’The Rectory’, 52 Parsonage Road, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2RL

The Rectory at 52 Parsonage Road, Kircubbin, is a large two-storey rectory house built in 1843, situated a quarter of a mile east of Kircubbin amidst leafy surroundings on the north side of Parsonage Road. It was constructed to serve as the rectory for the newly built Church of the Holy Trinity in Main Street, Kircubbin.

The building is roughly square in plan with a hipped roof, finished in Bangor blue slates. The roof is pitched and hipped, with four rendered chimney stacks with matching decorative pots, and the roof overhang is supported on exposed paired joist ends. The facade is rendered with moulded quoins to the first floor below a plain thick string course.

The south-east front elevation is symmetrical with three bays, the central bay projecting forward approximately 10 centimetres. The central feature is an imposing single-storey flat-roofed porch with timber-panelled double doors and a simple fanlight above. The porch is supported on pilasters with a simple entablature decorated with garlands and friezes, above which sits a decorative moulded balustrade. Round-headed windows light the porch on the south-west and north-east sides. The slightly recessed bays flanking the porch each contain a sashed window with Georgian panes to the ground floor, with similar windows to the first floor of all three bays. Above the gutter line of the central bay is a small gable or pediment containing a date plaque marking 1843.

The south-west elevation is symmetrical, featuring two large timber tripartite sashed windows with heavy, slightly projecting decorative surrounds on the ground floor, and three single sashed windows on the first floor, all with Georgian panes. The north-east elevation, also symmetrical, has three large sashed windows to the ground floor and three smaller sashed windows to the first floor, all with Georgian panes.

The rear elevation contains a single-storey full-width lean-to extension with a central timber-panelled door flanked by two small sashed windows. The first floor of the main house features a central multi-pane round-headed window lighting the stairwell, with a small sashed window to its left. A gabled store extension is attached to the north corner of the house.

A large portion of the front elevation and all of the south-west elevation are covered in climbing greenery. The property appears to be largely intact.

The enclosed yard to the rear contains two-storey outbuildings to the north-west and a high wall to the south-west. The entrance to the site from Parsonage Road features square gate posts with carved pineapple finials and decorative cast iron gates. A mounting stone, used in the days of horse travel, survives in the front garden.