4 Glenmore Terrace, Mill Street, Hilden, Lisburn, Co.Antrim, BT27 4RW

4 Glenmore Terrace is a terraced two-bay two-storey redbrick house built around 1860. It forms one of a terrace of five similar houses, now a rare survivor, built for the overseers and foremen at Glenmore Bleach Works.

The house is L-shaped on plan with a two-storey return. It faces south, set back slightly from the north side of Mill Street, with an enclosed front garden bounded by a low rubblestone wall with painted stone coping and a pair of redbrick piers with ogee sandstone capstones supporting an iron pedestrian gate.

The pitched roof is natural slate with a pair of wall-head dormers, round black clay ridge tiles and lead valleys. Redbrick chimneysstacks with clay pots feature deep overhanging eaves and decorative timber bargeboards to the dormers with tall finials. The guttering is ogee-moulded cast iron, as is the downpipe.

The redbrick walling is laid in Flemish bond with cement pointing and a projecting plinth course. The two-bay front elevation has ogee-arched and square-headed window openings. The pair of wall-head dormers have ogee-arched window openings formed in polychromatic brick, each containing an original 3/3 timber sash window with gothic tracery to the upper sash. The ground floor has a square-headed window with an original 6/6 timber sash. To the right is a square-headed door opening with plain painted masonry surround, containing an original flat-panelled timber door with an original rectangular overlight with margin lights and cylinder glass. The door opens onto an original nosed sandstone step and clay tiled footpath. The rear elevation is narrow, two-storey rendered with a single wall-head dormer and square-headed window openings containing original timber sash windows.

A small rear yard is enclosed by a tall rendered wall with a timber sheeted door opening onto two concrete steps leading to the common rear area and garden to the north.

According to Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64, the terrace comprises five houses, four valued at £8.5s and the easternmost larger house valued at £11.10s. The occupier of this house was Thomas Ramsey at that time; by 1867 it was occupied by Thomas Cummins. The houses were leased from Richardson Sons and Owden, linen manufacturers. As they are larger and of finer quality than other workers' housing in the area, they were clearly intended for overseers or foremen.

The Richardson family were among the oldest linen families in the North of Ireland, settling in the early seventeenth century. They became Quakers and through intermarriage with other Quaker linen families, consolidated their commercial influence. Jonathan Richardson (1756-1851) pioneered winter bleaching at Glenmore, allowing year-round operation, and substantially expanded the business. In 1830 the family acquired an adjoining bleach green. Jonathan's son James took John Owden as a partner, founding J.N. Richardson, Sons & Owden. James purchased Lambeg House and renamed it Glenmore in 1835, though he died in 1847 leaving much of the business management to Owden, who was likely the prime mover in constructing Glenmore Terrace. Jonathan's brother, John Grubb Richardson, built the model village of Bessbrook in County Armagh with its spinning and weaving mills, which worked in conjunction with Glenmore. The Richardson family demonstrated consistent concern for the social and moral welfare of their workers, extending to provision of good-quality housing.

Most of the original fabric has been retained, including the original ogee-headed windows with cylinder glass and the original panelled front door with overlight. The house contributes significantly to the appearance of the terrace as a whole, each house possessing group value with the other listed properties in the terrace.