18 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey four-bay mid-terrace former pair of townhouses, pre-dating 1830, now commercial. rectangular plan form. Located to the north of the village on the east side of Main Street.

Pitched artificial slate roofing with clay ridge tiles; uPVC replacement rainwater goods. Painted dashed walling; smooth plinth band and platband. Plain raised reveals to windows and doors. Replacement 1/2 timber casement windows. Replacement modern timber door.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. The door is located in the right bay, three windows to the left. Diminished in height first floor windows directly over ground floor openings. Plain platband course at first floor level.

The left gable is abutted by 16 Main Street (HB17/03/020).

No view to the rear elevation

The right gable is abutted by 20 Main Street (HB17/03/022).

Setting

The building is part of a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of Main Street. Heavily vegetated embankment to the rear. Opposite the house is a landscaped public area, beyond which runs the Newry Canal.

Roofing: Artificial slate
Walling: Dashed
Windows: Timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

The building is of late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century date, originally lime-rendered and may be one of the later buildings to be constructed in Scarva. The building has evolved over time and now presents an appearance typical of nineteenth century village tenements, with later modifications to fenestration and doorways. The large and numerous windows in buildings at this end of the main street would have aided the admission of light for weavers working with handlooms. Weaving was once an important industry in Scarva, in 1834 there were 38 looms ‘at full work’ in the village and as late as 1901 the census records several inhabitants as weavers. (OS Memoirs; 1901 census)

The village of Scarva was founded, beside the newly-opened Newry Canal, in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House and the earliest buildings in the town are likely to be those nearest the bridge, the town extending northwards from this point during the course of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The impetus for building the town came from the opening of the Newry Canal in 1742 to connect Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh, principally as a means to bring coal from east Tyrone to Dublin speedily and inexpensively. (McCutcheon) John Reilly, the founder of the town, procured a patent for holding fairs and markets, in anticipation of building the town, and to build a small dock and quay. Taylor and Skinner’s 1777 map of Scarva shows that the early development of the town was concentrated around the bridge over the canal.

The 1797 Topographica Hibernica describes Scarva as a ‘small neat village’ with a large ‘salt work’. Fairs were held four times a year. Capper’s Topographical Dictionary gives the population of Scarva in 1829 as 170 living in 33 houses. By 1875 traffic along the Newry Canal was bringing cargoes of turf to Scarva, using the dock and quay for lighters but the market was no longer being held. (Knox) The population remained reasonably steady over the course of the nineteenth century and in 1910 was 157. (Street Directory)

A house is shown on the site on the 1st edition OS map of 1834 and it is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40, together with a number of its neighbours as ‘six houses exempt’ from valuation because they were not of sufficiently high value to be taxable.

In Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the landlord of the house is George Chapman and it is let as two separate dwellings of identical size, one with a yard and garden and one without. The two 2-storey slated houses were in use as shops and valued at £2.10s, with a rent of £3.10s yearly. The occupiers were James Neill and Mary Jane Boyd. Subsequent occupiers of the first house were John Lowry (c1860) Sarah Davis (n.d.), Margaret Hawthorne (1867), James Robinson (1898) Mrs Lavery (1901) Robert Holland (1908) J Silvany (1909), Jane McMurray (1912) Arthur Flannagan (1913) and Mary Flannagan (1921). In the second house lived Edward McAllister (1911) Francis Gowan (1915) and Robert McKeown (1918).

At the time of the 1901 census one of the houses was vacant and the other was occupied by Elizabeth Austin, linen weaver, a widow from County Armagh. She had six children between 2 months and 11 years of age, five of whom had been born in Scotland. The house could not be identified in the 1911 census. A surviving photograph of c.1911 shows the house, lime rendered at this time, with two entrance doorways. (Young and Quail)

At the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933/4 the occupiers of the two houses were Robert McKeown and William Murland. Each house was revalued at £2.15s, but only the dwelling to the south end was a shop at this stage. Each house had two rooms downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs. The rent of shop and house was 1s.6d and 2s per week respectively and the two buildings were sold in 1947 to Samuel Lewis for the price of £200. The two houses were made into one some time before the first survey in the 1970s and a doorway removed. The building continues in use as a dwelling and shop, although the shop doesn't appear to have regular opening hours.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/33/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/33/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/33/3 Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/33/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/55D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/22A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. Taylor and Skinner’s Map of the Roads of Ireland, 1777
8. Capper, B.P. “A Topographical Dictionary of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland” London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co, 1829
9. Seward, W W “Topographica Hibernica” Dublin, 1797
10. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002
11. Street Directory, 1910
12. Banbridge Chronicle 26th July 1978

Secondary Sources

1. Knox, Alexander, M.D. “A History of the County of Down” Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co, 1875
2. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.
3. Shaffrey, P and M “Buildings of Irish Towns – Treasures of Everyday Architecture” Dublin: O’Brien, 1983
4. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey four-bay mid-terrace former pair of townhouses, pre-dating 1830, now commercial premises. It is on of the later buildings in Scarva and its historic character has been degraded with replacement windows and doors. It is not a good example of the type and not of special interest.