Newport House, 101 Culcavey Road, Maze, Co. Down

Newport House is a detached, asymmetrical two-storey house of early nineteenth-century date, situated on the west side of Culcavey Road near Maze, County Down, facing east. The building is constructed of rendered masonry with ruled and lined finish and vermiculated rusticated quoins to the central block. The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles; the canted projections are hipped with lead ridges. Two rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots rise from either end of the central block.

The plan is rectangular with a three-bay principal elevation and two projecting canted bays. The eastern front elevation comprises a central two-storey block with a gabled entrance porch, flanked by a taller two-storey three-sided canted bay to the south and a single-storey three-sided canted projection to the north. The windows are square-headed with timber sash frames and painted masonry sills. The central three-bay section has tripartite sashes diminishing in size to the upper floor (1/1 to ground floor, 3/3 with single-paned sidelights to first floor, and a central single 3/3 to first floor). Both canted bays are lit by single-pane timber sash windows. The rear western elevation is partly obscured by a single-storey lean-to extension with concrete tiled roof and replacement uPVC windows, some of which have been enlarged.

A range of single and two-storey rendered outbuildings extends to the rear. The principal outbuilding is a two-storey rendered structure with pitched natural slate roof and early 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, positioned at the north end of the house.

The setting comprises a complex of ancillary structures arranged around paved yards. A two-storey gabled former coal merchant's shop, attached to the house, displays carved timber bargeboard, a timber multi-paned sliding sash window to the first floor, natural slate roof, and painted rendered walls. Adjacent to this, at right angles, stands a 1½-storey gabled outbuilding with corrugated metal cladding to the north-facing roof slope, whitewashed roughcast rendered walls, and stone steps leading to a sheeted timber door at loft level to the western gabled end.

A barn of 1½ storeys comprises two connected sections: an eastern painted brick gabled bay with traditional agricultural sheeted timber sliding doors, and a western section of random rubble stone with red brick dressings to openings and traditional cut timber roof with pegged joints. Both sections have natural slate roofs and are connected by a door at loft level. Both the barn and former shop appear for the first time on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map. Additional outbuildings with corrugated metal barrel-vaulted roofs enclosing the yard along its south and west sides first appear on the 1902 Ordnance Survey map. The southern example is red brick with yellow brick dressings, while the western building features a cat-slide mono-pitched roof projecting into the yard, with walls and doors clad in painted corrugated metal. Within this mono-pitched projection sits a Belfast Truss Roof with additional parallel 'v' profile trusses running below, possibly feeders.

The front entrance is approached via a bitumac avenue set perpendicular to the road, running along the north elevation of the house and enclosed by hedging. The avenue terminates at the entrance in a simple cast iron railing and gate set between tapered octagonal posts. Hedging also encloses the front lawn, which is divided by a single footpath opening to the road via a decorative iron pedestrian gate. Opposite the bitumac avenue lies a former orchard, accessed through a further decorative iron gate set within a red brick arched opening.