Magherally Rectory, 46 Kilmacrew Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4EP

Magherally Rectory is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay Georgian rectory built around 1780, situated to the north of Kilmacrew Road, west of its junction with The Cut, immediately east of St John's Church. The building retains its original character and proportions, as well as its floor plan, although these have been compromised by extensive renovations and a modern extension. Its principal interest lies in its early date and its longstanding historic association with the adjacent St John's Church and the former Magherally Old Church nearby, and the combined contribution all three buildings make to the local community and landscape.

The rectory takes an L-shaped plan form, with rear and side extensions added over time. The roof is hipped and clad in natural slate with clay hip and ridge tiles. The chimneys are rendered in ruled-and-lined finish with corbelled upper courses and tall decorative octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast iron. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined cement render with corbelled eaves. Windows throughout are 1/1 timber sliding sashes with no horns and plain reveals set on granite cills; those at first-floor level are diminished in height. The front door is timber-sheeted with a round-headed fanlight above featuring radial glazing bars, set within plain moulded stone surrounds with plinth blocks, over a granite threshold reached by granite steps.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is symmetrically composed. The front door is centrally positioned, with two windows to either side at ground-floor level. At first-floor level, the central feature is a round-headed timber sliding sash with radial glazing bars beneath a gablet, flanked by two windows to either side.

The northwest elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with three 3/6 sliding sash windows at first-floor level to the left and a single ground-floor window. At ground-floor left, the wall is abutted by a modern flat-roofed link block that connects to a small hipped-roof block with a chimney. This extension has a slated roof, ruled-and-lined rendered walling, 1/1 sliding sash windows to its southeast elevation, and a large double-glazed door to the rear.

The rear elevation is also asymmetrically arranged. A round-headed sliding sash window sits left of centre at landing level, and a replacement casement picture window occupies the ground floor right. The centre of this elevation is abutted by a single-storey hipped ancillary accommodation block with casement windows and a door to its left cheek. A two-storey lean-to section, dating from the mid-19th century, occupies the re-entrant angle of the L-plan, with two diminished-in-height windows at both ground and first-floor level on its northeast face. The southeast elevation has a single window at both ground and first-floor level to the right.

The setting is partially screened from the road by trees lining the grounds on the roadside boundary. To the south, the property is bounded by a rubble masonry wall and entered through squared masonry piers hung with wrought-iron gates with cast decorative details. A short sweeping driveway approaches the front and right side of the house. A garage to the northeast is of no architectural interest. St John's Church lies immediately to the west of the rectory and is linked to it by a short path. Beyond the rectory grounds, the landscape is open and rural.

The building's history is well documented. According to the Archaeological Survey of County Down, it was constructed in 1780 as a two-storey glebe house with a cellar and slated roof. The first edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1833 record the property — then known as the Glebe House — as originally L-shaped, erected beside an ancient rath fort. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that it was occupied at that time by the Reverend William Filgate, and the Townland Valuations rated the property at £12 8s. By 1860, the layout had changed: a smaller eastern addition had been constructed, giving the main block a more square arrangement, and a northwest-facing return or outbuilding had also been added between 1833 and 1860, preserving the overall L-shaped character of the site. This rear return has since been replaced by a modern extension. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 recorded that the Church of Ireland owned the property outright as a freehold, valued at £21, and that Reverend Filgate remained in occupation.

Filgate vacated the glebe in 1867, when the Reverend George Reid took over clerical duties at Magherally Old Church and moved in. Over the following sixty years the property continued to be occupied by successive ministers serving both Magherally Old Church and, after its construction, St John's Church. The value of the glebe was increased to £23 in 1871, though the reason for this is not known; it is possible that interior alterations were carried out around that time, though this cannot be confirmed. The third edition Ordnance Survey maps, surveyed between 1903 and 1918, first depicted the rectory in its current form as a square-plan building with its northwest-facing return.

St John's Church was begun in 1885, completed and dedicated in 1887, and built less than 300 feet to the west of the rectory, connected to it by a path for the clergyman's convenience. The 1901 census records the rectory as occupied by the Reverend Robert Quirk, aged 51, born in County Wicklow, who lived there with his sister Jane, aged 55. The building return described it as a first-class dwelling of 13 rooms. By the time of the 1911 census, the property also had associated outbuildings including a stable, cow house, dairy, piggery, and barn, most likely housed within the northwest-facing extension. Quirk remained in residence until 1916, when the Reverend Richard Crawford took over, continuing to occupy the property until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

The northwest return or outbuilding was demolished between 1918 and the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map published in 1974, and since the 1970s a modern single-storey extension has been added to the northwest side of the dwelling. The rectory was listed in 1977. It continues to serve as the residence for the clergy of both Magherally and the Parish of Annaclone, the two parishes having merged in 1977. The listing extends to the house and gate screen walls.