The Old Manse, 56 Moyle Road, Newtownstewart, Strabane, Co.Tyrone, BT78 4JT

The Old Manse is a handsome two-storey, three-bay house dating from around 1900, situated on the west side of Moyle Road in Newtownstewart. The building is square on plan with full-height canted bays to the principal north and east elevations. It is characterized by good proportions and understated ornamentation, notably the balance of round- and square-headed windows, bracketed eaves, and particularly ornate yellow brick chimneystacks with exaggerated corniced and corbelled-out caps and decorative black brick banding.

The roof is hipped around a central valley, finished in natural slate with terracotta ridge and hip tiles and rolled lead hips to the canted bays. Rainwater goods are uPVC on overhanging eaves supported on profiled timber brackets. The walling is roughcast rendered over a smooth cement-rendered plinth with Roman-cement V-channelled quoins, string course and architrave. Windows are 1/1 timber sashes with horns, square-headed to the ground floor and round-headed to the first floor, all paired (except those to the canted bays), with moulded surrounds and projecting plain sills.

The principal north elevation features a canted bay to the right, with a central square-headed entrance opening containing a double-leaf timber door with a plain semi-circular overlight. Each leaf is decorated with two bolection-moulded panels and retains original brass knocker, knob and letterbox. Access is by two cast-concrete platform steps. The east (garden) elevation mirrors the principal elevation in detail but with the canted bay to the left, and the central square-headed former garden entrance is now infilled by an obscurely glazed window. The rear elevation's left and central bays are abutted at ground floor by a lean-to timber conservatory over a roughcast plinth wall, surmounted by two single windows with plain reveals. The right bay has a paired window to each floor. The west elevation has three equally spaced pairs of windows to each floor, though two are uPVC replacements.

The interior is well preserved, with original layout and many features intact. Valuation records from 1903 describe the house as "very well built and well designed", equipped with hot and cold water, bath, W.C., linen closet, three reception rooms and five bedrooms. By 1934, the description lists three reception rooms, kitchen, scullery, pantry, three bedrooms, boxroom, servant's bedroom, and bathroom with hot and cold water and W.C. Electric lighting was installed by 1935.

To the rear stands a rectangular two-storey block formerly used as a coach house, now converted to an annexe with modern window and door insertions. A pair of wrought-iron gates hung on octagonal cast-iron piers leads to a paved yard enclosed between the house and annexe, with modern lean-to garages to the west side.

The property is set within mature, well-maintained landscaped gardens planted with specimen trees and shrubs and an ornamental pond. It is bounded to the road by hedging and accessed at the north-east via a gravel drive marked by an alcoved entrance consisting of a pair of cast-iron gates and matching curved rails over a plinth wall. These are flanked by four square rendered piers with round-headed panels, corniced caps and cusped gableted finials with trefoil detail. A secondary wrought-iron field gate on slender octagonal cast-iron piers stands to the south-west. The ornate gate screen and three other sets of cast and wrought-iron gates contribute significantly to the building's character.

The house first appears on the third-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905, captioned "Manse". It was built to serve the Presbyterian congregation at Newtownstewart, with which it has clear group value. The building is first recorded in valuation records in 1903 as "The Manse", then occupied by Reverend D. Morton and leased from the Trustees of the Presbyterian Church. Reverend Morton's ministry was of notable length, lasting from his ordination on 13 March 1890 until his death on 24 December 1950. The manse was built around the time of the reunification of the two local Presbyterian congregations on 18 February 1903, largely through Reverend Morton's initiative. He also oversaw the construction of the new church building in 1910.