2 Crossgar Road, Ballynahinch, Co. Down, BT24 8EN

Two Storey Hipped Roof Victorian Methodist Manse, 1880-81

This is a two-storey Victorian Methodist manse house built in 1880-81 at a cost of £600, located at the east end of Crossgar Road, northeast of Ballynahinch town centre. The building is listed as a house with its outbuilding.

The front façade faces southwest and is symmetrical. At ground floor centre stands a flat-roofed porch with a panelled entrance door on its southeast face, finished with a simple moulded surround. The front face of the porch features a semicircular-headed window opening with moulded surround and plain sash frame. On either side of the porch are pairs of windows matching the porch window design. The first floor has three windows, similar in style but smaller, with segmental heads. The northwest façade is blank. The southeast façade contains a ground floor window to the right and a first floor window, both styled as the first floor front windows except the ground floor example is taller.

The southeast façade merges with the southeast face of a two-storey rear return. This return has a large modern window with PVC frame to the ground floor and two smaller windows with PVC frames to the first floor. Its northwest face is blank.

The rear elevation comprises, from left to right, the return, a full-height lean-to structure, and the rear façade of the main building. The lean-to features a partly glazed stable door to the ground floor and a large modern window with PVC frame to the first floor. The rear façade of the main building has a ground floor window with segmental head and sash frame with vertical glazing bars (two panes over two), and a similar but smaller first floor window with plain sash frame.

An outbuilding is attached to the gable of the return. This outbuilding has an elliptical carriage arch cut through it, providing access to the rear yard. To the northwest face, beside the arch, is a timber-sheeted door with a small glazed panel, and an upper level loft door also of sheeted timber. A mono-pitched roof garage is attached to the southeast face of the outbuilding, extending in lean-to fashion over the northeast gable.

The front façade, northwest and southeast façades are finished in rusticated render at ground floor level, with lined render and chamfered quoin detailing above. The rear façade, lean-to, return and outbuilding are finished in lined render. The porch is topped with a cornice and blocking course. All buildings are painted.

The main roof is hipped, covered in natural slate with slight overhang and bracketed eaves course to front, northwest and southeast façades. Two tall rendered chimney stacks stand at the centre. The return roof is mainly gabled but appears to have a flat section where it intersects with the main house. The gabled sections are covered in natural slate, as is the outbuilding roof. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

The ground floor of the rear return originally housed the pantry and utility room, but has been largely amalgamated with the main house since at least the 1970s. The building was sold from the Methodist church to the Reid family in the mid-1900s, then to the Kennedy family in the 1980s. The current owner acquired the property in 1998.