Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/03/019

Address :
14 Main Street Scarva Craigavon Co Down BT63 6LS

Townland:
Monclone

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
25/10/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House - Terrace

Former Use
House - Terrace

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
220/10

IG Ref:
J0646 4381

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A two-storey four-bay end-of-terrace townhouse pre-dating 1830. Rectangular plan form with a two-storey rear return. Located on the north of the village on the east side of Main Street. Pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles; cement rendered chimney; partially removed cast-iron rainwater goods. Dry-dash on red mortar walling; plain long-and-short quoins and smooth rendered plinth band. Plain raised reveals to windows and doors; masonry cills. Doors and windows boarded up. The principal elevation faces north-west and is asymmetrically arranged. The door is located left of centre with a single window to the left and two to the right. Diminished in height first floor windows located directly over the ground floor openings. The north-east gable is cement rendered. View largely obscured by adjoining rubble masonry wall located on the right. No view to the rear elevation. The south-west gable is cement rendered with a chimney located at the apex. Largely abutted by two-storey adjoining building 16 Main Street (HB17/03/020). Setting The building is the end block 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 modern information centre adjacent to the landscaped public area beyond which runs the Newry Canal. Roofing: Natural slate Walling: Pebbledash Windows: Unknown RWG: Cast iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The building is of late eighteenth/early nineteenth century date, a thatched grocery shop until the later nineteenth century and then in use for some years as the village police barracks before reverting again to a dwelling. 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) The house is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 and is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as a thatched building. The occupier was Mr Wilson and dimensions are given for a two-storey house (thirteen feet high to the eaves) and two offices, together with a yard and garden. The buildings are valued at £3.8s. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the occupier was Sarah B Smith, later Charles Smith and the house was leased from John Temple Reilly. The buildings are now valued at £5.10s and the house, still thatched, is in use as a grocery shop. Dimensions are given for the house, two-storey return and a single storey outbuilding, although the valuer remarks that the ‘offices are dilapidated and not used’. In 1874 the building became the village police barracks and the valuation was raised to £8.10s reflecting improvements made at this time, possibly including raising and slating of the roof. The rent paid to J T Reilly was £16. The valuer notes in 1894 that the building possesses an “enclosed yard, garden, privy, good water from pump on premises. Building all in good order, very comfortable barracks. Drainage appears good.” At the time of the 1901 census the sergeant in charge of the barracks was Hugh Barr, farmer’s son from County Antrim. The barracks also provided accommodation for Barr’s wife and two-year-old daughter, and three constables who were all sons of farmers and from each of the major denominations, Catholic, Presbyterian and Church of Ireland. The Royal Irish Constabulary was formed in 1867 and the early constabulary barracks, established countrywide, were initially housed in existing buildings. Early barracks provided simple living accommodation, a small office and a cell. It was not until after partition that purpose-built RUC barracks began to be constructed across the province. (Shaffrey) By 1903 the barracks had moved to a new building next to the canal and the present house became the property of Scotsman Samuel Greer who let it to a succession of tenants, William Adamson (1905), Hugh Barr, the police sergeant (1907), James Bennett (1909) and James Greer (1911). James Greer, watchmaker and jeweller and native of Scotland, is the occupier at the time of the 1911 census. Greer is remembered as the generous donor of the village clock that was installed on the facade of the school (now St Matthew's parochial hall) in 1896. (Banbridge Chronicle) He is living with his wife and five young children ranging between 1 and 10 years old. The house is said to have 8 rooms and to be of the first class, according to its size and construction materials. A photograph of the house has survived from this period, and shows a woman and three young children standing in the doorway, possibly Mrs Greer and her children. The windows shown in the photograph are as recorded in 1971 at the time of the first survey and have retained the bars to the ground floor that were likely installed when the house was a barracks. (Young and Quail) The present fenestration of the building is, however, obscured and it is not known if the original windows and bars remain. The building continued in use as a dwelling for some years but is currently 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. Taylor and Skinner’s Map of the Roads of Ireland, 1777 8. Capper, B.P. “A Topographical Dictionary of England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland” London: Sir Richard Phillips and Co, 1829 9. Seward, W W “Topographica Hibernica” Dublin, 1797 10. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002 11. Street Directory, 1910 12. Banbridge Chronicle 26th July 1978 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

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey four-bay end-of-terrace townhouse pre-dating 1830. The proportions and style appear to survive largely unaltered, although the condition of the windows was indeterminable at the time of the survey. It is a significant building in the village, having been a shop and then the police barracks for some time.

General Comments

Date of Survey

08 November 2011