St Matthew's Parish Church Hall, 44 Main Street, Scarva, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6LS

St Matthew's Parish Hall, Scarva

This symmetrical, three-bay, two-storey red-brick church hall dates from 1894 and stands on the east side of Main Street in the centre of Scarva village. Originally built as the National School for Scarva, it became the parish hall in the 1950s when a new primary school was constructed. The building was fully refurbished in 1987, at which point replacement fenestration was installed throughout and a two-storey modern flat-roof extension was added to the rear. Although these alterations have resulted in some loss of historic fabric and detailing, the building retains significance within the locale, and its history as a Church Education Society schoolhouse and later National School is of particular note.

Exterior

The building is rectangular in plan with a pitched natural slate roof. The ridge is finished with terracotta and blue/black angled ridge tiles, and there is a timber bargeboard to the gable. At the centre of the ridgeline sits a pyramidal fleche with a bellcast, surmounted by a weathervane. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round guttering carried on timber eaves.

The walling is Flemish-bonded red brick on a chamfered plinth, with yellow brick dressings and a dog-tooth string course running between the two floors. The windows throughout are replacement timber casements; those to the left and right bays are wide openings set within segmental-arched yellow brick surrounds with keyblock detail.

The principal elevation faces west and is four windows wide at first-floor level. The central bay is distinguished by a pedimented gable infilled with fish-scale clay tiles, incorporating a clock. At ground floor, brick piers rise to the first-floor string course, flanking a replacement five-panelled timber door with a segmental overlight, all set within a yellow brick surround and accessed by two stone steps. Above the door is a timber nameplate with painted lettering reading "SCARVA PARISH HALL" and "1894" below. The flanking bays each have a segmental-arched window to both floors, themselves flanked by brick piers rising to eaves level.

The north gable abuts the neighbouring property at 42 Main Street. The east, rear elevation is almost entirely occupied by the modern flat-roof two-storey extension. At the centre of this rear face is a recessed porch containing a modern timber casement window at first-floor level and a modern double-leaf panelled-and-glazed timber door at ground floor, accessed at a lower level via a set of masonry steps. The south gable abuts the adjoining building to the south.

Setting

The hall is prominently positioned at the junction of Main Street and Station Road, fronting directly onto the street and looking across towards Scarva Bridge and the surrounding farmland. It forms part of a mid-19th-century terrace. To the rear, a set of steps bounded by a red-brick and masonry wall topped with yellow brick coping leads up to St Matthew's Church of Ireland. This axial relationship — with the church behind and the canal bridge in front — is an important aspect of the building's setting.

History

The village of Scarva was founded in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House, alongside the newly-opened Newry Canal. The canal had opened in 1742, connecting Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh primarily to carry coal from east Tyrone to Dublin. Taylor and Skinner's 1777 map shows early development concentrated around the canal bridge. By 1797, the Topographica Hibernica described Scarva as a "small neat village" with a large salt works and fairs held four times a year. Capper's Topographical Dictionary records the population in 1829 as 170 people living in 33 houses, a figure that remained broadly stable throughout the 19th century; by 1910 it stood at 157.

A building is shown on the site in the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, and the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records it as a schoolhouse measuring 39 by 26 by 17 feet, exempted from valuation. In the late Victorian period this earlier structure was described as "one of the oldest, if not the oldest" houses in the village, and had been used as a school in connection with the Church of Ireland since 1822. Griffith's Valuation lists the landholder as J. T. Reilly, describing the building as a Church Education Society schoolhouse and yard valued at £8.

In 1893, when Reilly's property was put up for sale, the rector — as manager of the school — was obliged to purchase the leasehold. A public subscription committee was formed, with Joseph Barrett, the schoolmaster, serving as treasurer. The current building was then erected in 1894 and redesignated as a National School, at which point the valuation rose to £12. Photographs from the Young and Quail collection show the new school with its 1894 date plaque in place and a painted sign reading "Scarva National School," with staff and pupils gathered outside. Advertisements placed in the Belfast Newsletter in 1893 and 1894 sought a Male Assistant Teacher who was also capable of teaching singing, music, and drawing.

By the time of the First General Revaluation of 1933–34, the school comprised three classrooms and a rear porch, with a water closet and a corrugated-iron-roofed shed in the yard behind; the valuation stood at £12, later raised to £14. A 1935 assessment described it as a "substantially built" school, well attended, noting a right of way through the school to the church at the rear and an electricity supply for both buildings run by oil engine. A new primary school was built for Scarva in the 1950s, after which the former National School became the village parish hall. A survey photograph taken in 1975 shows the chimneys had already been removed by that date, though the original fenestration was still in place at the time; it has since been replaced.