Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB19/05/006

Address :
Hillsborough Private Clinic Cromlyn House 2 Main Street Hillsborough County Down BT26 6AE

Townland:
Hillsborough

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
01/12/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Health Centre

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
184/5NE

IG Ref:
J2433 5879

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

End of terrace three-bay two-storey over basement rendered former townhouse, built c.1770. U-shaped on plan facing west located at the bottom of Main Street with substantial north side elevation fronting onto the entrance gate screen of St. Malachy's Church (HB19/05/001A). Hipped natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and rolled leaded hip ridges. Two rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots, one to the front pitch and a further stack rising from the rear gable to the north projection. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Painted ruled and lined rendered walling to front and north side elevations with rusticated rendered quoins, rough-cast rendered to rear elevation with rubblestone walling visible to the south side elevation. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and timber sash windows. Symmetrical two-storey over basement front west elevation, five windows wide, over railed basement area. Original 3/3 timber sash windows to the first floor with nineteenth-century 6/6 timber sash windows to the ground floor. Replacement timber sash and timber casement windows to the basement. Round-headed front entrance containing square-headed door opening with replacement double-leaf timber panelled door flanked by rendered pilasters to impost mouldings with moulded surround and keystone above; timber lintel cornice and webbed timber fanlight over. Door opens onto pavement flanked by decorative spear-headed railing on plinth wall, bridging basement area and continuing to entire basement area of both elevations with decorative iron brackets. Two-storey over basement north side elevation, four windows wide, detailed as per front elevation. Symmetrical rear elevation with gabled projection to the north and hipped projection to the south. Irregular fenestration pattern with original and replacement 8/8 timber sash windows, the central recessed bay having original 8/12 timber sash windows to the ground and basement levels. Iron door to the basement level of the north projection opening onto small paved yard enclosed to the north by tall rendered wall with modern steel gates. South side elevation abutted by adjoining building (No.4). Carriage arch opening to the adjoining building reveals rubblestone walling to the south elevation of the south projection with lime mortar. Setting: Corner-sited terminating the north end of a terrace of street-fronted buildings of various types lining the east side of Main Street. The double elevation faces both to Main Street and to the forecourt of the entrance to St. Malachy's Church (HB19/05/001A). Roof Natural slate RWG Cast-iron Walling Ruled and lined render Windows Timber sash

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

No. 2 Main Street first appears on an illustrated plan of Hillsborough dated 1803 as an oblong building situated at the bottom of the hill on Main Street in close proximity to the gate screen of the Parish Church of St. Malachi. The map records that the house was owned by a Mr. Garrett at this time. The first Ordnance Survey map of 1833 records No. 2 Main Street as the first building on the left terrace proceeding up Main Street; at that time only one of the rear returns is evident giving the house an L-shape. In 1833 the rear out office, which is the same width as the house, is visible at the rear of the yard but has since been converted into a separate dwelling. The Townland Valuation map of the same period (1830s) depicts the house in its current configuration with two rear returns giving it a U-shape. The Townland Valuation valued the house at £16. and records that the house was occupied by a Doctor Moorhead. There is no discernible change to the property on the Ordnance Survey maps between 1858 and 1920, however in 1861 the house was increased in value to £20. 10s. by Griffith who recorded the occupant as a Mr. Henry Murray. Murray lived in No. 2 Main Street until 1864 when the Annual Revisions record that a [Phileas / Phyllis] Moorhead came into possession and resided there until 1873 when the Rev. Smith (likely an assistant minister of either Hillsborough Parish or Presbyterian Church) became the new owner. The next owner of No. 2 Main Street was Mr. James Alexander Vaughan, an Accountant, who lived in the house until his death in 1894 (Graveyard Inscriptions, p. 94; PRONI Will 27/01/1896). Vaughan married a Ms. Isabella Wardhaugh who was the daughter of Mark Wardhaugh, an agent of Lord Downshire (HB19/05/071; Graveyard Inscriptions, pp 93-94). After Vaughan’s death a Mr. James H. Crane came into possession of the house; however in 1903 the Annual Revisions recorded the occupant of the house as his daughter Mary Jane Crane. The 1910 Ulster Towns Directory records that Sergeant Major James H. Crane worked as a caretaker in the Downshire Estate Office and was also the drill inspector at Hillsborough Fort (Ulster Town Directory; Barry, p. 44). Mary Jane Crane continued to be recorded as the occupant of No. 2 Main Street until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930. The 1901 Census records that James’ wife Matilda Crane (51), a local dressmaker, lived in No. 2 Main Street with her daughter, Mary Jane (32) who was a teacher of needlework and her son Joseph John Crane (31) who was employed as an Assistant Professor in a Training College. James H Craig (64) was not recorded at the house during the night of the census; however he was stationed at the estate offices in Small Park, where he worked as an ‘Army Pensioner Office Keeper.’ The census recorded No. 2 Main Street as a 1st class dwelling consisting of nine inhabited rooms. In 1911 the Census records that James and Matilda had been married for 42 years. In that year the house was used as the local post office, replacing the former post office which was previously situated in No. 19 Main Street (HB19/05/022); Mary Jane and her cousin Annie Crane were employed as Post Mistresses. The out office return records that the house possessed two stables, a coach house, two cow houses, a fowl house, a potato house, a shed and a store in the offices at the rear of the yard. The house has not possessed a coach arch but rather access is through a gap between No. 2 and one of the Parish Church Gate Lodges. Field inspection supports a date of c. 1770; a plaque beside the door records the building as ‘Cromlyn House.’ No. 2 Main Street was listed category B2 in 1976. Since c. 1990 the house has been used as a Private Medical and Hearing Clinic. In 1997 renovations were carried out on the premises resulting in few original features remaining (NIEA File). In 2002 Brett described the building as ‘a five bay two-storey plus basement house of stucco, with fanlight and Georgian glazing upstairs, turning the corner neatly to the Church Screen’ (Brett, p. 20). References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI D671/M/8/25 – Hillsborough Map c.1800 2. PRONI D671/M/8/57/1 – Hillsborough Illustrated Map 1803 3. PRONI VAL/1/B/344 A-B – Townland Valuations 1834 4. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/5 – Town Plan 1834 5. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834 6. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1858 7. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-1903 8. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920 9. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45A-C – Griffith’s Valuation 1856-64 10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908 13. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928 14. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930 15. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1896) 16. Ulster Town Directory (1910) Secondary Sources 1. Barry, J., ‘Hillsborough: A parish in the Ulster plantation’ (3rd ed.), Belfast, Universities Press., 1982. 2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974. 3. ‘Gravestone Inscriptions: Vol. 18 Co. Down’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1979. 4. NIEA File – HB19/05/006.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

End of terrace three-bay two-storey over basement rendered former house, built c.1770. The diminutive proportions of this eighteenth-century house are indicative of the predominant character of the town's early built fabric. The rear elevation, with its two projections and early sash windows, evoke the eighteenth century character of this building and although the interior has been much altered, the external composition remains intact and terminates the east terrace of buildings on Main Street. Set in a prominent location adjacent to the entrance screen to St. Malachy's Church (HB19/05/001A), the building has group value with the church buildings and stands out as a significant building within Hillsborough Conservation Area.

General Comments

Date of Survey

07 September 2010