Orange Hall, 79 Main Street, Scarva, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6LS

Scarva Orange Hall is an unusual and eclectic red-brick building of 1908, designed by architect and engineer Samuel Wilson Reside of Newry and situated on the south side of Main Street in Scarva. The design is said to have been loosely based on Hampton Court, William III's residence on his accession to the throne. The building is rectangular on plan, two storeys tall, three bays wide, and gabled, with a square entrance tower at each of its northwest and southwest corners. Construction took place between 1906 and 1908, and much of the original character has survived, including an early 20th-century interior that retains a library and reading room of particular note.

EXTERIOR

The roof is concealed behind a crenellated parapet. Red-brick chimneystacks with clay pots rise from the west gable, and ball finials decorate the gables. Cast-iron rainwater downpipes and hopper are present, with guttering concealed. The walls are built in English garden wall bond red brick on a chamfered plinth, with a string course between the floors. Windows throughout are tripartite timber casements with projecting stone sills.

The principal, west-facing elevation has a central section four windows wide, with a narrow crow-stepped gable over the central two openings, flanked by chimneys. This central section is flanked on each side by one of the three-stage entrance towers, each of which has crenellated parapets and a window to each face at the third stage — those facing west are Gothic in form. The first and second stages have windows to the inner cheek. At the northwest tower, the outer cheek has a single window at first stage and is blank at second stage; at the southwest tower, the outer cheek at first stage is obscured and blank at second stage. Paired windows appear at the second stage of the west elevation. Entrances are at ground floor level in both towers: the northwest tower has a replacement Gothic timber-sheeted double-leaf door with hood mould, while the southwest entrance is boarded up.

The north elevation has a crow-stepped gable flanked by a crenellated parapet, with the square entrance tower flush to the right of the gable. Three windows light the first floor, the central one larger and round-arched with a segmental string course above. A stone plaque below this central window reads: "SCARVA ORANGE HALL OPENED 14TH JULY 1908 REDEDICATED 13TH JULY 2008". Two blind windows are present at ground floor level.

The east elevation has a crenellated parapet with two equally spaced wall-headed chimneys. Four evenly spaced windows sit at first-floor level; to the far left at first-floor level, set slightly lower than the other windows, is a square-headed fire exit door accessed by a concrete staircase descending to the left. To the right at first floor is a round-arched stairwell window. At ground floor there are four evenly spaced windows and two smaller windows to the right, partially bricked up.

The south elevation has a crow-stepped gable flanked by a crenellated parapet, two round-arched windows at first floor, and a fire exit at ground-floor level to the right.

SETTING

The hall is set back from the road on a large, open site with lawned areas to the front and rear, accessed by a gravel driveway. A curved red-brick entrance wall with saddleback coping stones and square gate piers with pointed caps supports original metal gates. The site is bounded on three sides by mature hedgerow. A modern housing estate lies to the west, with open farmland visible to the south and east.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The hall was designed by Samuel Wilson Reside, who ran a private practice in Newry from 1904 and later became engineer to Newry Rural District Council, to the Newry Board of Guardians, and joint engineer to the Rathfriland water supply. His architectural output was largely domestic and commercial, though he had previously designed another Orange Hall at Warrenpoint, completed shortly before the Scarva building. The Irish Builder records that drawings were also supplied by H W E Hobart, though these appear to have been unrealised.

The foundation stone was laid on 13th July 1906 by Henry Thomson (1840–1916), a local spirit merchant who had purchased Scarvagh House and donated eight acres of land for the hall, as well as bearing much of the construction cost of £1,100. Thomson was a native of Newry, an active Orangeman, and served as Member of Parliament for Newry from 1880 to 1885. He is also commemorated by the Henry Thomson Memorial Orange Hall on Downshire Road in Newry, which was his original family home.

The hall was formally opened on Tuesday 14th July 1908, at a ceremony attended by approximately 30,000 members of the Orange Order and their supporters, at which addresses were delivered by J MacGeagh McCaw, MP for South Down, and William Moore MP. The Royal Black Preceptory was also accommodated within the lodge. The building first appears in valuation records in 1909 as a "Caretaker's House, Orange Hall and land," with buildings valued at £11 and 15 shillings for the associated land, occupied by the Trustees of the Orange Society leasing from Henry Thomson. By the early 1930s the hall was revalued at £18, and a plan from that period shows caretaker's apartments at the rear of the ground floor. A description from 1934 notes the building as "well-built" and "in good order," though the flat roof was causing problems by 1935. The accommodation at that time comprised a hall, room, lobbies, cloakrooms, and caretaker's quarters including a kitchen, reception room, and bedroom. A nominal rent of one penny per week was charged. During the Second World War, in 1943, the building was let to the Ministry of Finance at £29 10s per annum. An extension added to the rear by the 1960s or 1970s appears to have since been removed.

Scarva holds particular significance in the Orange tradition: King William III is said to have camped at Scarva shortly after landing in Ireland in 1689, and it subsequently became the annual setting for the "Sham Fight," the centrepiece of the Royal Black Preceptory parade held each 13th July. The Sham Fight is a mock reconstruction of the Battle of the Boyne, lasting around 30 minutes, in which the green standard of King James is cornered and lowered by red-shirted Williamite "soldiers." The 300 residents of Scarva are joined on that day by tens of thousands of visitors from across Northern Ireland and beyond.

The earliest recorded reference to the Sham Fight dates from 1835, when evidence given to a House of Commons inquiry into Orangeism noted that by that date the fight had already been taking place "for several years." A full account appears in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1838, which describes the battle as commencing at the eastern boundary of the parish of Ballymore, County Armagh, on the western bank of the Newry Canal, crossing it in imitation of the crossing of the Boyne, and continuing on the eastern bank in County Down. The memoir notes that in 1836 more than 5,000 people assembled and were dispersed by the military, who arrived with six pieces of artillery, and that in 1837 the participants met at two o'clock in the morning and the day passed quietly. Sham fights commemorating the Battle of the Boyne were at one time held in numerous towns across Counties Armagh and Down, including Portadown, Markethill, Tandragee, Newtownhamilton, Poyntzpass, and the Altnaveagh Hills near Newry. The origins of the custom remain uncertain and may pre-date the foundation of the Orange Order itself. Over time, the fight has evolved from its originally undisciplined form into a more symbolic and dignified ceremony.

The Orange Order had previously used a house at Aughlish before this hall was built. The hall's association with Scarvagh House, with Henry Thomson, and with the annual Sham Fight tradition all add considerably to its historical interest.