Tullyhubbert House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large two storey farm house with attic, set on a rise at the end of a long drive off the Hillsborough Road, c.2.5 miles NW of Ballygowan.

The front N facade is symmetrical with a central timber panelled door with sidelights and three pane elliptical fanlight. The sidelights have panelled aprons and the whole doorway is set within an elliptical arch headed opening with plain rendered surround.
To the left and right of the doorway are two sash windows with vertical glazing bars and plain rendered (‘shouldered’) surrounds.
To the first floor are five similar windows with similar surrounds, the heads of which merge in an ‘eaves band’. A similar band links the cills.

The W gable has two windows (as front) to the centre and right on the ground floor, with another to the centre on the first floor. To the attic level are two small windows with modern frames.

The E gable has two windows (as front) to the far left and centre on the ground floor with another to the left on the first floor. Two attic windows as previous gable.

To the centre at the rear is a large-ish two storey flat-roofed extension. To the right on the ground floor of the rear (S) facade of the extension is a timber and glazed door. To the left of this is a small window with modern frame. To the first floor is a larger window with modern frame. To the short W face of the extension are two small first floor windows with modern frames.

To the larger exposed section of the rear of the main house (to the left), is a first floor window as front.
The E side of this extension is attached to a (probably original) single storey gabled return with loft. To the W face of the return is a plain timber sheeted door, with a window (as front) to its left. There is a similar window to the right on the E face with a broader window with modern frame, to the left. To the gable of the return is a small loft door.

The entire facade is finished in a ‘salt & pepper’ pebbledash with chamfered quoins to the main house and a smooth rendered base. The main roof and the return roof are gabled and covered in Bangor blue slates. There is an overhang to the main roof and two tall rendered chimney stacks. Red clay ridge tiles to main roof and small cast iron skylight to rear. Similar skylight (to E) and recent brick chimney stack to return. Cast iron rw goods.

To the rear of the house is a large, two storey outbuilding in whitewashed rubble with a gabled, slated roof. This outbuilding appears older than the present house.

Historical information

There is a building shown on this site on the OS maps of 1834 and 1858, marked ‘Tullyhubbert House’ on both occasions, though only that on the latter map appears to match the plan of the present house. The style of the present, with its roof overhang, vertical only glazing bars, elliptical headed doorway, suggests a building which could well be later 19th century, or one which has witnessed a degree of remodelling in the late 1800s (or even early 1900s). The outbuilding to the rear, however, appears to be that shown on the 1858 map, a map which also shows that the property, at this stage, had its own gate lodge to the north.

The valuation returns of 1834 note that ‘Tullyhubbert House’ was in possession of a James Abernathy (probably Abernethy), with it and the outbuildings having the substantial rateable value of £11-12-9. The house, however appears to have been in the hands of a Robert Wilson in 1824 (as noted in ‘Pigot’s Directory’ for that year). By 1863 it had passed to a William Jelly, the rateable value having been reassessed at £14. The fact that the property was rated relatively highly on both occasions (and had a gate lodge) suggests a house of some size, perhaps two storey. Could this suggest that the present building is indeed a remodelling of an earlier Tullyhubbert House?

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.354 Mussenden Papers. [These papers include documents relating Mussenden family property to 1831, however they have not been catalogued in detail. The Mussendens owned Tullyhubbert at the time of the 2nd valuation (c.1863) and were agents for the previous owners the Sinclairs of Belfast. ]
2 Linenhall Library J. Pigot ‘Directory of Ireland’ (Dublin 1824), p.375.
3 PRONI OS map 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
4 PRONI VAL1B/316C, 1st valuation Comber parish 1834.
5 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.38.
6 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60, Down 10.
7 PRONI 2nd valuation Comber parish c.1863.
8 George Henry Basset ‘Co. Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), p.282. [Basset makes no mention of a landowner under the name of Jelly within Tullyhubbert, suggesting possession of the house had changed once again between c.1863 and 1886.]
9 EHS OS map 166-4 (1:2500) 1973.

Secondary sources
1 J.A.K. Dean ‘The Gate Lodges of Ulster’ (UAHS 1994), p.99.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large two storey farmhouse which appears to date from the latter half of the 19th century but may be based around a remodelling of an earlier property. The facade with its salt & pepper pebbledash and surrounds to the windows appears to have been re-rendered in the early to mid 1900s, at which time the flat-roofed extension may have been added at the rear.