Old Ballydown Manse, 31 Old Manse Road, Banbridge, Co Down BT32 4JJ

Old Ballydown Manse is a two-storey detached dwelling built around 1840 in a Georgian-style with formalised vernacular appearance, located in the townland of Tullyear approximately 2.7 kilometres east of Banbridge town centre. The building is a good example of a surviving country manse in its largely original setting and retains considerable historic character despite some modern alterations.

The asymmetrical house is three bays wide with a pitched natural slate roof carrying three rendered chimneystacks and profiled rainwater goods on a corbelled eaves course. The walling is ruled-and-lined rendered finish over a slightly projecting plinth, with toothed quoins and a platband at first floor cill level. Windows are single-glazed 6/6 timber sashes with horns set in moulded architrave surrounds, with painted masonry cills. The asymmetrical front façade faces southwest and is five openings wide, arranged about a central square-headed door with a moulded canopy supported on console brackets. The door itself is eight-panelled timber with brass furniture and a transom light, opening onto a masonry step. A single storey return extends to the left side with no openings. The left gable facing northwest contains a single ground floor window and is abutted at its extreme right by a roughcast rendered wall with square piers supporting a wrought iron pedestrian gate. The rear elevation facing northeast has an irregular arrangement of window openings, all fitted with replacement uPVC windows. A single-storey flat-roofed extension abuts the left side, and a small return with a monopitch replacement slated roof projects to the right. The right gable facing southeast is blank and is abutted by a roughcast wall supporting a pair of monolithic granite piers with a wrought iron field gate providing access to the rear yard. A flat-roofed extension extends to the right side with no windows.

The setting is rural, close to Banbridge, with the rear yard enclosed by a two-storey rubble stone outbuilding with brick dressings and slated roof. A gravel forecourt and mature shrubs surround the property, accessed via wrought iron gates through a roughdashed curved walled entrance with square plan pillars.

Ordnance Survey maps indicate that a building stood on this site in 1833, though its orientation was markedly different (roughly east-west as opposed to the present north-south alignment), suggesting it represents an older structure that has since been demolished. The earlier building was not recorded in the contemporary first valuation, indicating it was relatively modest—probably single-storey. By 1860, Old Manse Road had been laid out and a building appeared on the current site, with the older structure still shown a short distance south. The 1862 valuation does not provide dimensional details, but the relatively low rateable value of £4–10–0 suggests the house may not have then possessed its current full extent. However, the present dwelling appears consistent with a date around 1840, though its asymmetric frontage might suggest that the section between the two northernmost chimneystacks was originally lower. There is no evidence of major changes after this date or in the early 1900s. A rise in rateable value to £6 by 1881 appears to reflect the inclusion of several additional farm buildings—a small house and outbuilding—that had previously been assessed separately.

From at least the early 1860s, the house and accompanying farm were held from the Whyte estate of Loughbrickland House by the Arlow family. James Arlow resided there until his death in 1869, after which it passed to his sons James and Samuel in succession. From 1872, the Arlows let the house to Reverend S. F. Bank of Ballydown Presbyterian congregation, whose church was located to the southeast on the Castlewellan Road but has since been demolished. The property became a de facto manse. Bank remained until around 1878, followed by Reverend James Wilson, then Reverend Joseph Dempster in 1887, and Reverend Edward Leinster in 1896. The 1901 census records Leinster, aged 30, residing here with his sister Minnie, aged 33, with the building noted as a first-class dwelling containing 11 rooms in use, suggesting the house had reached its present extent by that date. In 1908, following construction of a new manse on Castlewellan Road opposite the church site, the Old Manse was acquired from the Whyte estate by William Dobbin Wilson, a farmer recorded in the 1911 census as living here with his niece Margaret Urey, aged 42. Upon Wilson's death in 1912, Margaret took over possession of the farm, residing there until at least 1929.

Ordnance Survey maps show the house originally possessed a smaller projection at the south end, apparently replaced with the present extension after 1993. Historic detailing including ruled-and-lined rendered walling, toothed quoins, and moulded plaster surrounds to openings survive, though replacement uPVC windows have been fitted to the rear. The building is of local importance and holds social and cultural significance through its role as a manse for Ballydown Presbyterian Church from the 1870s to the early 1900s.