71 Main Street, Moira, Craigavon, Co. Armagh, BT67 0LQ

71 Main Street, Moira is an end-of-terrace three-bay two-storey Georgian house built around 1735, displaying good proportions and style characteristic of the period. The building is rectangular on plan, facing north onto Main Street, with a large west gable fronting onto Meeting Street. It comprises three storeys over a part-basement with an attic storey, finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with rusticated render quoins to the slightly battered southwest corner. The rear elevation is roughcast rendered.

The pitched natural slate roof features roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and a catslide to the rear, with a single gabled slate-hung dormer to the rear pitch. Rendered chimneys with terracotta pots rise from either end. Cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets returns to the west gable, with a cast-iron downpipe.

The symmetrical three-bay front elevation displays square-headed window openings with masonry sills and moulded architrave surrounds with keystones and blocks to the sill. The windows are predominantly tripartite Wyatt style timber sash windows, except the central opening which has a 6/6 timber sash window. The central round-headed door opening features a moulded archivolt and keystone to impost mouldings, with plain pilasters on plinth blocks. The original timber panelled door has six raised-and-fielded panels with brass door furniture, flanked by a pair of slender pulvinated pilasters with diminutive Ionic capitals. The original webbed fanlight remains above the door, which opens onto a concrete step to the pavement.

The west gable exposes all four floors and the catslide roof, with irregularly placed square and segmental-headed window openings containing 3/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes. A square-headed basement-level door opening has a steel-sheeted door. The rear elevation retains an original 1/1 timber sash window at first-floor level; remaining windows are generally replacements, either timber top-hung or casement.

Internally, the house retains its original residential layout and important early features including an early 18th-century staircase and raised-and-fielded timber panelled doors with surrounds. The roof structure includes pegged roof trusses. Internal detailing was modified during the late 19th century and again in the 1930s, including timber fire surrounds and joinery which add to the building's interest.

To the rear is a two-storey outbuilding with a pitched corrugated tin roof. The east elevation is finished in painted render with a door at ground level and three timber sash windows at first floor (4/4, 3/3 and 1/1). The west elevation is rubble stone with a centrally located door and two timber sash windows at ground level (2/2 and 1/2). A small yard to the rear, accessed from Meeting Street, contains wrought iron gates north of the outbuilding and modern metal gates to the south along the street. The east side of the main house is abutted by number 69.

Historically, the building's origins date to around 1735 during the town's early development, credited to the Rawdon family who owned Moira Demesne during this period. The earliest Ordnance Survey maps from 1833 show it as the end terrace at the junction of what are now Main Street and Meeting Street. The 1864 Griffiths Valuation records the tenant as W.J. Agnew, a farmer who rented land outside the village from Sir Thomas Bateson, owner of Moira Demesne. Agnew was subsequently succeeded by Job Palmer, a shopkeeper, who took tenancy of this property and the two adjacent properties, establishing a general store that served the village for many years whilst residing at number 73. The Annual Revision valuation of 1909-20 documents improvements and additional adjacent buildings, increasing the properties' value from £13.5.0 to £29.0.0. By 1933, R.V. Binders valuations described Palmer's house and store as a "well fitted shop" with "modern front, electric light, good storage" in good repair. By 1937 the valuers recorded "extensive general stores, best position in Moira. No other comparable premises in Moira." By 1938 the property was valued as a house, shop, stores, filling station, weigh bridge yard and garden.

The rear outbuilding, described as a store in the 1980 conveyance map, was originally the end house of a small terrace of buildings shown on the 1st edition County Series map (1829-1835). It served as stores for Palmer's shop during the 20th century; the remainder of the terrace was demolished in the late 20th century. Local tradition records that this small rear outbuilding was originally a doss-house operated by Sarah at a rate of sixpence per night and subsequently was known locally as 'Dick's shed', after a local postman and delivery man named Dick who resided there when unable to travel home.

The house forms part of an important terrace in the centre of the village set back from the main road and has group value with numbers 63 and 65 Main Street adjacent. It represents one of the more significant buildings on this stretch of Main Street. The building is situated within a conservation area.