1 Church Hill, Carnacavill, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0JU

1 Church Hill, Carnacavill

A substantial two-storey gabled house with late Victorian appearance, positioned roadside on the east of Church Hill Road near its junction with Newcastle Road. The building began life as a single-storey dwelling of pre-1834 construction, and was raised in height in the latter decades of the 19th century, probably around 1872.

The asymmetrical west-facing front façade features a small gabled porch at left of centre, with a timber-panelled door to front and a four-pane window to each side. To the left of the porch is a relatively small sash window with vertical glazing bars (2 panes over 2). To the right of the porch are two similar windows, with four further similar windows set in unevenly spaced gabled half-dormers to the first floor. The south gable of the main house is blank.

Attached to the north gable is a part single, part two-storey rubble-built outbuilding (the road slopes downwards to this side). This has two timber-sheeted doorways to front, a multi-pane semicircular arched window to the north gable, and a timber-sheeted door with modern upper-level window to the rear east façade. This outbuilding was re-roofed in 1872.

To the right side of the rear east façade is a large two-storey return, part hipped and part gabled. This has three ground-floor windows with modern frames and three first-floor sash windows, those to the right matching the front sashes, and that to the left set at higher level with plain glazing. The south face of the return has a timber-sheeted ground-floor door. The north-east corner of the return is bevelled, accommodating what was formerly a horse walk—the raised circular platform of which remains partly visible to the rear. The horse walk appears to have been operating in the late 1800s based on the bevel design.

The main house is finished in plain render and painted, with a slate roof featuring four evenly spaced yellow brick chimney stacks to the main ridge and PVC rainwater goods. The attached outbuilding is unrendered rubble. Further single-storey outbuildings to the east and south are partly rubble and partly brick-built.

The building appears on Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1859 as a single-storey dwelling. It was not recorded in the valuation of circa 1835 but appears in that of 1863 when owned by a Mr Stevenson. Through marriage the property later passed to a Mr Moore, whose descendants appear to have retained it until the mid-20th century.