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

6 Manse Road, Kilkeel

A late Victorian brick-built house of two storeys with attic, erected in 1888 as part of a unified group of five houses on the western side of Manse Road. The building, formerly known as Raneleagh, is set within an attractive landscaped communal setting enclosed by a granite rubble boundary wall with embattled coping and square gate piers.

The house is three bays wide and forms the right-hand property of a mirror-image pair. It is constructed in red brick in English garden wall bond with yellow brick detailing, set upon a chamfered granite base course. The pitched natural slate roof is finished with red clay crested ridges and features red brick chimneys with decorative flue detailing to the left gable and at the party wall with No. 4. The eaves are supported on three courses of decorative brick with half-round metal gutters.

A dormer window rises from just above eaves level over the right bay. It has a pitched natural slate roof with decorative fretted timber bargeboard and drop finial, containing a pair of two-paned side-hung painted timber casements with painted timber cheeks.

The left bay advances slightly and is canted, rising under a large gable with timber bargeboard incorporating decorative cartouches and spiked finial. To the centre of the gable is a recessed roundel inset with a yellow and red brick panel. Two courses of decorative yellow brick separated by two courses of red brick run between ground and first floor, with stepped granite quoins to the left corner. The two-storey canted bay window in this bay has walls, cills and a natural slate roof matching the right bay, but features recessed brick panels dressed with yellow brick—two to the front and one on each cheek—rather than a string course at first floor. The windows are 2/2 sliding sashes to the front and 1/1 sashes to the cheeks.

To the ground floor right is a one-storey canted bay window with moulded granite cill and flat concrete-coped roof. It contains a 2/2 sliding sash to the front and 1/1 sashes to each cheek. The left cheek is integrated into a modern painted timber and glass porch with a modern glazed and panelled door and felt roof. The original walls within are white painted. To the first floor right over the canted bay is a 2/2 sliding sash window, and above the porch at first floor is a narrow 1/1 sash window.

The right gable forms the party wall with No. 4. The left gable is cement rendered with 2/2 sliding sashes to ground and first floor and two 1/1 sashes in the attic gable.

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; the second stage is single-storey with a half-hipped natural slate 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. Ground floor windows and doors to the rear are modern hinged casements; those above are original. The rear is enclosed by a dashed wall with a sheeted timber door to the alley.

At the front, the property shares a common landscaped lawn with adjacent houses, dissected by driveways. A rear garden lies beyond the carriageway.