42 Main Street, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2SP

Two storey gabled terrace house at the northern end of Main Street in the village of Kircubbin, of possible 18th century origin, dating possibly to around 1750.

The front south-west façade retains its original arrangement. The ground floor features a right-of-centre timber-panelled door with semicircular plain fanlight, framed by simple pilasters and moulding to the arch. To the right of the door is a modern two-pane timber window made to resemble a sash and case but with a top-hung upper opener, set within a narrow smooth cement surround. To the left of the door is a similar window, with a large elliptical arch coach doorway to the far left. This coach arch has chamfered 'in and out' dressings and timber-sheeted double doors. The first floor has four evenly spaced windows of the same type as the ground floor windows. To the left of the coach arch is a window serving both ground and first floor of the adjacent property (No. 40). This section of No. 40 may formerly have belonged to No. 42 and may have served as an office, with the arch itself potentially providing access.

The house retains modern windows throughout. The front façade is finished in lined render and painted. The rear and gabled return are finished in plain unpainted render. The pitched roof is covered with asbestos-free slates to the front and pan tiles to the rear. Five rendered chimney stacks are present. The property has a mixture of PVC and cast iron gutters and down-spouts. A former two storey rubble-built gabled outbuilding at the rear was recently demolished.

The interior layout appears largely intact, and some 19th century detailing remains.

The present owner believes this to be one of five original houses in Kircubbin. By the first Ordnance Survey map of 1834, the north-east side of Main Street was more substantially developed than the opposite side, suggesting greater age on this side. Ordnance Survey Memoirs from the 1830s record houses dated 1769, and Taylor's and Skinner's road map of 1777 indicates a substantial terrace of dwellings here. The owner also believed the house may have been built by a member of the locally prominent Herron family. The former rear outbuildings, locally known as the 'granary', were allegedly used as a mass house during penal times (prior to the 1770s), suggesting a mid-18th century date. These buildings may also have housed a small workshop engaged in the manufacture of straw hats and bonnets, an industry for which the town was noted as early as the 1840s.