Presbyterian Manse, Well Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3RS

Presbyterian Manse, Well Road, Warrenpoint

This is a substantial early 20th-century two-storey, three-bay house built in 1904 in the Gothic Revival style. It is well detailed in red brick with polychrome detailing and stands prominently on a hillside garden.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof with overhanging rafter tails carrying plain eaves boards and half-round rainwater goods; metal downpipes are fitted with cast iron poppy clasps. The roof features terracotta ridges and is E-planned, with the base of the 'E' facing east. There are two roof valleys when viewed from the north, each flanking the central roof pitch which has a hipped end and cat-slides over a lean-to return. The two other roofs have gabled ends; the left one is longer than the others. Tall octagonal chimneys in red brick have their seven top courses corbelled.

The walls are red brick laid in English garden wall bond with a chamfered basecourse and terracotta vents. A frieze course between ground and first floor levels, and a similar one at eaves level, each five courses deep, displays a repeating pattern of red, yellow and blue brick. The lower frieze has a top and bottom course of moulded brick specials; the eaves frieze does not.

All windows to the west, south and east elevations are sliding sashes with moulded sash boxes and horns, set within segmental headed openings but with flat heads and plain timber tympanums. The openings have pole-moulded brick reveals and stooled dressed granite cills. Windows on the north elevation are plainer.

On the west elevation, which is three bays wide, the central bay is flanked by pairs of chimneys on its roof ridge. The main entrance is in a porch to the right side of the central bay. The porch has a pitched natural slate roof, gabled to front, with walls as the main block. Its cheeks batter out to the bottom with a three-stage pitched red sandstone coping that splays the front gable base. The front gable carries the façade frieze in its apex gable, with a plain timber bargeboard carried by chamfered timber brackets with curved braces at left and right. The entrance doorway is deep and semicircular-headed with a pole-moulded reveal, containing a pair of three-panelled timber doors; the bottom panel is smaller than the others and the top one curves with the head. The central left panel has a brass letterbox. Two concrete steps lead up from the driveway; the bottom one is deep and flanked by chamfered brick dwarf walls. To the left of the porch is a small 2/2 sash window, with a similar window at ground floor of the left bay and a similar but taller window at first floor of that bay. At first floor over the porch is a pair of 1/1 sashes in a common opening, with top sashes square and smaller than the bottom ones. A similar window arrangement appears to each floor of the right bay.

The south elevation is two bays wide with no chimneys on its roof ridge. The left bay has a two-storey canted bay window with no eaves frieze. Its canted natural slate roof has ridge and eaves higher than the main roof, with terracotta roof ridge and hip knob. The front face is wider; each floor contains a pair of 1/1 sashes as those over the front porch. The windows to the cheeks are single 1/1 sashes. The first-floor windows are within a Gothic-headed opening with a quatrefoil inset tympanum. The right bay of the south elevation has a pair of sashes in common openings to each floor.

The east elevation is three bays wide. The left bay is gabled with a plain bargeboard and is abutted at ground floor by a single-storey bay window with a brick parapet concealing its flat roof. Its left and right cheeks are shallow and blank. Its front wall has a single segmental opening containing three 1/1 sashes with smaller top sashes. At first floor is a pair of taller 1/1 sashes in a Gothic-headed opening detailed as those to the bay window on the south elevation. The central bay is flanked by chimneys on its roof ridge: the left stack has four, the right one a pair. The central bay has two openings to each floor, the right ones narrower than the left. The left openings each contain a pair of 1/1 sashes within common segmental-headed openings. The ground-floor right opening is a panelled door with a segmental-headed transom; at first floor above is a 1/1 window. The right bay has a pair of 1/1 sashes in common openings to each floor.

The north elevation has three distinct bays. The left and right ones have gabled roofs and the central one has a hipped end. The left bay advances forward beyond the line of the others. The right cheek of this advancing gable has a 2/2 sash window to the left end on each floor; its right end is abutted by the lean-to on the central bay. The north gable of the left bay is abutted at ground floor by a single-storey lean-to outhouse. The outhouse has a lean-to natural slate roof (hipped to the left end) with exposed rafter tails and walls as the main block. Its left cheek is blank and flush with the west elevation of the main block. Its north-facing wall has a pair of 2/2 segmental-headed sashes with granite cills. Its right cheek has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door into the domestic yard.

The central bay of the rear elevation is abutted completely by a lean-to under a cat-slide roof. Its front (north) wall has a 2/2 sash window at ground floor and a smaller similar window at first floor left. Its right cheek has a small lean-to porch at ground floor with a tongue-and-groove sheeted door on its north gable; at first floor is a 2/2 sash window. Its left cheek abuts the right cheek of the advancing left gable. The right bay of the rear elevation has a narrow and tall four-paned window between ground and first floors serving the stairwell.

The domestic yard is enclosed on the north side by a single-storey outbuilding. Its north and east walls form the yard walls and are blank. Its west wall is abutted by a modern single-storey garage of no architectural interest. The outbuilding has a pitched natural slate roof with a corrugated metal portion to the west end. Its south (yard-facing) wall has an opening at the left; the rest has a central tongue-and-groove sheeted door flanked by 2/2 sash windows.

The garden is raised and the south and east elevations of the house are prominent from the roadside. The entrance to Well Road is marked by granite piers carrying wrought iron gates. The driveway runs west then north to a parking area to the west side of the house. The rest of the garden comprises lawns with mature planting to the south of the house.

The building is first cited in the Valuation Revision Book entry for 1904 and is shown on the 1919 Ordnance Survey map as 'Manse'. It continues in use as a Presbyterian manse.