11 Main Street, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AE

11 Main Street, Hillsborough, County Down

This is a mid-terraced, two-storey over basement house built in stone and brick around 1780–1799, situated on the west side of Main Street, Hillsborough, on a sloping site. It shares strong group value with its neighbour, No. 9 Main Street, the two buildings having originally been designed and constructed as a single seven-bay unit with a shared coach arch at the centre. Although the building has been altered — most notably by the removal of its render — restoration work has been carried out sensitively, and the original style and proportions of the front elevation remain intact. The house contributes significantly to the Georgian character of Hillsborough Main Street.

Architectural Description

The house is rectangular in plan, facing east. The roof is pitched, covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, and there is a single red brick chimneystack with clay pots. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets runs along the red brick eaves course, and a cast-iron hopper and downpipe are shared with the adjoining No. 13 to the south. The external walls are of rubblestone with lime pointing. Window openings are square-headed, formed in red brick, and fitted with replacement 6/6 timber sash windows with sandstone sills.

The front elevation is three windows wide with an off-centre entrance and a railed basement area. The front door opening is elliptical-headed, formed in red brick, and contains a replacement timber panelled door flanked by a pair of sidelights with interlacing tracery that support a lintel cornice; above this sits an original timber webbed fanlight. The door opens onto two concrete steps that bridge the basement area, which is enclosed by decorative cast-iron railings. The basement area is also enclosed on a low rendered plinth wall, and a replacement multi-pane timber casement window serves the basement level.

To the south, the side elevation abuts No. 13. To the rear, the elevation is abutted by a gabled three-storey cement-rendered return, constructed around 2005, and a further flat-roofed projection at basement level. The exposed rubblestone section of the rear elevation has replacement 6/6 timber sash windows, the ground-floor window retaining an exposed sash box. At basement level there is a square-headed door opening fitted with a replacement sheeted half-door and sidelights, and glazed doors to the lower projection, all opening onto a gravel rear yard. To the north, the side elevation abuts No. 9 and its carriage arch.

To the rear of the main house stands a semi-detached two-storey rubblestone and red brick former coach house, now in residential use. It has a pitched natural slate roof, square-headed window openings formed in modern red brick with fixed-pane windows, and a former red brick carriage arch that now serves as the front entrance.

The listing extends to the house and its railings.

Historical Notes

The earliest known record of the site is a plan of Hillsborough dating to around 1800, which depicts a single oblong building encompassing both Nos. 9 and 11 Main Street, along with an oblong outbuilding shared between the two, the entire property recorded as belonging to a Mr McIlboy. By the time of the first Ordnance Survey map in 1833, No. 11 appears as a small terraced house with a return at the bottom of Main Street.

The house was exempt from the Townland Valuation of the 1830s, presumably because it did not reach the minimum rateable value of £3. The neighbouring No. 9, with which it shared the coach arch, was assessed at £4 4s. and was occupied by a Mr William Wright. By Griffith's Valuation of 1861, both Nos. 9 and 11 were owned by a Ms Mary Kincaid and were unoccupied at that time, though the valuer noted that No. 9 had until recently been occupied by a Mr Mark Wardhaugh, an agent of Lord Downshire, who very likely occupied No. 11 as well. The value of No. 11 had risen considerably since the 1830s, reaching £12 10s., with the valuers describing it as a first-class-B-plus house measuring eight by eight yards over two storeys. The rear outbuilding was recorded as a first-class-B structure of roughly the same footprint.

In 1864 the house was occupied by a Ms Eliza Johnston and subsequently by the Reverend T. Boyd. Around this time, both Nos. 9 and 11 were purchased by the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church on Meeting Street for use as the Church Manse — the Presbyterian Church in Hillsborough having opened in 1833. The Reverend Galbraith Johnston, who had served as a chaplain to the forces during the Crimean War of 1853–56, was the incumbent from 1857 to 1888. In 1880 a Ms Forbes is recorded as sole occupant of No. 11, with the Reverend Galbraith Johnston next door. Ms Forbes is replaced on the valuation list in 1897 by the Reverend W. C. Steele, who had been installed as minister in 1891 and during his incumbency erected a new Manse on the Hillsborough–Lisburn Road at a cost of £1,200, effectively ending the use of No. 11 as the Manse. The Reverend Steele occupied No. 11 until 1904, when a Mr Samuel Johnston came into possession, though a Mrs Steele continued to occupy No. 9 as late as 1916.

The 1901 Census records the occupant as the Reverend William Charles Steele, aged 40, living with his wife Annie (40) and their infant daughter Ruby (1). The house was then a first-class dwelling of eight inhabited rooms, with the rear outbuilding in use as a stable. By 1911 the house was no longer used as the Church Manse. That year Robert Bell, aged 40 and a baker by trade, lived there with his wife Mary (33) and their young son Freddy (2), with the outbuilding serving as both a store and a stable. Robert Bell is the last occupant recorded before the Annual Revisions close in 1930.

The historical record is supported by scholarly commentary. Walker and Brett both confirm a late 18th-century construction date, with Brett recording the original design as a single seven-bay unit with a shared coach arch. In 1974 Brett described the building as "stucco, two-storey and basement, Victorian-glazed, with a fine wide three-light doorcase with fan, and good railing." The building was listed in 1976. Renovation work was carried out in 1980, a conservatory was added to the rear return in 1994, and the Victorian windows were renovated in 1999. When Brett revisited the building in 2002 he observed that the stucco had since been stripped away, writing that "the work has been sensitively done and the modest façade disclosed is quite charming, perhaps the prettiest of all the pretty buildings in Hillsborough Main Street," though he noted that No. 9 had not been similarly restored in keeping with their shared original design. The house was extended at the rear around 2005.

Setting

The house forms part of a terrace of buildings of varying dates lining the west side of Main Street on a sloping site, and sits within a conservation area. Together with No. 9 next door, it makes a particular contribution to the group value and intact Georgian character of the street.