12 Manse Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4BN

12 Manse Road, Kilkeel

A Grade B1 late Victorian two-storey house with attic, built in red brick as part of a unified architectural group set within a planned communal landscaped setting on the western side of Manse Road. The property is one of a group of five houses sharing common architectural details, arranged in two clusters.

The main house is three bays wide. It has a pitched natural slate roof with red clay crested ridges and a tiled verge to the left gable. Decorative chimneys with flues delineated by raised bricks in red brick stand on the left gable and to the right at the join with number 10. Three courses of decorative brick at eaves level support half-round metal gutters. Over the right bay, rising from just above eaves level, is a dormer window with pitched natural slate roof, decorative fretted timber bargeboard, and tall spiked finial. The dormer contains a pair of two-paned side-hung painted timber casements with painted timber cheeks.

The walls are constructed in red brick laid in English garden bond with yellow brick detailing and a chamfered granite base course. A two-storey canted left bay advances slightly, surmounted by a large gable. Between ground and first floor are two courses of decorative yellow brick separated by two courses of red brick, with stepped granite quoins at the left corner. The gable features timber bargeboard with decorative cartouches and spiked finial, with a recessed two-paned oculus at its centre.

At ground floor, to the right, is an advanced one-storey canted bay window with moulded granite cill and flat coped roof. It contains a 2/2 sliding sash to its face and 1/1 sashes to each cheek. The left cheek incorporates an original painted timber and glass porch abutting the central bay. The porch features a pair of decorative glazed and panelled doors with decorative heads to the top glazed panes and a carved timber spandrel. Panelled and glazed frames with turned timber mullions separate the panels and frame the doors. The upper glazed transom is modern and replaces an earlier roof. The original porch walls are white painted. Cast iron brackets with Gothic motifs support the current roof, which previously served as a balcony.

At first floor over the right canted bay is a 2/2 sliding sash window and a glazed French window leading onto a balcony. The balcony extends over the canted bay roof and is enclosed by alternating decorative cast iron balustrades and plain metal posts supporting a timber handrail. The left bay contains a two-storey canted bay window with walls, cills, windows and roof matching the right bay, but featuring recessed brick panels dressed with yellow brick (two to front and one to each cheek) in place of a string course.

The left gable displays a two-storey canted bay window. To ground and first floor on the left are single 2/2 sash windows, with two small 1/1 sliding sashes in the attic gable. The right gable forms the party wall with number 10. The left gable is cement rendered. The rear right return, abutting the left gable, is cement rendered and contains a modern timber and glass door at ground floor and a 2/2 sash window at first floor, with a satellite dish attached.

The rear elevation is cement rendered and comprises three bays (the central one narrow). The right bay is abutted by a two-stage return: the first stage is two-storey and gabled with a chimney on the ridge gable; the second stage has been rebuilt with a flat felted roof. The central bay has a shallower return rising to three storeys with a flat roof over a service stair projection on its left cheek. The left bay is plain. All ground floor windows and doors, and those in the returns, are modern hinged casements. The rear rainwater goods are plastic.

Setting and Outbuildings

At the front, a common landscaped lawn with driveways dissects the site, though this property's plot extends south and is larger than the others. The entire common site is enclosed by a granite rubble boundary wall with embattled coping. A pair of square gate piers facing Manse Road marks the entrance, though the gates are gone. To the rear, a common carriageway serves mews behind the property.

The mews is a two-storey block built in two stages. The roof is pitched, artificially slated to the left and naturally slated to the right, with slated verges and corbelled eaves supporting cast iron gutters. Walls are rubble stone. At ground floor, one set of original carriage doors remains; the other three have been replaced with modern up-and-over doors. At first floor, sheeted timber doors are present, with various windows infilled where vents once were.