27 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace two-storey with attic early nineteenth century stone and redbrick house. Square on plan facing east with two-storey lean-to glazed extension to the rear. One of a pair forming part of a terrace of four similarly scaled houses lining the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, two redbrick chimneystacks, a modern dormer to the rear pitch and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course with cast-iron downpipe. Snecked uncoursed basalt walling with squared pink granite quoins and redbrick surrounds to all openings. Camber-headed window and door openings formed in redbrick with replacement concrete sills and replacement timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a replacement tripartite timber sash window to the ground floor and a camber-headed door opening having replacement timber panelled door with replacement overlight opening onto two granite steps.

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.29 (HB19/05/025B).

Rear elevation abutted by full-height lean-to extension, glazed to the upper level with rubblestone wall to the ground level, added c.2000.

Gabled north side elevation surmounted by redbrick chimneystack having rubblestone walling with redbrick to the chimney flue. Pair of square-headed window openings at attic level with replacement timber casement windows.

Setting:
One of a pair of houses forming part of a terrace of four houses lining the east side of Main Street at its elevated end where it joins The Square. The north gable fronts onto a shared gravel access lane.

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

Historical information

No. 27 Main Street was constructed between 1803 and 1833 on land owned by a Mr Robinson, who is recorded on a 1803 plan of Hillsborough as the occupant of Hill House (HB 19/05/029). No. 27 is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the Townland Valuation plan of Hillsborough as a small square building located near the top of the hill on Main Street. A large square out office is also evident at the rear of the house; however, the valuation records make no reference to the house possessing offices merely recording the house as ‘House and small garden’ from 1861 to 1930. By the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1920) this out office appears to have been taken down. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records that the house was occupied by a Ms. Rebecca Montgomery and was valued at £6. The house appears to have been built at the same time as Nos. 29 and 31 Main Street, all three buildings being valued at £6 and erected on the same plot of land owned by Robinson. Nos. 27 and 29 Main Street were clearly built together; having been constructed on the same level (No. 31 is situated slightly higher up the hill).

In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation recorded that the house was owned by a Mr. Thomas G. Ingram, who also owned No. 29. Ingram let the house to Samuel Patterson at £8 10s. rent. The valuer recorded the house as a 1a- class dwelling which measured six by seven yards and two-storeys high, increasing the value of the house from £6 10s. to £7 which took the value of the rear office into account; Griffith had valued the similar No. 29 Main Street at £6 10s. From 1861 to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 there was no change to the value of the house, whilst the only change to the structure visible on the Ordnance Survey maps was the disappearance of the large rear out office by 1920.

Samuel Patterson occupied the house until 1880 when a Mr Samuel Roland came into possession. The Annual Revisions tell us that No. 27 Main Street was home to at least 12 occupants who resided in the house between 1880 and 1929. Between 1880 and 1889 Thomas Ingram was replaced as lessor by James Ingram, a weigh-master and shoemaker who resided in No. 29 Main Street until his death in 1917. In 1901 the house was occupied by a Mr. Edward O’Hare, a 23 year old Roman Catholic Postman who lived at No. 27 with his wife Agnes (26) and their infant daughter. The census recorded the house as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of only three inhabited rooms. By the 1911 Census the house had fallen vacant however the landholder was still recorded as James Ingram. The house was occupied by a number of residents before it was occupied by a Thomas A. Ingram (presumably James Ingram’s son) in 1929. Thomas Ingram was recorded as the final occupant of the house and died in 1936 (Graveyard inscriptions, p. 70).

In 1974 Brett described No. 27 Main Street as one of ‘four extremely good stone houses (Nos. 27 – 33), with some brick trim, some galleting, and most of the Georgian glazing intact.’ Brett states that the house was used for a time as a shop and provides a picture of the house in 1974 which shows the ‘pretty former shop-window’ on the ground floor (Brett, pp 20-21). The house was listed in 1976 and in 1983 major renovations were carried out on the building; a rear extension being added to the kitchen in that year. In 1999 alterations were carried out and a glass conservatory was added to the rear of the house. The shop window has since been removed (perhaps as part of the alteration work of 1999) and the facade of the house restored to the original design which No. 29 Main Street had maintained.

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. 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 – HB19/05/025A.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

End of terrace two-storey with attic early nineteenth-century stone and redbrick house, originally rendered. A modest townhouse forming part of a terrace of varying house types lining the east side of Main Street, Hillsborough. A shop-front was removed from the front elevation in the late 20th century and the original external features were successfully reinstated. Part of a group of three similar houses nos. 27-31 Main Street, (HB19/05/025 A-B, HB19/05/027), adjoining Hill House at the corner of Main Street and The Square, (HB19/05/029), it has group value with nos. 29 and 31 Main St; built at the same time and contributes to the overall character of Hillsborough.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB19/05/025
Listing criteria R also applies.