Milecross House, 49 Belfast Road, Milecross, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 4TR

Milecross House is an unusual and flamboyant two and a half storey residence built in 1910 to designs by architect James Hanna. Set prominently on a rise north of Belfast Road, less than a mile northwest of Newtownards, it makes one of the most distinctive houses on the approach to the town.

The building is typically Edwardian in character but lifted beyond the ordinary by its decorative full-height corner projections. It displays an eclectic blend of Arts and Crafts and Jacobean influences, with an asymmetric composition, steeply pitched red tile roof, red brick and roughcast façade.

The south-facing front façade is divided by two striking projecting bays. The southeast corner features a full-height red brick projection with a shaped Jacobean gable and finial. Its ground floor contains a sandstone-dressed doorway with timber glazed door featuring coloured glass. The first floor has a timber mullioned and transomed window. Segmental arch-headed windows with sandstone lintels and timber mullioned frames with coloured glass light the ground floor of the short southwest and northeast faces. The southwest corner comprises a faceted tower-like full-height projection in red brick and sandstone, distinctive for its crown-like parapet with scooped crenellations and finials. Ground and first floor windows to all faces are mullioned and transomed with sandstone dressings, with one ground floor opening resembling a double door. Between the two projecting bays, the centre of the front façade is finished in white painted roughcast and contains two timber mullioned and transomed windows at ground floor, with a larger sandstone-dressed window at first floor set within a substantial gabled half dormer above. A timber pergola with decorated shaped columns on squat brick piers stretches between the projections; this was recently constructed to replace a balcony with nearly identical detailing.

The large east gable is finished in unpainted roughcast. It contains a ground floor window with modern frame and a first floor timber mullioned and transomed window, with two smaller casement windows at attic level. A substantial two-storey red brick projection attached at the north side of this gable has a red tiled gabled roof with modern timber window to its ground floor south-facing gable and a casement window at first floor. The east façade of this projection carries a large lean-to garage with modern up-and-over door set in a large flat arched opening. North of this, built haphazardly on rising ground, is a corrugated iron and PVC garage or shed.

The west gable features a multi-sided flat-roofed bay to the left at ground floor, glazed to all sides with many small leaded panes, with a timber mullioned and transomed window above and an attic window above that. The right side of this gable is dominated by a large expanse of red brick stretching from the southeast corner tower-like projection to the centre, narrowing to form the central chimney breast, with an attic window emerging from its top. The left side is finished in roughcast. The main house has steeply pitched gabled roof with red clay tiles and three irregularly spaced red brick chimney stacks, with exposed rafter ends at the verge.

To the rear, set into the hillside, is a split-level gabled return that appears almost like a separate house. This section likely incorporates elements of an earlier dwelling on the site, Milecross Cottage, built circa 1850, possibly by George Dickson of a local horticultural family. The return's west façade is split-level, with a sash window with horizontal glazing bars and modern-framed window at lower basement-like level. At higher ground level is a timber-panelled door with plain fanlight, a canted bay with sash windows to each face featuring vertical and horizontal glazing bars, and a large mullioned and transomed window. A canted bay-like projection without window openings marks the gable end of this section. All facades of the return are finished in roughcast render. Its gabled roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and has two brick chimney stacks and a small flat-roofed dormer to the east side near the ridge. The east façade of the return is largely obscured by the adjacent haphazardly constructed outbuilding.

The house is well preserved both internally and externally. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout. At the south boundary of the front garden is a small dilapidated gate with panelled piers that appears to predate the house. A tree within the garden boundary partly obscures the south-facing façade.