42 Main St, Scarva, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6LS

42 Main Street, Scarva is a two-storey four-bay mid-terrace townhouse predating 1830, of late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century date but substantially remodelled in the early twentieth century. It occupies a central position on the east side of Main Street in the village and represents one of Scarva's earlier buildings, with particular interest in its evolution and changing use.

The building has a rectangular plan form with a rear return. The roof is pitched with natural slate and clay ridge tiles, with cast-iron rainwater goods and cement-rendered chimneys topped by tall octagonal moulded clay pots. The main walling is dry-dashed rendered with a cement plinth and quoins. Windows are 1/1 double-glazed timber sliding sash (casements to the rear) with masonry cills, while the front door is a replacement timber example.

The principal elevation, facing west, is asymmetrically arranged. The front door is positioned left of centre with a single window to its left and two windows to the right. The first floor features four symmetrical wall-headed dormer windows with decorative timber barge boards surmounted by clay finials. A two-storey subservient rear return projects from the left bay, with a tall chimneystack at the gable end. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with replacement timber casement windows throughout, its view largely obscured. The left gable is abutted by 40 Main Street; the right gable is abutted by St Matthew's Parochial Hall.

The building originally featured lime-rendered walls and likely served as a public house before becoming a teacher's residence. A 1910 photograph shows it as a simple limewashed two-storey building with remnants of a wrought-iron pub sign attached to the facade. Subsequent remodelling introduced the upper-storey dormer windows, giving the building its present Victorian appearance.

Historical records show the site occupied from the 1834 First Edition Ordnance Survey map onward. The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 lists a house and yard occupied by Robert Taylor, valued at £4. Griffith's Valuation (1856-64) records the property as a public house owned by J.T. Reilly and leased to Robert Grant, valued at £5 with annual rent of £6, comprising a two-storey slated house and a two-storey thatched outbuilding. Successive occupiers included Eliza Grant (1874), Andrew McClelland (1882), and Joseph Barrett (1890), who became owner in fee in 1895. The 1901 census identifies Joseph Barrett as a schoolmaster at the neighbouring Church Education Society school, living with his schoolmistress wife and two children, with a 14-year-old general domestic servant. By 1933-34, former schoolmistress Susan Barrett occupied the dwelling, which was then revalued at £10, containing a kitchen, two reception rooms, three bedrooms and a WC, with weekly rent of 8 shillings plus taxes.

The village of Scarva was founded beside the newly-opened Newry Canal in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House. The Newry Canal itself had opened in 1742 to connect Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh, primarily to transport coal from east Tyrone to Dublin efficiently and economically. John Reilly obtained a patent for holding fairs and markets and to build a small dock and quay. Taylor and Skinner's 1777 map shows early development concentrated around the canal bridge. The 1797 Topographica Hibernica describes Scarva as a 'small neat village' with a large salt work, holding fairs four times yearly. Capper's Topographical Dictionary recorded a population of 170 living in 33 houses in 1829. By 1875, turf cargoes were being brought along the Newry Canal to Scarva, using the dock and quay for lighters, though the market had ceased operation. The population remained relatively steady through the nineteenth century, standing at 157 in 1910.

The building stands as part of a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of Main Street, with a heavily vegetated embankment to the rear. Opposite the house is Scarva Canal Bridge.