29 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Terraced two-storey with attic early nineteenth century stone and redbrick house. Square on plan facing east with flat-roofed single-storey 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. Currently empty.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, shared redbrick chimneystack to north, a modern dormer to the rear pitch and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course. Snecked uncoursed basalt walling and redbrick surrounds to all openings. Camber-headed window and door openings formed in redbrick with painted masonry sills and replacement timber sash windows.

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

South side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.31 (HB19/05/027).

Rear elevation abutted by flat-roofed single-storey extension, with timber decking to the roof. UPVC window to gabled attic dormer, mutli-pane timber glazed door opens onto decked area with a further 6/6 replacement timber sash window.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.27 (HB19/05/025A).

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. 29 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). It is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the Townland Valuation plan of Hillsborough as a small square building located to the top of the hill on Main Street. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records that the house was occupied by a Mr. John Armstrong and was valued at £6. The house appears to have been built at the same period as Nos. 27 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 at the same time having been constructed on the same level although No. 31 is situated on a higher level.

In 1861 Griffith’s Valuation recorded that the house was owned by a Mr. Thomas Ingram, who also owned No. 27. Before the valuation the house had been occupied by a Mr. William Jones, however Griffith records that in 1861 Ingram let the house to Mr. Thomas Stafford at £8 rent. The valuer recorded the house as a 1a- class dwelling measuring six by seven yards and two-storeys high, and valuing the house at £6 10s. From 1861 to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 there was no change to the value of the house, or discernible alteration to the house on the Ordnance Survey maps (1858-1920).

In 1864 a Mr. Hugh Morrow was recorded as the occupant of the house; he had previously occupied the next-door No. 31. Between 1864 and 1879 a Mr. James Ingram became the new resident of the house and also became the lessor of No. 27 Main Street. Census records tell us that Ingram (born c. 1836) was a local Shoemaker and Weigh-master and lived at No. 29 Main Street with his wife Ellen Ingram (60). In 1911 the house was recorded as a 2nd class shoe shop which consisted of five or six inhabited rooms without any outbuildings. The Ulster Towns Directory of 1910 tells us that James Ingram was weigh-master of the public markets in Hillsborough; it is likely that he operated the weigh bridge located in the Shambles south of the Square (HB19/05/073). Ingram died in 1917 and left effects of £191 15s. 6d. (PRONI Wills – 24/09/1917). In 1920 a Mr. Thomas J. Clarke occupied the house and resided there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1974 Brett described No. 29 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, p. 20). The house was listed in 1976 and by 1989 a single-storey extension was added at the rear (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. 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 – HB19/05/025B.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

Terraced two-storey with attic early nineteenth century stone and redbrick house. A modest townhouse forming part of a terrace of varying house types lining the east side of Main Street, Hillsborough. Retaining its original Georgian proportions the external features, although replacement, are intact. 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. 27 and 31 Main S; 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 Listing criteria R also applies.