Hill Head,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Hill Head is a large two storey late Georgian gabled farm house of c.1820 with single storey side wings. It is prominently set on a rise to the W of the Ballygowan Road, c.1.5 miles N of Ballygowan.

To the centre of the front (E) façade is a panelled door with elliptical fanlight with ‘spider’s web’ tracery. The door is encased with fluted pilasters and the whole ensemble is set within an elliptical arch-headed opening with narrow smooth render surround.
To the left and to the right of the doorway are two sash windows with Georgian panes, with a further window to the front of each of the single storey side wings. To the first floor are five similar, but shorter, windows. All front façade windows have narrow surrounds as door.

The gables to both N and S are blank.

To the centre at the rear is a large one and a half storey gabled return. To the N face of the return is a window (as front) to the left on the ground floor. To the left of this there is evidence of a former (now blocked) doorway. To the right of the window is a flight of steps leading to a plain timber sheeted loft door. To the left of this (just under the eaves) are two small four pane windows. To the gable of the return are two small ground floor sash windows, with Georgian panes, whilst the S face of the return is now completely covered by a large single storey flat-roofed return with modern windows and a modern glazed door. Attached to the S face of this extension and to the rear of the S single storey wing, is a large, recently added PVC conservatory with shallow mono-pitched roof.

To the left on the rear façade of the main house is a window to the ground floor and two to the first floor, as front. To the far right on the first floor is a similar window.

The façade is mainly covered in rough cast, with smooth render to the gables to N and S. The front has chamfered quoins and base and is painted. All sections of the roof are covered in Bangor blue slates. The main section of the house has two rendered chimney stacks with Victorian octagonal pots. The side wings have a smaller chimney stack to each of their gables, but these stacks appear to be dummies. There is a tall stack to the return which appears to be of recent construction.

Outbuildings to N, one of which is partly attached to the N wing.

Historical information

Locally, Hill Head is said to have been built in c.1820 by a man named Montgomery. This information is supported by the sources as the house appears (as present) on the 1834 OS map, and a James Montgomery is recorded in the valuation returns of the same year. A James Montgomery is also listed in the returns of c.1863 (at which time the rateable value of the house had risen to £16 from £11-5-6 in 1834), but by 1886 (at least) the property had been sold to the Patterson family.
The current owner believes that the return is part of an earlier, 18th century dwelling.

The windows were all replaced in 1988, at which time an unsuitable front porch was removed.

Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654 Londonderry Papers [Ballyrush was once part of the Londonderry estate.]
2 PRONI OS map 1st ed. 1834, Down 10.
3 PRONI VAL1B/316A, p.103 1st valuation Comber parish 1834.
4 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.39.
5 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60, Down 10.
6 PRONI 2nd valuation Comber parish c.1863.
7 George Henry Basset ‘Co. Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), p.305.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Large, two storey, late Georgian farm house of c.1820 with single storey side wings. To the rear there is a large modern, flat-roofed extension, but otherwise the façade is largely original. The interior layout is mainly untouched and some original detailing has survived.