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

40 Main Street is a two-storey four-bay mid-terrace townhouse predating 1830, located centrally in Scarva on the east side of Main Street. It has a rectangular plan form with a rear return and is part of a continuous terrace running the full length of the east side of the street.

The building features pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles and uPVC replacement rainwater goods. The walls are dry-dashed rendered with a cement plinth and quoins. Cement-rendered chimneys with clay pots rise from the roof. The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged, with the front door located in the left bay and four windows to the right, although the original openings have been altered. The first floor comprises four unequally spaced windows, which are 1/1 double-glazed timber sliding sash windows with masonry cills. A replacement timber front door provides access. The left gable is abutted by 38 Main Street. The rear elevation is also asymmetrically arranged, with a single-storey rear return located right of centre. A door and single uPVC casement window are positioned to the left, and five modern rooflights have been added to the rear pitch. The right gable is abutted by 42 Main Street.

Originally a lime-rendered dwelling, the building served for some years as a grocer's shop before being remodelled to remove the shopfront and converted to a single dwelling. A 1910 photograph shows the shop as a lime-rendered building with door and window openings differing slightly from those recorded in the first survey of 1975.

Scarva was founded in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House beside the newly-opened Newry Canal. Early development concentrated around the bridge over the canal, with the town extending northwards during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The impetus for building came from the opening of the Newry Canal in 1742, which connected Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh to bring coal from east Tyrone to Dublin. 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 bridge. The 1797 Topographica Hibernica describes Scarva as a 'small neat village' with a large salt work and fairs held four times a year. By 1829, Capper's Topographical Dictionary records a population of 170 living in 33 houses. By 1875, turf cargoes were arriving via the Newry Canal, though the market was no longer being held. Population remained reasonably steady during the nineteenth century, standing at 157 in 1910.

A house is shown on the site on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 as a house and yard occupied by Felix Morrow and valued at £3 14 shillings. Griffith's Valuation lists the property as belonging to J.T. Reilly, a two-storey slated house, yard and small garden valued at £7, occupied by Owen Bradley at an annual rent of £8. At the 1901 census the occupier was Belfast-born Samuel Dunlop, a grocer living with his Dublin wife. The couple had travelled extensively, with their daughter born in the USA and their son in Queenstown, County Cork. By 1911 the premises operated as a grocer's shop run by Joseph Bennett of County Down, who lived with his Armagh wife and two children, both born in England. At the First General Revaluation of 1933-34, the occupier was Sarah Kinley in fee. The house, shop and garden were revalued at £8 15 shillings with accommodation comprising a kitchen, reception room, three bedrooms and a shop. Subsequent occupiers recorded include Anne Taylor (1904), John Patton (1908), Thomas Allen (1910), Joseph Bennett (1911), John Moody (undated), Constable Davis (1920) and John Kinley (1927).

The building is situated opposite the two-storey Park Inn, beyond which runs the Newry Canal. To the rear is a heavily vegetated embankment. The building's openings to the principal facade have been altered, and it has been substantially remodelled, resulting in the loss of historic character. It does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest and is recorded only on the heritage register.