Alfred Eadie Hall, 28 Newcastle Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4AF

Alfred Eadie Hall, 28 Newcastle Street, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down

This is a much altered early 19th century church, erected in 1832, which now functions as a hall and is no longer of significant architectural interest.

The building is a single storey structure with one main bay and 20th century additions arranged at right angles to the east side of Newcastle Street. The main roof is pitched with natural slate and red clay ridges, gabled and coped at the front, whilst the wings are hipped with blue ridging. Eaves are flush with timber fascia. Half-round cast iron gutters and matching downpipes serve the building. All walls are roughcast rendered with smooth rendered plinth and smooth render dressings to all openings, all painted.

A single storey porch abuts the centre of the front elevation. The porch has a pitched natural slate roof with projecting eaves, slating carried over the verge. The gable features decorative cusped painted timber bargeboard. The porch front wall contains a pair of painted sheeted timber doors set within a Gothic headed opening. The cheeks of the porch are blank. In the apex of the gable above the porch is a circular louvred vent. Below this is a granite rectangular datestone inscribed '1832 / 1935' with labelled drip mould over.

On either side of the porch, the front wall contains a single double-height lancet window with cinquefoil head and leaded diamond glazing. The front wall of the left wing is a continuation of the front gable wall and contains a window similar to those flanking the porch, horizontally divided by a render transom. The right wing, slightly wider than the left, contains a similar window to its left. To the left of this latter window is a granite date plaque inscribed '1962', and below is a second stone inscribed 'The Alfred Eadie Hall'. The right gable of the right wing has modern three-pane painted timber windows to ground floor and first floor.

The rear elevation of the right wing is abutted by a single storey flat-roofed extension containing a modern glazed stained timber door and top-hung two-pane window to ground floor, with two similar windows to first floor. The right cheek of this extension has a top-hung two-pane window to each floor and a chimney in the corner with the side wall of the main block.

The exposed right elevation of the main block has two tall semicircular headed windows, each with a timber frame forming a pair of lancets with an opening vent set into each spandrel and painted cills.

The rear gable of the main building was originally a party wall of the original manse, now demolished. It is abutted at ground floor by a modern flat roof garage belonging to the present manse. The exposed gable is rendered and blank. The left elevation and rear elevation of the left wing, and the left side wall of the main block, are dashed and blank.

A dashed dwarf wall with relatively modern steel railings and two sets of gates encloses the front elevation to the street.

A 1950s manse stands to the rear, with two dressed granite datestones salvaged from the original manse inset into its porch wall. The larger stone states 'Church of the United Brethren / 1832', whilst a smaller tablet above reads 'AD 1828 / Revd. I.A.'. A granite rubble wall to the rear of the manse encloses a Moravian graveyard containing mainly late 19th and 20th century gravestones, all laid horizontally without surrounds. One stone commemorates Charlotte Josephine O'Neill, 'Who died 13 Sept. 1937 as a result of a motor accident'.

The Moravians originally worshipped at Mourne Abbey from 1763 to 1817. The present church was erected in 1832 along with a dwelling to the rear. The 1832 datestone was formerly positioned above the main door on the street-facing gable. The last Moravian service was held on 28 February 1915. The premises were subsequently sold to Kilkeel Presbyterian Church. The original manse was demolished in the 1950s to make way for the present one.