26 Comber Road, Ballyministragh, Killinchy, Co Down, BT23 6PB

26 Comber Road, Ballyministragh, Killinchy, County Down

A two-storey double pile house with canted bays, set close to Comber Road with its ground floor positioned well below road level. The building now serves as a manse for the nearby Killinchy Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.

The house presents a late Victorian appearance, though its origins are more complex. A building is recorded on this site on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834. By 1859–60, a larger L-shaped structure occupied the site, marked as a constabulary barrack. In 1893, the valuation books record a new house—the present building—constructed with costs of £400, with builders making use of the old foundations of the barracks. The new dwelling was built to serve as the manse for Killinchy Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.

The front east façade is symmetrical, with a central panelled door to the first floor reached via a small bridge from the roadside. The door has a semicircular fanlight, all encased with fluted pilasters and a semicircular archivolt, cut off at the very top by the eaves course. The bridge itself features a tiled walkway. On either side of the doorway is a full-height canted bay with a sash window with horizontal glazing bars, simple surround and cill course. At ground level each bay has three windows with modern frames, lacking surrounds and cill courses. The bays are topped with hipped and slated roofs with finials.

The north façade has a double gable with a sash window (matching the front style) set at an intermediate level, left of centre. At the north side the ground slopes away gradually, with a laneway leading to the church a short distance to the west. The roof to the north gable displays sawtooth red clay ridge tiles.

The south façade has a large modern lean-to structure with fixed light windows and a glazed door. The main south façade contains windows with modern frames, and to the rear is a roughly central glazed door with two windows with modern frames to each side. The first floor has three evenly spaced sash windows matching those on the front.

The exterior is finished in lined render and painted. The roofs are gabled with Bangor blue slates and overhangs. Four rendered chimney stacks with coping serve the building. The south extension uses asbestos-free slates. PVC rainwater goods are fitted throughout. Simple wrought iron railings border the walkway, front and north side.

Historical records show that the first occupant was Reverend Joseph Geary. By the 1910 census, he resided here with a single domestic servant, the house recorded as a second-class dwelling with nine rooms. By 1911, Reverend David John Williams, Welsh-born, had taken up residence with his wife Annie and three young sons, the house then recorded with ten rooms. The property continued to be occupied as a manse until at least 1998, though it appears to have been vacated in the early 2000s. A hall immediately to the rear (west) was built in 1898, originally functioning as a lecture hall and Sunday school with offices on the lower floor.