113-115 Hillhall Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The house forms one unit of a south-facing pair built beside the Hillhall Road about one mile from the centre of Lisburn travelling towards Belfast.
The original three dwellings of the terrace have been divided into two occupancies.
Nos. 113-115 to the west are statutorily listed and No. 117 remained unlisted at the time of this survey.
A single storey, four bay, direct entry thatched house.
The thatched covering is contained within a plain parapet gable on the west side and it butts against the wall of No. 117 on the opposite side. Plain chimney stacks rise from either extremity and there is a similar feature above the position of the original centrally placed hearth.
The walls are finished with whitened render above an applied black base.
A low modern red brick wall recessed slightly from the line of the thatched house continues from the west gable to form a boundary of the adjoining house.
At the front starting from the west there are two 6/3 vertically sliding windows, then a timber sheeted door, a 6/3 vertically sliding window, a timber sheeted door and finally a further 6/3 vertically sliding window.
Sills are of traditional depths.
The west gable of the house is blank.
At the rear there is a large modern flat-roofed extension and the three windows that light the house are modern in form.

Historical information

The building with its neighbour now numbered 117 forms part of a long terrace shown on the 1833 Ordnance Map. The dwellings on the opposite side of the road that were thatched until recently are shown also.

The situation is unchanged on the 1858 Ordnance Map but the road is named “Trumbleshighway” and the area is described as “Oldturnpike”

Philip Smith is undertaking further research at present.

References – Primary Sources

1. OS map 1st edition 1833, Co. Down sheet 14
2. OS map 1st revision 1858, Co. Down sheet 14

Secondary Sources

“In the Borough of Lisburn” by CEB Brett and Lady Dunleath, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1969, page 17
Survey of Thatched Buildings 1992, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A single storey, four bay, direct entry thatched house originally two dwelling units.
The terrace is of considerable importance as a pair that has assumed an urban context from a rural location that included other thatched buildings on the opposite side of the road.
The layout remains identifiable and although strengthened much of the early roof timberwork remains