First Presbyterian Church Manse, 24 Main Street, Greyabbey, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2NE

First Presbyterian Church Manse

A substantial two-storey manse in Georgian style, built around 1862 and set prominently at the intersection of Main Street and the Newtownards Road in Greyabbey. The building is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins and a pitched roof of Bangor blue slates, with two brick chimney stacks.

The front east elevation is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor stands a panelled timber door with moulded timber surround and radial elliptical arch fanlight above. The door and fanlight are set within an elliptical arch opening with fluted pilasters and surround to the arch marked by a keystone. To the right of the doorway is a sash window with Georgian panes (8/8) with simple moulded surround to the opening and keystone. To the left is another similar window, with three similar but slightly smaller windows evenly spaced across the first floor.

The north gable has a ground floor window matching the front, with a small pointed arch attic window featuring Y tracery near the gable apex. The south gable is largely blank, accommodating a large lean-to extension which now houses a garage to the front, with a gabled shed or store attached to its rear. The lean-to extension front features a flat arch with plain timber sheeted double garage doors.

To the centre of the rear elevation is a large two-storey gabled return with modern windows and door to the ground floor and sash windows with horizontal astragals to the first floor. The rear of the main house has two first-floor windows matching those on the front on either side of the return, and three ground floor windows: two narrow ones to the left of the return and one larger window to the right.

A high rendered wall stands to the north side of the front of the house, with steps leading to the doorway. This wall originally stretched across the entire front but the south section has been demolished recently to allow vehicle access to the garage. The guttering and downpipes are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

According to a memorial in the nearby First Presbyterian Church, the manse was built in 1862 by Reverend Hall, who had overseen construction of the new church a few years previously. The lean-to section on the south gable, though perhaps not original, appears surprisingly old, as it is shown in a photograph of the manse dating from around 1885, though it was only recently in 1997 that it was converted into a garage. The rear return may be an early twentieth-century addition. A large gabled outbuilding stands to the rear of the house.