Coal Store

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical single-cell double-height former garage built c.1945. Rectangular plan form located directly of Scarva Main Street forming part of an earlier residential terrace.

Pitched corrugated "Big 6" asbestos roofing with skylights over single span steel framed truss; shaped asbestos guttering. Parapeted large-pebble-dashed walling with concrete coping and smooth cement long-and-short quoins and plinth. Vestigial steel-framed windows largely boarded up from exterior and interior with exposed painted cement reveals and concrete cills. Replacement double-leaf timber square-headed vehicular door with cement reveals.

West facing principal gable, symmetrically arranged with single rise stepped parapet abutting pitched roof. Door centrally positioned with windows either side covered by posters of historical images of Scarva. Raised cement sign board with lettering "SCARVA COAL STORE". Further lettering formed from the pebble-dash, reading “GARAGE” “AUTOMOBILE” and “ENGINEER”.

The north elevation is blank and largely abutted by adjoining dwelling 32 Main Street (HB17/03/027).

The east gable is asymmetrically arranged comprising a single central timber sheeted door with vestiges of a steel-framed casement window to the right; smooth cement rendered walling.

The south elevation is blank and largely abutted by adjoining dwelling 34 Main Street (HB17/03/029A).

Setting:
Located on the east side of the Main Street forming part of a historic terrace. The rear of the site is heavily overgrown on a steep incline. The principal elevation over looks the park with the Newry Canal beyond.

Roofing: Corrugated mineral fibre
Walling: Pebble-dashed
Windows: Steel
RWG: Mineral fibre

Historical information

The building, first shown on the OS map edition dating from the 1960s/70s, was constructed as a motor repair garage in the 1940s on a site formerly occupied by two single-storey vernacular houses. Ownership of cars and motorised farm vehicles began to rapidly increase in the post-war period and the garage would have been conveniently situated for local farmers and rural dwellers (Judt). The vernacular houses on the site had fallen into disrepair by the early 1940s and in 1946 a motor repair garage run by Chambers Gillespie is recorded on the site. The landlady was Marjory M Dunlop and the valuation £15. Gillespie held the premises on a long lease for an annual rent of £2.

The motor repair garage, now a coal store, was constructed of concrete and roofed with corrugated asbestos. The cost of construction was approximately £450.

References:

Primary Sources

1. OS Map 237 – 1960s/70s
2. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation 1933-57
3. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/5/6 First General Revaluation 1933-57

Secondary Sources

1. Judt, T "Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945" Pimlico, 2011

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A symmetrical single-cell double-height former garage built c.1945. A simple pitched roof building with principal gable surviving largely intact. Of some interest as a twentieth utilitarian service buildings of a type that is becoming rare but it is not among the best examples.