9-11 Kilmore Village(Masons Bar), Crossgar, Co Down, BT30 9HP

9-11 Kilmore Village (Masons Bar) in Crossgar is a Grade B2 listed building comprising a two-storey terrace block on the east side of the main road through Kilmore village, roughly a mile south-west of Crossgar. The block consists of a dwelling house dating from around 1840 and a public house dating from approximately 1865-70.

The public house occupies the northern end of the terrace at No. 11 and is slightly taller than its neighbour, a height difference emphasised by the rising ground level at this end. The front façade faces roughly west and is symmetrical. The ground floor has a timber-sheeted double door with a plain rectangular fanlight to the left of centre, flanked by sash windows—one with Georgian panes (6/6) to the left, and to the right a similar-sized window with margin panes and a central horizontal glazing bar to the top sash and etched glazing to the lower sash. Another door and matching window complete the ground floor arrangement. Above the central window and doorways is a traditional timber signboard. The first floor features five windows in the Georgian style (6/6). The north gable displays a first-floor window largely obscured by ivy growth. The entire façade is rendered and painted. The gabled roof is slate with two rendered chimney stacks, the northern one heavily covered in ivy. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The rear façade of the pub shows more extensive alterations. A modern single-storey utilitarian extension with a flat corrugated iron roof and lean-to shed occupies the left side, adjoining a large two-storey rubble-built gabled outbuilding. The main rear elevation has two first-floor window openings, the second now boarded over, and a timber-sheeted door accessed by a modern fire escape stair at the far right.

The dwelling house at No. 9 has a long front façade following the angle of the street and was originally two separate dwellings. The ground floor to the far left now belongs to the pub but was once integrated with the house. The ground floor features a late Victorian-style gabled porch with a panelled timber door on its north face, plain rectangular fanlight, and sash windows with horizontal glazing bars and margin panes on the west and south faces. The porch roof is slate with plain barges and a finial. To the left of the porch are three sash windows with Georgian panes (6/6), and to the right another similar window. The first floor has five windows matching those on the ground floor. This façade is rendered, painted, and extensively covered in ivy.

From the rear, the southern section of the house is revealed as double-gabled, though much of this rear gabled portion now belongs to the neighbouring properties to the south, which have been modernised and converted to apartments. The north gable of this rear section has a modern window and glazed door on the ground floor and a front-style window on the first floor. To the east this section is abutted by a slightly lower two-storey gabled wing, also belonging to the apartments to the south, though it may originally have belonged to this property. The main rear elevation has two first-floor windows and one ground-floor window to the left, all matching the front style, plus a panelled door at the far right on the ground floor serving the pub. The entire rear elevation is finished in unpainted roughcast. The gabled roof is slate with three rendered chimney stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

Historical records indicate that buildings occupied this site from at least 1834, but these were single-storey properties. The 1863 valuation plan shows what appears to be the present terrace, though later annotations suggest the public house may have been built after this date. In 1863 the dwelling house was owned by Samuel Leay. The public house likely dates from the late 1860s and may have been built by William Secy (or Seay), listed as owner of both properties in the 1890s. Around 1900 the entire block, which included the village post office housed within the pub building, was acquired by the Mason family. The dwelling house was connected to the pub by a doorway until around 1980, when the present owner blocked it up. A rendered wall on the right-hand edge of the north gable was removed in 2004.

The front façade of the whole block remains largely intact and represents a good example of an unfussy mid to late 19th-century village terrace, though alterations to the rear of the public house are evident.