83 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey, four-bay Georgian end terrace town house, formerly two individual premises, rectangular plan form, built c.1735, located at the junction of Main Street and Tanners Court adjoining building 81 Main Street.

Roofing is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tile with clipped verge to gable end. Red brick chimney stack located on right hand side with clay pots over. Cast iron rainwater goods with semi circular gutter and circular downpipe painted black located on gable end. Some PVC downpipe additions to the rear. Walling finished with roughcast render and smooth rendered plinth, quoins, surrounds and banding painted grey. Natural finish roughcast render to rear elevation. Windows single glazed 2/2, timber sliding box sash windows with horns painted white; rectangular stone cills painted grey with smooth render surrounds to front facade. Rear facade varying size and types of windows with matching cills. The entrance door to the right hand side is a six panel timber door painted black with single paned rectangular fixed light over. The entrance doors centrally located and to gable end are modern timber doors with glazed panels.
The principal elevation faces north and is arranged as a pair of matching front facades with varying ground floor fenestration. The entrance to former number 81 Main Street on the right hand side, now serving first floor only, is arranged with a front door with a single window to the left. The entrance to 83, serving ground floor only is located on the left hand side and is arranged with the front door and a pair of windows to the left. The first floors windows are uniformly arranged across the facade. Windows of notably smaller proportions compared with other buildings in the terrace row. Signage to the front elevations includes a side hung Victorian style bracket supporting timber signage to the right hand side and an acrylic fascia signage with projecting acrylic side hung signage and trench lighting over.

The left gable faces east and terminates the terrace row, with one modern door located at ground floor level to the left hand side. Modern acrylic signage located on facade.

The rear elevation faces south and is asymmetrically arranged with windows of various sizes and levels.

The right gable faces west and abuts number 81 Main Street.

The building faces directly on to the principal road through Moira with direct entrance off the footpath. There is no rear yard and the rear elevation faces directly onto the gable end of a modern dwelling, part of adjacent development.

Roofing Natural slate
Walling Roughcast
Windows 2/2 box sash
RWG Cast-iron with PVC to rear

Historical information

A building located at 83 Main Street appears on the OS maps from 1833 as a mid terrace building, although its Victorian architectural style and proportions suggest the building currently occupying the site is likely to date from the mid 19th century, erected on the site of a former Georgian townhouse. The complete lack any internal detailing provides no historic evidence, and the applied finish to the exterior could be also be dated as late as c.1890.

Formerly addressed as ‘131 Town of Moira’, the Griffiths Valuation from 1865 records the building as a bakery, house with outbuildings, occupied by J Turtle. This remained the case until 1894 when the premises was renumbered as 112, re-valued as a house only with outbuildings and a garden and occupied by George Reynolds. (Annual Revisions 1894-08)

The premises remained as a dwelling until 1943 at which point the R.V. Binders 1933-57 records the tenant as Harry Ferguson Motors Ltd. Large outbuildings to the rear had also been constructed. Ariel photos c.1950 shows the premises with its extensive outbuildings to the rear and an adjoining single storey, building abutting the east gable, which no longer remain (McCatrneys). Following an inspection on the property a recorder notes: “29/4/43. Buildings are all very cheap construction and maybe considered as compromising the foreman’s house”, the foreman’s house likely to be what is now known as 83 Main Street.

The premises remained in an industrial capacity as Derg Handwoven Tweeds Ltd from c.1950. From 1975 – 93 there is no record of the property on the 3rd General Revaluations, however following restorative work c.1990 the building now survives as a commercial premises.

References – Primary sources

1. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7A - Annual Revisions 1866-78
2. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7B – Annual Revisions 1878-93
3. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7C – Annual Revisions 1894-08
4. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7D – Annual Revisions 1909-20
5. PRONI VAL/12B/21/7E – Annual Revisions 1920-29
6. PRONI VAL/12D/3/13A – Annual Revisions Map 1863-79
7. PRONI VAL/12D/3/13C– Annual Revisions Map 1895-14
8. PRONI VAL/12D/3/13E– Annual Revisions Map 1925-35
9. PRONI VAL/12E – Annual Revisions Map 1906-35
10. PRONI OS/6/3/13 - OS Map 1833
11. PRONI OS/6/3/13 - OS Map 1858
12. PRONI OS/6/3/13 - OS Map 1904
13. PRONI OS/6/3/13 - OS Map 1916
14. PRONI VAL/3D/4/12F/4 - RV Binders Val. 1933-57
15. PRONI VAL/14A/183/12 - 3RD General Revaluation Lists 1975
16. PRONI VAL/14B/256/11A - 3RD General Revaluation Lists 1976 – 1987
17. PRONI VAL/14C/248- 3RD General Revaluation Lists 1987 – 1993

References – Secondary sources

18. McCartneys - www.mccartneysofmoira.co.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This two-storey end-terrace building has a distinctly different appearance to the rest of the Georgian terrace suggesting it has undergone remodelling or has been rebuilt on an existing Georgian site. The architectural proportions date the building c.1850 with later nineteenth alterations. Despite extensive internal remodelling, the building retains its external character and illustrates historic change to the streetscape. As the end block on the historic terrace comprising nos. 77-101 Main St. (HB19/22/005A-M) (group value) and with the site's connections to Harry Ferguson Motors Ltd., the building makes a positive contribution to the architectural and historical heritage of Moira.

General comments

Previoulsy recorded as HB19/22/005E