26/28 Main St

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A former pair of two-storey two-bay mid-terrace townhouses, pre-dating 1830, now largely altered to form a single residence; rectangular plan form with a flat roofed single-storey extension to the rear. Located centrally in the village on the east side of Main Street.

Pitched artificial slate roofing with clay ridge tiles; uPVC rainwater goods; cement rendered chimneystacks. Dashed walling; smooth rendered plinth and surrounds. Replacement casement windows to enlarged openings. Replacement timber door.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged. The front door is located right of centre with a window to either side with two first floor windows directly over. The left bay has an access to the rear.

The left gable is abutted by 24 Main Street (HB17/03/024).

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Cement rendered. Flat-roofed single storey extension to the rear of no interest. Three first floor windows all altered.

The right gable is abutted by 30 Main Street (HB17/03/026).

Setting
The building is part of a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of Main Street. Tiered hard landscaped garden to the rear beyond which is a heavily vegetated embankment. 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 has been substantially remodelled in recent years but was originally two lime-rendered dwellings dating from the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century. The building has evolved over time with later modifications to fenestration and doorways.

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 is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40, together with a number of its neighbours as ‘three houses exempt’ from valuation because they were not of sufficiently high value to be taxable.

In Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the house is listed as two separate dwellings. The two houses are of similar size, one having a single-storey outbuilding and small garden. They are valued at £2.5s (with a rent of 1s.6d weekly) and £3. The building is leased from JT Reilly and Patrick McCourt is the tenant. Mc Court sublets the smaller house to Samuel Burns. Subsequent occupiers in the two houses are John Lowry (1867) James McEvoy (1892) Catherine McCourt (1899) Bessie McVeigh (1901) and from 1919 the two houses are valued together at £4.

The 1901 census lists Bessie McVeigh as a ‘housekeeper’. She is a widow and lives with her son, a labourer and her daughter, a seamstress. The family have a boarder, a 55-year-old boat-man and the shipping return for Scarva reveals that Bessie McVeigh was the owner of a 60-ton lighter called ‘The Tyrone’. At this time the neighbouring house is listed as Bessie McVeigh’s property but uninhabited. Bessie continued to live at the house in 1911 and had been joined by a nine-year-old granddaughter. A photograph of c.1900 has survived which shows two lighters on the Newry canal at Scarva and the nearby figure of a woman, who may even be Bessie McVeigh. (Young and Quail)

In 1940 John Donnelly bought one of the houses for £50. The house, office and garden were revalued at £2.15s and the accommodation comprised a kitchen and bedroom. The rent was 2s6d per week plus taxes. In 1952 the house and outbuildings were sold to Wm John Cromie. The neighbouring house comprised a kitchen, scullery and two bedrooms with a gateway.

The houses have been substantially remodelled since the first survey but remain in use and have now been converted into a single dwelling (Planning Application approved October 2004).

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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A former pair of two-storey two-bay mid-terrace townhouses, pre-dating 1830. The external appearance has been completely altered removing any apparent trace of historic style, proportion or character. Equally the interior is no longer of any historic interest, having been converted from two dwellings to one house. It is not of special interest.