20 Main St

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

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

Pitched natural slate roofing (under safety netting due to slipping slates) with clay ridge tiles; cast-iron rainwater goods; brick chimneystack. Painted dashed walling; smooth plinth band and platband. Contrasting raised reveals to windows and doors. 6/6 exposed box timber sliding sash at ground floor with 3/6 (left pair) and 6/3 (right pair) at first floor; several glazing bars removed; masonry cills. Replacement ground floor left 2/2 window with horns. Four panelled timber door with glazed upper panels to far left; timber sheeted door to far right.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged. The left two bays comprise a former individual dwelling; door to left with single window to the right. Two first floor windows directly over. The right two bays comprise a door to right with single ground floor window to left; two first floor windows directly over. Plain string course at first floor level.

The left gable is abutted by 18 Main Street (HB17/03/021).

No view to the rear elevation (See surveyor’s notes).

The right gable is abutted by 22 Main Street (HB17/03/023).

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: Natural slate
Walling: Dashed
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The building is of late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century date, originally lime-rendered and likely to 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 this part 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.

At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the landlord of the house was George Chapman and it is let as two separate dwellings of identical size, one with a garden and one without. The two 2-storey slated houses were valued at £2.15s and £2.10s, with a rent of £3.10s yearly and 1s.4d weekly. The occupiers were Henry Kelly and Mary Welsher, later James McKane. There were numerous changes in occupier over the years; Archibald Neal (n.d) Hugh Bailey (1886) Anne McKay (1898) Anne Taylor (1902) William Lunn (1910) Thomas Allen (1911) Robert McKeown (1913) Robert Walker (1918) Frank Donnelly (1919) Herbert Martin (1921) and Patrick Maguire (1927) and in the second house, Denis O’Brien (1898) and Mary O’Brien (1905)

At the time of the 1901 census the first house was vacant but the second was occupied by Denis O’Brien, a railway labourer and his wife, two children, mother-in-law who was a linen weaver and his cousin who worked as a domestic servant. By 1911 Mary O’Brien was a widow, working as a seamstress and supporting her two children and her aged aunt. The First General Revaluation (1933/4) lists the occupiers of the two houses as Mary O’Brien and Patrick Maguire. The houses were revalued at £2.15s and the rent was 2s.6d for each house. The accommodation comprised a kitchen, reception and two bedrooms. A plan and dimensions are given, showing a scullery in the return of one of the houses.

The building was subsequently used as a shop but is now vacant.

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. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
8. Taylor and Skinner’s Map of the Roads of Ireland, 1777
9. Capper, B.P. “A Topographical Dictionary of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland” London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co, 1829
10. Seward, W W “Topographica Hibernica” Dublin, 1797
11. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002
12. Street Directory, 1910
13. Banbridge Chronicle 26th July 1978

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of
Irish Studies, 1992.
2. Knox, Alexander, M.D. “A History of the County of Down” Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co, 1875
3. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.
4. Shaffrey, P and M “Buildings of Irish Towns – Treasures of Everyday Architecture” Dublin: O’Brien, 1983
5. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey four-bay mid-terrace former pair of townhouses, pre-dating 1830, now commercial premises. Its historic character and detailing have remained largely unaltered. Of interest as a representative of the premises that make up the main street, many of which have been degraded by alterations..