33 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace two-storey with attic stone and redbrick house, built c.1800. Square on plan facing east, built as one of a terrace of four similarly scaled houses lining the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough.

Hipped natural slate roof with rolled lead ridges, a single redbrick chimneystack and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course. Snecked coursed basalt walling with squared red sandstone quoins and redbrick surrounds to all openings. Square-headed window and door openings formed in redbrick with sandstone sills and replacement timber sash windows.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening having replacement timber panelled door and opening onto raised concrete platform and three concrete steps with iron railing. The ground floor window is set within a former elliptical-headed redbrick arch.

South side elevation has a single 2/2 timber sash window to the first floor and fronting into the garden of No.35 Main Street (HB19/05/029).

Rear elevation is cement rendered with no openings.

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

Setting:
One of a terrace of four houses lining the east side of Main Street at its elevated end where it joins The Square. This house does not appear to have a rear garden. The south side elevation is abutted by a tall rubblestone screen wall with sandstone coping and a sheeted door opening into the garden of No.35 (HB19/05/029).

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

Historical information

No. 33 Main Street first appears on an 1803 illustrated map of Hillsborough in which it is depicted as a large square outbuilding of No. 35 Main Street (Hill House – HB19/05/029), which was owned by a Mr. Robinson. This building was formerly used as the coach house for Hill House, a blocked up coach-arch can be clearly seen on the exterior of the house. The Townland Valuation (c. 1830s) recorded the occupant as a Mr Henry Murray and the value of Hill house and its offices at £16.

By 1861 Griffith’s Valuation records that the house and its out offices were unoccupied; their value being lowered to £15. In 1868 the property was occupied by a Mr Robert Wallace who vacated the house in 1870. In 1874 a Mr. William James Beckwick came into possession of the house and lived there until his death in 1878 (Graveyard Inscriptions, p.55) and was replaced in 1881 by Robert [McGorney]. A field book is missing; however, by 1909 the value of the house had been increased to £20 but was then reduced to its original value when a Mr Richard Crawley occupied Hill House in that year, residing there until the Annual Revisions for the area ended in 1930. By 1914 the out office at the end of the yard had been converted into a dwelling and was valued separately from Hill House; the 1911 Census for Hill House still recorded a coach house amongst its out offices. The valuer observed that a Mr. Samuel Patterson purchased the coach house from Richard Crawley in 1914 for £310 after it had been converted into a dwelling by the previous owner. Patterson let the house in 1914 to a Mr. Arthur March who lived there for a number of years; in 1926 Mr John Dunlop (a former Blacksmith) became the last resident of No. 33 to be recorded in the Annual Revisions (Ulster Towns Directory 1910).

Brett tells us that the row of four houses situated at the north side of the Square in Hillsborough were built in the late 18th century (Brett, p. 88) The Archaeological Survey of County Down includes a letter from Lord Downshire’s agent, John Gardner, dated February 1779, in which he writes ‘we are now clearing the ground for the four houses to be built in the square’ (ASCD, p. 415). It is uncertain whether the coach house was built at the same time as Hill House and the other buildings situated in the Square, however its appearance on the 1803 map tells us that it was the earliest building constructed along this terrace of Nos. 27 to 33 Main Street.

This house and former coach house was listed in 1976; repairs were carried out in 1978 and again in 1983 (NIEA File). At the time of the survey No. 33 Main Street was in the process of being sold to new owners.

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. ‘An Archaeological Survey of County Down’ Belfast: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1966)
2. ‘Gravestone Inscriptions: Vol. 18 Co. Down’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1979.
3. 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.
4. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of North County Down’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002.
5. NIEA File – HB19/05/028.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace two-storey with attic stone and redbrick house, built c.1800. A modest townhouse forming part of a terrace of varying house types lining the east side of Main Street, Hillsborough, Its hipped roof provides interest and creates a break in rhythm at the end of the terrace. Retaining its original Georgian proportions the external features, although replacement, are intact. Originally built as the coach house for Hill House at the corner of Main Street and The Square, (HB19/05/029), it is situated adjacent to three similar houses nos. 27-31 Main Street, (HB19/05/025 A-B, HB19/05/027) probably built at the same time.

General comments

Listing Criteria R also applies.