1 Inns Court, Park Lane, Hillsborough, Co Down, BT26 6AQ

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

End of terrace two-storey rubblestone house, built c.1800, as one of four similar houses. Square on plan facing west onto cobbled cul-de-sac to the west of Park Lane. Currently vacant the building is interconnected to the adjoining house No.2 (HB19/05/064B).

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, redbrick chimneystacks to either end and two rooflights to the rear pitch. Replacement metal guttering on iron brackets to brick eaves course. Random rubblestone walling with squared granite quoins and redbrick surrounds to all openings. Square-headed window openings formed in redbrick with stone sills, 2/2 timber sash windows and exposed sash boxes.

Front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening formed in redbrick with replacement vertically-sheeted timber door.

North gable has a single door and window opening with vertically-sheeted timber door opening onto small cobbled area.

Rear elevation has a single window opening to each floor with an original 6/3 timber sash window to the upper floor with timber lintel and a replacement timber casement window to the ground floor. A former door opening is now blocked up in redbrick.

South elevation abutted by adjoining house No.2 (HB19/05/064B).

Setting:
Rear garden shared with adjoining house No.2 enclosed to Park Lane by tall rubblestone walls. Front door opens onto cobbled cul-de-sac enclosed to Dromore Road by tall rubblestone wall with stone coping.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Metal
Walling Rubblestone
Windows Timber sash

Historical information

No. 1 Inns Court, the north-most building of a terrace of four two-storey houses (HB 19/05/064A-D) situated between Park Lane and the Dromore Road was constructed c. 1800 when the terrace first appears on an illustrated plan of Hillsborough in that year occupied by a Mr. Hanna. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the contemporary Townland Valuation map (c. 1830) depict No. 1 Inns Court as a square shaped building on West Lane (a court off ‘Inns Lane,’ as Park Lane was known at that time); the Townland Valuation tells us that the house was valued less than £3 and was therefore exempt from valuation.

The first recorded occupant of No. 1 Inns Court was a Mr. Samuel Wattley who is noted in Griffith’s Valuation of 1861 (which now records West Lane as Barrack Court); however Wattley vacated the house in that year when a Mr. Samuel Donaldson came into possession. The valuer tells us that Donaldson let the house from the Marquis of Downshire at weekly rent of 9d and described the house as a 1B class dwelling measuring 5 ½ by 4 ½ yds and valued at £2. Samuel Donaldson continued to occupy the house until 1886 when it passed to a Ms. Eliza Maguinness who resided there for a decade. In 1896 Robert Paisley came into possession of the house; the 1901 Census tells us that Paisley, a 34 year old Anglican General Labourer, lived at No. 1 Barrack Court with his wife Mary Jane and their four young daughters. The Census Building Return described the house as a 2nd class dwelling which consisted of two inhabited rooms and possessed no out offices; by 1911 little had changed although the number of rooms recorded had been increased to four. Robert Paisley continued to live at this address until 1918 when he and his family moved to No. 2 Park Street (HB 19/05/070A). The house then passed to a number of occupants who briefly resided there until a Mr. James Turner took over possession of the property in 1924 and lived there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Brett tells us that Inns Lane was formerly known as Barrack Court; however he was not aware of any Barrack in the area to justify the name. He suggested that the officers of the South Down Militia (who resided at their headquarters in No. 7 The Square) may have quartered their grooms, batmen and other staff in these houses (Brett; Buildings of North County Down, p. 218). This is a likely theory as a c. 1800 map of Hillsborough records that a Commissary yard, used to store army provisions and perhaps horses, was situated to the south side of Barrack Court where the Shambles now stands; further, nos 3-4 Inns Lane (HB 19/05/064C + D) was formerly used as a store and office although it is not known if this was for army use. Simon Walker suggests that the name Barrack Court came from a former barracks which was situated in Moira Street to the west of the houses but was closed c. 1820 when the area was enclosed within Hillsborough Castle Grounds (Walker, p. 16). In 1974 Brett described nos. 1-4 Inns Lane as ‘two-storey houses of stone with brick trim, most windows unhappily altered, the upper pair (nos. 1 and 2) very aggressively re-pointed’ (Brett; Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, p. 17). Since that time nos. 1 and 2 Inns Court have been interconnected on both the ground and first floor in order to convert the buildings into an art gallery which operated from the buildings c. 1980.

No. 1 Inns Court is now once more primarily used as a private dwelling although the interconnection between it and No. 2 remain; the house is in a good state of preservation despite the significant alteration to its original layout.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI VAL/1/B/344 A-B – Townland Valuations 1834
2. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/14 – Field Map 1834
3. PRONI D671/M/8/25 – Hillsborough Map c.1800
4. PRONI D671/M/8/57/1 – Hillsborough Illustrated Map 1803
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. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

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. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of North County Down’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2002.
3. Walker, S., ‘Hillsborough: An illustrated history and companion’ Belfast: Cottage Publications, 1994).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace two-storey rubblestone house, built c.1800. One of four similar houses, possibly the former quarters of auxiliary staff of the South Down Militia (who resided at their headquarters in No. 7 The Square), it retains its modest historic features to the exterior. Despite being remodelled internally to incorporate no. 2 Inns Court (HB19/05/064B), it forms part of an intact terrace and has group value with the nos. 3 & 4 (HB19/05/064 C-D). Situated in the historic centre of Hillsborough village near the main Square, it is set within its original cobbled cul-de-sac, bounded by high rubble stone walls and is a good example of a Georgian utilitarian terrace building.

General comments

The record was renumbered from HB19/05/064.
Listing Criteria U, R, S & T also apply.