The Old Manse, 2 Lisburn Road, Hillsborough, Co Down, BT26 6AA

The Old Manse, 2 Lisburn Road, Hillsborough

This is a substantial detached two-storey, three-bay Edwardian villa with attic, built around 1903–1905 as one of an identical pair alongside its neighbour, No. 4. It stands in private grounds on the east side of Lisburn Road, a short distance north of Hillsborough village centre, just outside the Conservation Area boundary. The house was designed by the Dromore architect Henry William Edward Hobart, and the designs were published in the Irish Builder in 1903. It is one of the finer surviving examples of an early 20th-century villa in this part of County Down.

The listing extends to the house itself, the link block, the entrance screen, gates and piers.

Architectural Character and Exterior

The building sits on an irregular plan with a T-plan ridge. Full-height canted bay windows project from almost all elevations — to the principal west elevation, and also to the north and south — giving the house generous natural light throughout. A lean-to verandah runs across the west front. To the south-east there is a small single-storey kitchen extension, and to the north-east a single-storey link block connects the main house to a two-storey former stable building to the east, which was converted to a self-contained residential unit around 2016.

The roofs are pitched and hipped, covered in natural slate with stepped and pierced terracotta ridge crestings and finials over the canted bays. The valleys are leaded, and the chimneystacks are rendered with corniced caps and stop-end chamfered arrises over the party walls between bays to the west and south pitches and over the north pitch. The verandah roof has fishscale banding. Original-profile ogee gutters run over modillioned eaves to the main block and verandah; the link block has simpler corniced eaves. Downpipes are cast iron.

The walls are painted rendered, laid out with ruled-and-lined joints over a chamfered plinth, with string courses at ground floor ceiling level and first floor sill level framing decorative foliate apron panels beneath the first floor canted bay windows. A plain string course also forms a frieze between the first floor windows and the cornice. Windows are generally original plain timber sash windows with horns, some retaining original glazing, with some replacement double-glazed timber sashes. The principal elevations have stop-end chamfered reveals; the rear elevation and link block have plain reveals. Sills are painted stone throughout.

The Front (West) Elevation

The west elevation features a projecting canted bay to the right, with two openings to its left. The ground floor openings — including the central principal entrance — are covered by the verandah. This is a handsome open three-bay structure of timber posts with panelled spandrel brackets on decorative corbels, bedded on cast-iron plinths, with a red quarry-tiled platform reached by three full-width granite steps. The soffit is timber-boarded over exposed rafters. The original entrance door is set into a moulded reveal with a segmental-headed transom light above. The door itself comprises six bolection-moulded panels with a beaded muntin, and retains its original brass knob and knocker, both over-painted. The threshold is granite.

The North Elevation

The north elevation has a canted bay to the right and a large semi-circular arched timber-framed stairwell window to the centre, retaining original leaded and stained glass over the ground floor window below. The left bay is lower, with two windows to the ground floor and one at half-landing level, all reduced in size. The link block projects to the left.

The Rear (East) Elevation

The rear elevation is abutted at ground floor right by the link block. It has two ground floor windows, one first floor window set to the right, and a pair of closely spaced windows at attic level.

The Link Block

The link block has four windows to its north elevation. Its south elevation has been partly infilled. It now contains the re-positioned original rear door at the left — formerly located in the portion of the south wall removed for the kitchen extension — which has four etched glass top panels and two recessed lower panels. There is a replacement window to the right. The link block is abutted at its east end by the former stable building.

The South Elevation

The south elevation has a central projecting canted bay. To its right, two first floor windows sit above the flat-roofed single-storey extension that occupies the re-entrant angle, detailed with a plain frieze and cornice and having five windows. The left bay has one window to each floor.

Interior

The internal layout is spacious and of very high quality, largely intact. The house is planned to maximise light through the canted bays on almost all elevations. The 1911 Census House and Building Return recorded a first-class dwelling with 10 windows to the front and 14 occupied rooms, which gives an indication of the scale of the original arrangement.

The Stable Building

The two-storey former stable building to the rear has a central gablet over the former loading door. Its pitched slate roof has terracotta ridges and finials, with simple projecting eaves. The walls are ruled-and-lined rendered. Windows are generally replacement double-glazed timber sashes, with some plain glazed pivot windows to the loft. Although converted to residential use around 2016, the original external form remains legible.

The Setting and Entrance

The house occupies an elevated site in large grounds with mature trees. It shares undivided terraced lawns to the front with No. 4, with two flights of granite steps leading to the main entrance. The perimeter and rear gardens are tarmac-surfaced with a hedge boundary. The road boundary is tree-lined, with an alcoved entrance formed by quadrant ruled-and-lined rendered walling with a moulded coping, terminated by piers at either end. The central gate piers are taller, with stop-end pole-moulded arrises and cross-ridged caps, and carry a pair of original wrought-iron gates. The small modern single-storey extension to the side is considered wholly sympathetic to the main house and contributes to the character of the small courtyard formed between the main house and the stable to the rear.

Historical Background

The site was previously undeveloped, as shown on both the first (1835) and second (1862) editions of the Ordnance Survey map. The third edition revision of around 1904 does not yet show the houses, and they first appear in the valuation records in 1905. The pair was built for George and Henry Bell, brothers who were grocers, meat curers and general merchants trading elsewhere on Lisburn Street. The firm G & H Bell is listed in the provincial directory from 1890, and a George Bell is recorded as a grocer in Lisburn Street as early as 1861. The properties — comprising house, office and associated land — were built on land leased from the Marquis of Downshire.

Henry William Hobart (his full name being Henry William Edward Hobart) practised in partnership with Samuel Heron during the first decade of the 20th century, with offices in the Scottish Provident Buildings, Belfast. The firm had a varied output including villas and housing terraces across Counties Antrim, Armagh and Down.

By 1907, No. 2 was valued at £35 15s and was occupied by Herbert Wragg, with George Bell as immediate lessor. By 1910 Henry Bell was the resident and remained so through the later valuation revisions of 1928–30. Henry Bell, described in the 1911 Census as a Presbyterian Provision Merchant, aged 38, lived here with his son George (aged 5), daughter Margaret (aged 1), and a domestic servant named Anne Bell. Both houses originally had grass tennis courts in the gardens, which were used by the local community during the early 20th century. Out offices recorded at the time included a stable, harness room, cow house, boiling house and five stores.

The house, known originally as "The Lawn", appears as "The Manse" on the 25-inch Ordnance Survey map of the 1970s. It was purchased by the congregation of the adjacent Hillsborough Presbyterian Church in 1963 and served as the Presbyterian Manse until 2016, when it was bought by the present owners. Since then the kitchen has been extended to the south-east, the rear entrance has been relocated to the link block, and the mews building has been converted to residential accommodation. The firm G & H Bell is listed in the provincial directory until 1980, reappearing in 1986 as insurance and investment consultants.

The group value of Nos. 2 and 4 together is considered particularly high: an identical pair of detached Edwardian villas of this quality, retaining such a high degree of original fabric, is rare.