6 Halftown Road, Maze, Lisburn, County Down, BT27 5RD

6 Halftown Road, Maze

A detached one-and-a-half-storey rendered dwelling, originally built around 1800 as a vernacular thatched house and substantially enlarged and re-roofed around 1920. The building is rectangular on plan, facing east, and located on the west side of Halftown Road.

The current external appearance largely reflects the major refurbishment of the 1920s, though some earlier interior features survive. The roof is pitched fibre cement slate with terracotta ridgecomb tiles and three profiled redbrick chimneystacks topped with terracotta pots. Three wall-head dormers punctuate the front pitch, each with decorative bargeboards, terracotta ridgecomb tiles, and finials. Moulded cast-iron guttering runs to a decorative timber fascia with boarded eaves and exposed rafter feet. The walling is dry dash rendered with rendered quoins at either end.

The front elevation, facing east, is six windows wide and features square-headed window openings with smooth render surrounds, painted masonry sills, and timber sash windows. An off-centre gabled entrance porch rises from the frontage, its roof detailing matching the dormers, with a square-headed door opening containing a vertically-sheeted timber door and fixed-pane timber windows to either side. The two centre bays retain early 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and historic glass. The dormers and the two pairs of windows at either end have 1/1 timber sash windows. The south gable is blank.

The rear elevation is four windows wide. Two attic-storey windows sit just below eaves level. Single-pane timber sash windows serve the two northern bays, while steel casement windows occupy the remainder. Plastic rainwater goods have been fitted here. A flat-roofed rear entrance porch with concrete roof and vertically-sheeted timber door abuts the rear wall. The north gable contains a single square-headed attic window with an early 6/3 timber sash.

The house sits on a north-south axis on the west side of Halftown Road, with a front garden enclosed to the road by a rendered wall and wrought-iron pedestrian gate. Four single-storey rendered outbuildings, built around 1920 with steel casement windows, stand to the rear and north. A modern two-storey house has been constructed to the rear by the current owners, accessed via a shared concrete drive to the north.

Historical development

The building first appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map of the Maze area as an oblong structure on Halftown Road south of Young's Bridge, with field evidence supporting construction around 1800. The 1833 map shows a small out office to its south side; by 1858 this had been demolished and replaced by two similar structures to the west.

In 1861, Griffith's Valuation recorded the building as two separate dwellings, each valued at 15 shillings. Richard Hynes occupied one dwelling while letting the other to Jane Hynes. Richard Hynes died around 1880; his son Richard Henry Hynes then took possession and occupied the house with his family until 1929 (the end of the Annual Revisions). The 1901 Census identifies Richard Henry Hynes, aged 46, as a local farmer and follower of the Methodist New Connexion, a branch of Methodism that had separated from the Wesleyan Church in 1797. Following the 1907 merger of the Methodist New Connexion with other seceded groups to form the United Methodist Church, Hynes was recorded simply as "Methodist" in the 1911 Census. He married Ann around 1885; by 1911 they had six children, including two daughters employed as dressmakers and a son apprenticed as a riveter. Jane Hynes vacated the property in 1903, after which Richard Hynes occupied it solely; by 1913 he had purchased the property from the Marquis of Downshire.

Both the 1901 and 1911 Census building returns record No. 6 Halftown Road as a second-class thatched dwelling with three to four rooms. The fourth-edition Ordnance Survey map (1919–1920) shows several small out office buildings to the north and west; as a farmer, Hynes maintained farm buildings including a stable, cow house, fowl house, and barn as recorded in 1911. The house underwent extensive enlargement around 1920, at which point the original thatched roof was replaced with slate. Between 1920 and 1971, additional outbuildings were erected on the northern side, as shown in the 1971 Ordnance Survey map. The house remains occupied.