7 The Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace two-storey rubble stone house, built c.1780, with symmetrical shopfront to the ground floor and incorporated carriage arch. Rectangular on plan facing west with pair of two-storey gabled returns and attached range of two-storey former outhouses.

Pitched natural slate roofs throughout with black clay ridge tiles and two rebuilt redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to redbrick eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Galletted rubble stone walling to front and to former outhouses, redbrick to rear elevation and returns, cement rendered to south gable and south elevation to returns. Square-headed window openings with rubbered brick heads, rendered reveals, painted masonry sills and early twentieth-century 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and angled horns. UPVC windows to rear elevation and replacement multi-pane timber casement windows to the former outhouses with redbrick surrounds and granite sills.

Front west elevation is five windows wide with a central symmetrical shopfront, inserted c.1900, comprising; central square-headed door opening with vertically-sheeted timber door and fixed-pane triple-light shop display window to either side having slender pilasters to concrete sills supporting plain fascia flanked by console brackets supporting lead-lined cornice above. To the left is an elliptical-headed redbrick carriage arch with decorative iron gate (designed by Graham Harron). Carriage arch opens onto cobbled area enclosed by granite kerbing to the pavement.

North side elevation abutted by adjoining house No.6 (HB19/05/036).

Rear elevation abutted by pair of two-storey gabled returns that to the north having redbrick walls, that to the south being rendered and abutted by the converted outhouses. The south gabled return has a lean-to entrance porch with vertically-sheeted timber door to the north cheek with a timber fanlight to the east. Square-headed window openings with uPVC windows to the first floor, one opening onto an iron balconette and a 3/3 timber sash window to the ground floor.

The south gable is blank with cement rendered walling, while the rendered return has a lean-to projecting bay with two 6/6 timber sash windows.

Setting:
Terminating the southern end of the terrace of houses that lines the east side of The Square overlooking the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle.
Attached range of two-storey former outhouses at rear return, in rubble stone with redbrick surrounds, replacement painted timber windows(some sliding sash) and natural slate roofs. Late 20th century single storey rendered extension attached to east gable of outbuildings.
Rear yard enclosed in rubble stone and brick walling with modern paviors, leading further east to original rear landscaped garden.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Galleted rubble stone
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

This house appears, on field inspection, to date from the late eighteenth century, a date which is supported by the primary evidence.There are no houses shown on this side of the Square on an estate map of 1777. However, on an estate map of 1788 a schematic representation is made of a row of buildings on this site. A map of c.1800 shows these houses in more detail. The current building is said to be the residence of ‘Gardiner’ and is shown as rectangular on plan with a return that has been added during the lifetime of the map.

The house is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833 and is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as the residence of Hance Band, a house, offices and yard valued at £14.

By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the building has been taken over by the Staff of the South Down Militia and is listed as a barrack, offices, yard and small garden. The accompanying valuation town plan states that these are ‘temporary quarters’ for the militia. The building is now valued at £20.10s but is exempted due to the nature of its use. Dimensions are given for a house, gateway, porch, wash-house and four further out-offices. A Commissioners’ report of 1842 shows that the Royal South Downshire Militia had been stationed in Hillsborough since at least 1841.

The Militia of Down, as it was known on its foundation in 1793, was raised by the second Marquess of Downshire, the year that he also proposed the Irish Militia Act. The Militia was later divided into North and South as part of a series of sanctions taken against Lord Hillsborough for failing to support the Act of Union in 1800. The South Down Militia ultimately became the fifth battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles. (, (McAnally, p.14-28)

At the time of Griffith’s Valuation. the colonel of the Militia was the fourth Marquess of Downshire, Arthur Hill. A painting in Hillsborough Castle shows the Marquess in uniform as the Lt Colonel of the Militia. (Dod, p.232)

By 1870 the militia had ‘removed to Downpatrick’ (where they occupied the old gaol, now the County Museum) and the building was vacant. In 1875 William McCue became resident and the valuation was reduced to £16 possibly as the result of an appeal. By 1884 James McClughan, merchant, was in occupation. McClughan died in 1915, leaving a modest fortune of over £2,000, and the house was taken over by William James Beattie.

In 1976 the house was listed and in 1977 an extension was built to the rear. (NIEA file)
Owner advised in 2011 that 1977 extension to rear has recently been removed.

References:

Primary Sources

1 PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2 PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3 PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4 PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20
5 PRONI VAL/1/A/3/14 – Townland Valuation Field Map (c.1830)
6 PRONI VAL/1/B/344A-B – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7 PRONI VAL/1/D/3/5 – Townland Valuation Town Plan (c.1834)
8 PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
9 PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14/A-E – Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
10 PRONI VAL/12/E/102/1/1-6 – Annual Revisions Town Plan ([c.1864]-1909)
11 PRONI Will of James McClughan, died 21/05/1915
12 “Report of the Commissioners appointed to revise the several laws under or by virtue of which moneys are now raised by Grand Jury Presentment in Ireland” Dublin: Her majesty’s Stationery Office, 1842
13 NIEA file – HB19/05/037

Secondary Sources

1 Dod, Robert P “The Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain and Ireland”, London: Whitaker and Co, 1864
2 McAnally, Sir Henry “The Irish Milita 1793-1816, A Social and Military Study” Clonmore and Reynolds, 1949

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
V. Authorship

Evaluation

End of terrace, two-storey, rubble stone building with early twentieth-century shopfront, built c.1780, terminating the terrace on the east side of The Square, facing the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle(HB19/05/076A). Despite alterations to the interior, externally the building retains its original aspect complete with timber sash windows, shopfront, an incorporated carriage arch with decorative iron gate and a historic rear plot. Occupying a prominent site, on this central location, the building contributes to the architectural character of the square and with its historical connections to the South Down Militia, it is of interest to the Lisburn Area.