69-71 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Substantial two storey double-fronted Georgian style terrace house of perhaps c.1840, with recent shop front and single storey rear return. The property is set on the east side of Main Street, Ballywalter.

Main roof and return gabled and pitched with asbestos cement slates, with stone parapets two rendered chimney stacks to main roof, and one tall rendered chimney stack to gable of return. Cast iron rw goods to front facade, PVC to rear.

The front SW elevation is asymmetrical. To the centre there is a panelled timber door with elliptical arch decorated fanlight, two pane sidelights and four thin reeded columns as mullions and outer frame. Plain surround to doorway. To left of doorway is almost square sashed window with Georgian panes (8/8) and plain narrow surround. To right of doorway is modern office front with large corner window at left with adjacent glazed door within recessed porch to right. Large timber sign with slightly projecting PVC letters, above office front. Sign lit from above by two small spotlights. First floor has three evenly spaced sashed windows with Georgian panes, smaller than window to ground floor left. Ground floor facade finished in lined render and topped with plain course, first floor finished in rough cast. Exposed gables rendered.

Rear of main house has a window to ground and first floor at left, similar to first floor front.

To the rear there is a large single storey gabled return with modern flat roofed extension (with small porch) attached to gable and right side. Modern windows and doors to return, extension and porch. Rear of main house and return finished in rough cast render.

A brick lined well was discovered in the rear yard in August 2001. This is approximately 4M deep and has a modern manhole cover.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the 1834 OS map. The OS Memoirs of 1837 commented that though most dwellings within Ballywalter were one storey, there were 60 two storey houses; conceivably this house could have been standing, much as today, in 1837, but it could well be slightly later, perhaps c.1840s.

A small section of this house is shown in a photograph of Main Street in c.1910 at which time it had quoins, lined render to the first floor and no surrounds to the windows, there also appears to be a sign board above the front door suggesting that the property was a place of business even then. The shop front was inserted some time before 1971.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/12/1 OS maps, Down 12, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1B/39 First valuation, Ballywalter, c.1834-38
3 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1991), pp.16-18 [1837]
4 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation plan, Ballywalter, c.1838
5 PRONI VAL/2B/3/9 Second valuation, Ballywalter, c.1859
6 PRONI VAL/2D/3/10 Valuation town plan, Ballywalter, 1859
7 PRONI OS/6/3/12/2 OS maps, Down 12, 1860
8 PRONI VAL/12B/23/6a-f Annual valuation revision books, Ballywalter, 1866-1929
9 PRONI VAL/12E/84/1 Valuation plan, Ballywalter, 1902-35
10 UFTM W.A. Green Collection WAG 1748-49 Photographs of Ballywalter Main Street looking north

Secondary sources
1 Derek Patton, "The Village of Ballywalter- A brief history" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.14' (1990),
pp.10-15. [This article contains several photographs of Ballywalter c.1910, but no
references are given.]
2 A.J. Hughes and R.J. Hannan, 'Place-Names of Northern Ireland Vol. Two, County Down II- The Ards', (QUB, 1992), pp.66-68

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Substantial two storey double-fronted Georgian style terrace house of perhaps c.1840, with recent shop front and single storey rear return.