3 Comber Street, Saintfield, Co Down, BT24 7AZ

Small, freestanding one and a half-storey house of 1878 in polychrome brick, built (possibly to a design by Mortimer H. Thompson) as the teacher’s residence for a neighbouring school of 1873 (since demolished). The property, now in use as a youth room for the close by First Saintfield Presbyterian Church, is set on the east side of Comber Street, just north of Saintfield town centre, with a small garden to the front, paved yard to the rear and vehicle space to the N. The plot is enclosed from the street by iron railings with matching gates and tall, plain, square cement rendered piers, all of which appear to be relatively recent replacements. The building is roughly square in plan, but with a small attached single-storey outhouse and lean-to extension (the latter added c.1990) to the rear, gable ends and a natural slate roof with overhangs, decorative purlin ends, plain bargeboards and rebuilt brick chimneystacks. The walls are all in red brick with blue-grey brick courses and blue-grey and yellow brick headers to the front and N elevations; there are also two small diaper patterns in blue-grey brick to the front wall The front and N wall corners project slightly in the manner of buttresses and these walls also have a bevelled plinth. The windows throughout are flat-headed with 1/1 and 2/2 timber sash frames and painted cills; there is a single skylight to the rear. Many of the openings have bevelled reveals The front elevation faces W and is asymmetrical. The entrance is to the right of centre and has a diagonally boarded door with ornate strap hinges. To the left of this is a pair of windows with a narrower window to the right. The S (gabled) elevation has two upper level windows, that to the right placed higher. The N (gabled) elevation has two upper level windows. To the left hand side of the rear E elevation is the attached outhouse, which appears to have originally have been broader (extending beyond the line of the S gable of the main house), but was reduced presumably when the neighbouring hall to the south was extended northwards. Thus the S façade of the outhouse has been rebuilt and is now rendered, and its original double-pitched roof has been replaced with a mono-pitched one. Its E and N faces remain in brick, with two doorways with diagonally boarded doors to the N. Next to the outhouse (on the E face of the main house) is a single window, broader than the others. To the right of this is the lean-to extension which has been designed in an attempt to blend in with the original house in terms of wall finish, but has an E-facing window with modern frame and a panelled timber door to the S. Materials: Roof: Natural slate to original house, extension appears to have fibre cement tiles Walls: red brick with grey brick courses and grey and yellow brick headers to the front and N elevations Windows:Timber RWGS: PVC apart from pipe to rear which is cast iron