Hill Farm

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey farm house house of c.1840-50, set at a low level on the SE side of the Whiterock Road, just to the W of Killinchy village.
Front NW facade is asymetric and has a left of centre ‘Ards’ doorway with panelled door and semicircular ‘radial’ fanlight. To the left of the window is a sash window with Georgian panes. To the far right of the entrance is a similar window. Directly above each of the ground floor openings is a first floor window, as before but smaller.

The SW gable has a window (as front) to the centre right on the ground floor, with another (smaller) to the right on the first floor.
The NE gable has a window (as front) to the centre left on the ground floor, with another (smaller) to the left on the first floor.
The rear has a left of centre modern glazed door with a small sash window (as gables) to the left. To the right of the doorway are two modern windows, whose openings may have been altered. To the first floor are three sash windows, as ground floor left.
The facade is finished in rough cast with chamfered quoins. The roof is gabled with Bangor blue slates and red clay parapets. Two brick chimney stacks. Metal rw goods.

Rubble built outbuildings to rear and NE.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1859-60 which probably corresponds to the present house. The 1861 valuation returns record that at that stage the house was in possesssion of a William Irvine and had a rateable value of only £2, which appears somewhat low for a building of this size. Photographs taken during renovations revealed that the stonework on the upper right hand quarter of the front facade does not blend in with the rest, suggesting that this house may have initially been part single storey, a notion supported by the assymetric layout of the facade itself, the unusual internal layout. However, the present building appears too deep to have begun life as a part single part two storey house in the traditional (linear dwelling) sense.
The sash windows were replaced in recent times and the red brick chimneys and red clay ridges and parapets appear to be late 19th or early twentieth century

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 17.
2 PRONI 2nd valuation, Killinchy parish, Killinchy td., 1861.

Secondary sources
1 Richard Pierce, Alastair Coey and Richard Oram 'Taken for granted...' (RSUA & HBC 1974), pp.144.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Two storey farm house of perhaps c.1840-50 with ‘Ards’ doorway. Externally the builiding largely retains its traditional appearance, and despite some alterations it remains a building of 'special architecturla and historic character'.