Parochial House, 40 Jonesborough Village, Newry, Co. Armagh, BT35 8HP

Parochial House, Jonesborough

A late Victorian two-storey, three-bay parochial house aligned north-east to south-west, accessed from the east side of Jonesborough Village Road by a short planted avenue flanked by wrought-iron gates on rusticated granite ashlar posts with pyramidal caps. The avenue was formerly lit by cast-iron lights.

The main house has a hipped natural slate roof rising to a central flat section with a crested terracotta ridge and finials. Cement-rendered and painted walls are lined with a high advanced basecourse and four moulded stucco stringcourses—one at each cill level and one below each window head level. There is a cement-rendered and painted chimney on the party wall between each bay. A corbelled eaves course supports moulded cast-iron rainwater goods with downpipes to each end of the façade.

The principal north-west elevation is centred by a projecting entrance porch with a flat roof concealed behind a moulded and curved parapet with dentilled cornice. The porch's north-west face contains a window to centre with a decorative swept and fluted panel and narrow cornice above the window head. The north-east cheek contains the main entrance, accessed by three granite steps. An eight-panelled timber door with a narrow transom over is set within a segmental-headed reveal with keyblock; to either side above cill course level is a three-quarter engaged foliated colonette set on a chamfered base. The south-west cheek is similarly detailed but has been infilled with a shallow segmental-headed window (formerly a door accessed by two granite steps) with a cement-rendered cill. The left and right bays each have a window to each floor; ground floor windows are segmental-headed and first floor windows are flat-headed.

At first floor centre, set below a decorative gablet with stucco coping, moulded kneelers and a foliated cast-iron finial, is a taller and narrower margin-paned window with red-coloured margins. Above it is a pair of fixed semicircular-headed transoms breaking eaves level. Its head is framed by a pair of fluted pilasters rising from the top stringcourse and supporting a dentilled cornice. The gablet contains a two-centred arch with a central roundel and four smaller curved panels. All windows throughout are 1/1 sliding sashes with horns, set in stucco reveals with moulded heads and smooth rendered architraves (unless otherwise stated), with painted granite cills.

Each side elevation consists of two windows to each floor, those to the ground floor being segmental-headed. The rear elevation is completely abutted by two returns. Both returns are two-storey and detailed as a house but without stringcourses and with plain openings and metal security grilles to windows. The right return is aligned perpendicular to the main block with a pitched natural slate roof and a chimney set slightly left of centre. Its left cheek has a ground floor window to the right, and its right cheek has two equally aligned windows to each floor and a narrower one to the extreme right end at ground floor level. The end south-east gable is blank. The second return has a monopitched natural slate roof (hipped to the left end) and contains a modern eight-panelled timber door at left and a window to right. First floor has a pair of narrow windows to left and a semicircular-headed margin-paned 2/1 sliding sash window to right. Left cheek is blank and the right cheek abuts the right return.

To the rear of the main house is a range of mid-18th-century single-storey buildings formerly belonging to barracks, consisting of a three-bay block to the south-east of the site and a coach house to the south-west. Both have pitched natural slate roofs with an advanced eaves course and lime-rendered rubble stone walls with brick trim to openings.

The south-east block has seven openings. From left these are: two windows and a door to bay one; a window to bay two; a door and two windows to bay three. All window openings have been infilled with concrete blocks and have cement-rendered architraves and painted stone cills; internally they are 6/6 sliding sashes with horns. Each door opening is accessed by two granite steps and has a painted stone Gibbsian surround with keystone. Doors are tongue-and-groove sheeted with a semicircular-headed transom over (formerly a radial timber fanlight). The left gable is abutted by a ruinous outbuilding of no interest. The right gable is blank. The rear elevation was not accessed.

The coach house has a large tongue-and-groove sheeted sliding door to its north-east face. To its right is a 6/6 sliding sash window in the remains of a painted stone Gibbsian surround, the head of which has been modified. Other elevations are blank.

The house occupies a sheltered site set back from the main road.