32 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay mid-terrace townhouse with adjoining two-storey coach house, pre-dating 1830; rectangular plan form adjoining rear outbuilding. Located centrally in the village on the east side of Main Street.

Pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles and cement coping; cast-iron rainwater goods; smooth rendered chimney with corbelled courses, and pots. Ruled-and-lined render with rusticated long-and-short quoins, projected plinth course and corbelled eaves course. 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with masonry cills and stop-end chamfered head and jambs unless otherwise stated. Replacement timber door with geometric coloured glass rectangular over light; etched emblem located in the bottom left pane.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged. The front door is centrally located with single windows either side. Three first floor windows slightly diminished in height.

The left gable is abutted by an asymmetrical two-storey outbuilding. Matching eaves and ridge levels. Painted roughcast render. Two timber sheeted doors, right accessing rear passage-way, the left with overlight accessing coach house. Large double leaf timber sheeted door to the left with original ironmongery. Two timber sheeted loading doors, one with cill and one on plinth blocks. Quoins to the left. The coach house is extended to the rear by a two-storey gabled coach masters house with a variety timber sheeted doors and lattice lights facing the rear yard; artificial slate roof; smooth rendered walling.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged comprising a variety of timber sliding sash windows; timber casement to ground floor left; replacement concrete cills throughout. Timber rear door with glazed upper panels with lean-to corrugated plastic canopy supported on plain columns. Ground floor left is abutted by lean-to outbuilding (see
setting).

The right gable is abutted by the Scarva Coal Store (HB17/03/028).

Setting

The building is part of a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of Main Street. Small yard to the rear accessed by a barrel vault passage-way. The yard is enclosed by a variety of single storey outbuildings; corrugated-iron and natural slate lean-to roofs backing on to rubble masonry retaining walls; painted brick walling with timber sheeted doors and fixed metal frame windows; painted masonry/brick interiors with exposed timber roof structures; some remains of original fireplaces. Masonry steps accessing rear garden; wrought-iron gates; gas-lamp over masonry pier at bottom of steps. The main house faces onto the landscaped public area, beyond which runs the Newry Canal.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling : Ruled-and-lined
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The current building is a dwelling with associated outbuilding, of late-eighteenth/early-nineteenth century date, originally lime-rendered and likely to be one of the earlier buildings to be constructed in Scarva. The building has evolved over time and now presents an appearance typical of nineteenth century village tenements. It is the most substantial structure on the Main Street of Scarva and the suggestion has been made that it formerly served as a coaching inn or that the outbuilding was used to store cargoes transported along the Newry Canal. However, corroborating evidence for these suppositions is lacking.

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. The occupier is Francis McAlevey and the dwelling and outbuilding are valued at £8. Dimensions are given for the 2-storey house and outbuilding and two smaller adjacent properties are listed as exempt.

Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the house as the property of JT Reilly who lets it to Francis McAlevey. The house is valued at £13.10s and is let for £3.17s on a lease for ever. Dimensions are given for the house, two 2-storey outbuildings and 2 single-storey outbuildings. Two single-storey thatched cottages are listed adjoining McAlevey’s house. Subsequent occupiers of the present house were Samuel Hill (1884) John Duncan (1903) James Martin (1906) and Sarah Jane Martin (1921).

At the time of the 1901 census the house was occupied by William Boyce but his census return is missing. One of the neighbouring thatched cottages is occupied by Anne Taylor, a widow born in England. The 1911 census shows the occupier of the current house as James Mulligan Martin, mason and farmer who lives with his wife and four children between the ages of 2 and 10. The floor tiling in the entrance hallway displays Masonic symbols which may date from this period.

The adjoining vernacular houses were demolished in the 1940s and a motor garage built valued at £15. The motor repair garage, now a coal store, was constructed of concrete and roofed with corrugated asbestos. The cost was approximately £450 and the occupier was Chambers Gillespie who leased the building from Marjorie M Dunlop.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933/4 the occupier of the main house was Sarah Jane Martin, widow of the mason James Mulligan Martin. The building was revalued at £18 then reduced to £12 on appeal. The accommodation comprised a kitchen, scullery, two rooms, three bedrooms and offices, all described as being ‘in good condition’. The valuer noted that Sarah J Martin was 80 in 1949 and that the house was then purchased by Violet Jones. The adjacent building is labelled as a stable. Like many tenements in towns and villages, the current building had a plot of land outside the village attached to it which was later let separately and the outbuildings which would have had an agricultural use then became redundant.

The building was listed in 1977 and remains in use as a dwelling. (HB file)

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 1933-57
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/5/6 First General Revaluation 1933-57
9. Taylor and Skinner’s Map of the Roads of Ireland, 1777
10. Capper, B.P. “A Topographical Dictionary of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland” London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co, 1829
11. Seward, W W “Topographica Hibernica” Dublin, 1797
12. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002
13. Street Directory, 1910
14. NIEA HB file

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

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey three-bay mid-terrace townhouse with adjoining two-storey coach house, pre-dating 1830. Its style and character have remained largely unaltered. Much historic fabric survives and is of good quality. The outbuildings to the rear have undergone little alteration and add to the interest of the property. The building is the best surviving in the terrace and it is a good example of the type of substantial village premises from the era.

General comments

32 Main Street Scarva is also recorded under HB17/03/066, a Dummy record which was not allocated.