20 Drumnascamph Road, Banbridge, CRAIGAVON, County Down, BT63 6DU

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay former manse built around 1878, located in Drumnascamph Townland north of The Point at Lawrencetown. The building was constructed as a replacement for an earlier manse dating from around 1830 that had occupied the same site.

The house is composed on a rectangular plan with a rear catslide extension and converted loft space. The roof is hipped with natural slate covering, modern rooflights, and angled clay ridge tiles. Twin rendered chimneystacks with moulded caps rise from the centre, and the eaves feature ogee gutters with exposed rafter tails. The walls are painted render with ruled-and-lined finish and stepped quoins at the angles.

The principal south-facing elevation is symmetrical, three openings wide to each floor arranged about a central doorcase. Windows throughout are six-over-six timber sliding sashes with painted masonry sills and plain reveals. The original rectangular central doorcase opening has been altered to an elliptical arch with spiderweb fanlight and replacement door, somewhat compromising the original plan form. The east elevation is two windows wide and extends to the right with a rear extension. The rear elevation is abutted by the catslide extension with central gabled return. The west elevation was not inspected.

The building stands in a garden setting with an outbuilding to the rear, detailed similarly with painted rendered walling. Access is via a circular tarmac drive leading to a tarmac forecourt, entered from the south through a pair of cast-iron gates with spear-headed finials supported on rendered square piers with pointed stone caps and flanked by set-back entrance walls. Lawns occupy the front, with a secondary entrance to the rear. The rural setting survives and forms part of the property's character.

The manse was rebuilt by Reverend John Morison, minister from 1874 to 1911, as his family grew to five children. The earlier manse on the site, named Fannymount, was noted as "not completely finished" in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 and occupied by Reverend John Johnston, minister from 1811 to 1858. Johnston was a noted evangelical preacher who was elected Moderator of the General Assembly in 1858 and played a key role in the 1859 Revival. The building underwent extensive reconstructional work around 1900. Reverend John Knox Ferguson Watson (minister 1958-1971) later undertook a refurbishment of the exterior and laid the tarmac drive, with much voluntary labour contributed by congregation members. The building served as a manse until at least 1970 before passing out of Presbyterian church hands and into private residential use.

The original plan form, ornamentation and detailing largely survive, and the house represents a good example of the late nineteenth-century manse type, with its former ecclesiastical use remaining of historical note. Its setting has also been preserved.