46 Main Street, Scarva, Co Down, BT63 6LT

46 Main Street is a symmetrical, street-fronted, three-bay, two-storey terraced house predating 1830, located on the east side of Main Street in the centre of Scarva village. It was formerly the Temperance Hotel and grocer's shop, and is now used as a dwelling. It was delisted from the heritage register in November 2013, with both its architectural and historical interest assessed as insufficient for listing, though it retains significance within the locale.

EXTERIOR

The building is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return to the rear. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with blue/black angled ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks. Rainwater goods are uPVC. External walls are painted smooth render on a projecting smooth rendered plinth.

Windows throughout are enlarged replacement timber casements with projecting sills. The principal elevation faces west and is three windows wide on each floor, with the central first-floor opening being narrower than those flanking it. At ground-floor centre is a replacement six-panelled timber door with a square-headed overlight and sidelights, reached by three stone steps. At first-floor level is a cast-iron balcony on supporting brackets, incorporating windows to the centre and right. The north gable is abutted by an adjoining building, and the south gable is likewise abutted by an adjoining building on that side. The east (rear) elevation was not accessed during survey.

SETTING

The building sits at the centre of Scarva, directly opposite the junction with Station Road, and forms part of a terrace that includes St Matthew's Parochial Hall to the north. To the rear stands St Matthew's Church, the spire of which is visible above the roofline.

HISTORY

The village of Scarva was founded in 1746 by John Reilly of Scarva House, beside the newly opened Newry Canal. The canal had opened in 1742 to connect Carlingford Lough with Lough Neagh, principally as a means of transporting coal from east Tyrone to Dublin speedily and inexpensively. John Reilly procured a patent for holding fairs and markets in anticipation of building the town, and built a small dock and quay; by 1875, however, the market was no longer being held. The 1797 Topographica Hibernica describes Scarva as a small, neat village with a large salt works, where fairs were held four times a year. Capper's Topographical Dictionary gives the population of Scarva in 1829 as 170 people living in 33 houses, and by 1910 the population stood at 157.

Buildings are shown on the site on Taylor and Skinner's map of 1777. The building's location near the bridge over the canal suggests it may be among the earlier buildings in the town, where early development was concentrated. A building with a return is shown on the site on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 lists it as a house, offices and yard, occupied by Wright and Cunningham and valued at £4. Griffith's Valuation subsequently records the house as a general shop and post office run by Robert Taylor, leased from John T. Reilly on a 999-year lease at an annual rent of £3 10s, and valued at £10 15s. The valuation gives dimensions for the house, a two-storey return, and a two-storey tower to the rear.

In 1878 the premises was extended into the two neighbouring houses, now number 48, and the combined property was valued at £15 5s. Later directories and photographs confirm that the building operated as a Temperance Hotel and grocer's shop, with the post office located in the neighbouring houses. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903 captions the buildings as Post Office, Hall, and Hotel.

Bassett's County Directory of 1886 describes the proprietor Robert Taylor's garden, which had a private door opening into the churchyard of St Matthew's, as having no rival in the county. It was handsomely planted with shrubs and flowers and contained well-shaded resting places along a climb to the top of a hill, including a tea-house situated within the principal chamber of a castellated building defended by mock cannon. The same directory carries an advertisement for Robert Taylor's post office, which sold groceries, provisions, china, glass and delft, books and stationery, and farm and garden seeds. Taylor was a newsagent and an emigration agent, and he ran a Temperance Hotel and Refreshment Rooms offering good accommodation for tourist parties.

Photographs from Young and Quail's collection show several views of the Temperance Hotel. By the turn of the 20th century it had acquired its wrought-iron balcony, which remains in place today. The images show the hotel with a metal sign along the roofline and the original door openings and fenestration, both of which had been radically altered by the time of the first survey in 1975. Originally there were two doorways, both giving access into the hotel, one of which also opened into the grocer's shop. The left-hand side of the building bore a sign reading Taylor. Grocer., with a multi-paned shop window below. There were originally five window openings to the first floor. Young and Quail record that it was Robert Taylor who built the castellated tower to the rear as a tourist attraction, intended to evoke General Monk's castle, which had been demolished at the time of the building of St Matthew's Church. The tower is now gone.

Towards the end of his life Robert Taylor achieved national fame on account of his extraordinary age. In 1898 newspapers throughout the British Isles reported that the postmaster of Scarva had reached an age of between 114 and 134. He was described as Her Majesty's Oldest Subject and was noted to be able to rehearse many exciting scenes from his early life as a Volunteer, and could still sound his old Volunteer bugle call. Queen Victoria sent him a framed portrait of herself in recognition of his almost unprecedented age and asked for his photograph in return. Robert Taylor died on 25th July 1898, while still holding the postmastership of Scarva, and his death was reported as the Death of the Oldest Man in the Three Kingdoms.

The 1901 street directory lists as one of the principal buildings of the town the Methodist Mission Hall erected by the late Robert Taylor on his private grounds, and describes the hotel as a most comfortable, homelike temperance hotel and bathroom, in conjunction with which was a post office with money order and telegraphic departments, and a tower to the rear from which tourists could enjoy a commanding view of the surrounding country.

After Robert Taylor's death the premises passed to his wife Mary Anne Taylor in 1902, and subsequently to Samuel J. Mimms in 1907, Mary Anne Taylor again in 1908, Thomas W. Dunlop in 1919, and Marjory Dunlop in 1920, remaining in the Dunlop family until at least the 1950s. The 1901 census lists Mary Anne Taylor as postmistress. She was living with her sister Eliza Dunlop, who worked in the shop, and employed a 17-year-old girl as a telegraph clerk; a cousin also lived with them and worked as a bookkeeper. By 1911 the occupier was Thomas Wilson Dunlop, a relative of Mary Anne Taylor and a general merchant who ran the premises as a shop and temperance hotel. He lived with his young American wife, a domestic servant, and two young women aged 16 and 19 working as a grocer's apprentice and a postal assistant respectively.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in 1933 to 1934 the building had been converted back into a dwelling house, with a combined shop and post office operating in the adjacent building at number 48. The occupier was then Marjory Dunlop and later Ann Brierly Dunlop. Living accommodation at that time comprised a kitchen, scullery, three rooms, four bedrooms, a bathroom, and two box rooms. The house was said to be in good decorative and general repair but badly planned. The premises including the neighbouring property was valued at £35. The building has continued in use as a dwelling.

CONDITION AND INTEGRITY

The building has been extensively altered and refurbished over the years and now has a modern interior. Much of the original character has been compromised by these more recent alterations and the loss of historic fabric and detailing, which have significantly reduced both its architectural and historic interest.