12-22 Bryansford Road, Newcastle, Ballaghbeg, Co Down, BT33 0AX

Twelve-Twenty-Two Bryansford Road comprises six small one and a half storey gabled houses built circa 1860, arranged in two terraced blocks on the west side of the south end of Bryansford Road, just south of Newcastle town centre. Number 12 is a semidetached house at the south end of the grouping. All six houses have been substantially altered over the years, with most now having large modern extensions and replacement windows.

Number 12 has a roughly east-facing front façade finished in lined render and unpainted. The front features a central gabled porch with a modern door, flanked by two windows with modern frames. The south gable is blank. The rear façade is obscured by a high wall with no rear access. The roof is covered in natural slate with two gabled dormers to the front and one to the rear. A single rendered chimney stack is shared with number 14. The rainwater goods are a mixture of PVC and cast iron.

Number 14's front façade is similar to number 12 but includes a stable door to the porch and small roundel windows to the porch sides, with shaped barges to all front gables. The north gable is blank. To the rear left is a window, and to the rear right is a single storey lean-to with a stable door and window. The front façade is finished in lined render and painted, the gable in lined render but unpainted, and the rear in plain render. The roof is covered in natural slate with a further flat roofed dormer to the rear and shaped barges to the rear gabled dormer. Two modern rooflights are positioned to the rear. A rendered chimney stack stands to the north gable. PVC rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

Number 16 is at the south end of the upper block of four houses. It is entered on the south gable, where a modern flat roofed porch is positioned to the right on the ground floor. To the left on the first floor of this gable is a modern window. The south gable merges with the south face of a large two storey flat roofed extension which has a modern window and door. The west face of this extension has modern windows to ground and first floors. The short east façade has a single modern window. The façade is finished in rough cast and painted. The main roof is covered in natural slate with a gabled dormer with modern window to the east side. A rendered chimney stack stands to the south gable. PVC rainwater goods are fitted.

Number 18 has a modern timber gabled porch to the front. To the left of this is a window with modern frame, which appears to have been enlarged. The rear is obscured by a large two storey modern extension. The front façade is finished in rough cast and painted, while the extension is in unpainted plain render. The main roof is covered in natural slate and has two timber gabled dormers with modern windows to the front. A tall rendered chimney stack to the north is shared with number 20. PVC rainwater goods are fitted.

Number 20 has a gabled porch to the left on the front façade with a modern door, which may have been rebuilt. To the right of this is a modern window. To the centre of the rear façade is a small, badly dilapidated gabled extension, with what appears to be a doorway to its left. To the upper floor is a small two over two sash window with vertical glazing bars. The front façade is finished in plain render and unpainted, the rear in painted rough cast. The roof is covered in natural slate with a single gabled dormer to the front containing an eight over four sash window. PVC and cast iron rainwater goods are fitted.

Number 22's front façade has a timber gabled porch to the right with an open doorway to the front, and within the porch is the front entrance with a stable door. To the right of the porch is a small modern window. The north gable has a small modern window to the upper level right. This gable merges with the north face of a large two storey modern flat roofed extension, which has a similar upper level window. The south face of the extension has modern windows and doors, with recently inserted French doors to the main rear façade. The façade is finished in unpainted render throughout, lined at the front and north, but plain to the rear. The main roof is covered in natural slate with two gabled dormers with modern window frames to the front and a modern rooflight to the rear. A single rendered chimney stack stands to the north. PVC rainwater goods are fitted.

A row of brick-built water closets stands to the rear of numbers 16 to 22. Just to the north of this grouping is a small single storey gabled school house, now used as a hall, built in 1904 to replace an earlier school house that had stood here since the 1830s.

Historical records indicate that this end of Bryansford Road was vacant on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834. Buildings corresponding to the present numbers 12 to 18 are shown on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1859. The valuation records of 1863 state that the present numbers 12 and 14 belonged to Ellen Glass and Robert Grey respectively, whilst the present numbers 16 and 18 were a single house belonging to Denis Maginn, which explains why the entrance to number 16 is now awkwardly placed on the gable and is not original. Numbers 20 and 22 were added sometime after 1859, probably during the 1860s.