78-100 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long mixed, but generally plain, two storey terrace of twelve dwellings and shops of probable mid to later 19th century construction. The terrace is set at the northern end of Main Street, Ballywalter.

The houses are a mixture of double and single fronted and all have been altered to a greater or lesser degree, with modern timber and PVC windows and doors installed (Nos.82, 86-100), window openings enlarged (Nos.90-98) and pebbledash/limestone chip render to Nos.88, 96 and 100. Nos.90-94 may have had ground floor openings blocked at some stage and doorways shifted to the left (they probably originally looked like No.84). No.100 used to have a doorway (to a shop) where the second window from the left is now.

All houses have been extended at the rear and now sport mainly flat roofed extensions, some two storey, and all with modern windows. All of the houses, however, still have Bangor blue slate main roofs, except No.82 which has the asbestos cement variety. Mineral fibre cement slates to Nos.78-80. Velux windows to Nos.80, 84, 94 and 96. Entire terrace has mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods. Mixture of rendered and brick chimney stacks.

No.84 is the most original looking of all of these dwellings and still retains its Georgian sash windows, though it has a modern timber and glazed door and a Velux window.

The two shops at the S end of the terrace are slightly taller than the houses and have been much altered in recent times, with window openings enlarged on the ground floor and modern shop fronts installed with PVC signs, of the internally illuminated sort and otherwise. Both shops have large returns to the rear, with that to No.80 unrendered revealing rubble construction with brick dressings to windows.

Historical information

This terrace is shown on the OS map of 1834, with what appears to be a curious projection at the front of the present Nos.78-80. Conceivably some of these buildings could date from the early nineteenth century, though some may have started life as single storey dwellings.

The owner of No.100 informed the writers that part of her house used to serve as the post office, then a shop and latterly (until 1978) as a sub office for the Ulster Bank (used a half day each week). Nos.78-80 housed ‘The Royal Hotel’ during the early twentieth century at least.

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

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', pp.66-68.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Long mixed, but generally plain, two storey terrace of twelve dwellings and shops of probable mid to later 19th century construction, with most properties now sporting modern windows and doors.