rear of the shop. The building is still used as a Butcher’s shop and is still in the possession of the Walker family. (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 (1902).
16. Ulster Towns Directory (1880; 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 – HB19/05/024.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached two-storey pebbledash rendered nineeenth century former house, which has incorporated a butcher's shop for at least 130 years. The inclusion of an aluminium shop front in the 1970's and the addition of the large extension to the rear in the 1980's has degraded the building's architectural and historic interest.