Old Masonic Hall, Maytown Road, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Old Masonic Hall, Maytown Road, Bessbrook

A two-storey five-bay mid-Victorian former Masonic hall built around 1872 to designs by an unknown architect. The building now functions as two separate dwellings and is located north of the junction between Maytown Road and Main Street in Bessbrook. A single-storey porch was added to the southeast elevation around 1985–86.

The building is constructed of generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with red brick dressings. Stone cills and stepped red brick surrounds frame the square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. Rectangular-section red brick chimneys rise from the northwest and southeast gables. The eaves are flush with a single red brick corbel course. Cast iron rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular section downpipes.

The principal southwest-facing elevation is symmetrical and presents the main frontage to the crossroads. A modest front garden, now internally divided by hooped painted metal railings, is bounded by random-coursed rock-faced dwarf stone walling with stone coping. Two-part painted metal vehicular gates occupy the northwest end, with a matching foot gate aligned to the centre of the elevation. A concrete path from the foot gate leads to a four-panelled painted timber door at the centre of the facade, fitted with black iron furniture and a square-headed fanlight above, which provides access to number 3. The facade displays regular fenestration with four windows at first-floor level aligned with those at ground-floor level. A moulded rectangular granite datestone positioned above the central ground-floor entrance bears the inscription "Mullaglass Masonic Hall, 1872", with the date inscribed within a Masonic set square and compass symbol. Windows throughout are generally 6/6 double-hung sliding timber sash with window horns.

The northwest-facing elevation has a red brick chimney at its gable apex and is finished with smooth cement render. A painted timber four-panel door at ground-floor level to the northeast end is accompanied by a two-part window to its left.

The northeast rear elevation is enclosed by a rock-faced random-coursed stone retaining wall at the boundary of a narrow raised and paved yard. The ground floor features smooth rendered finish, whilst the first floor retains original stone walling and three timber casement windows with concrete heads and slim concrete cills.

The southeast elevation, set back from a local access road, has a red brick chimney at its gable apex and a projecting monopitch-roofed porch at its southwest end. A painted metal scrollwork foot gate leads from the access road to the front garden, where the porch has a six-panelled painted timber door facing southwest, fitted with painted metal furniture and a single casement window on its southeast side. Smooth rendered dwarf walling extends northeast from the porch along the access road, enclosing a modest yard accessed through a painted timber foot gate. This yard leads to a panelled painted timber entrance door with a single adjacent window, black iron furniture, and a monopitched canopy supported on plain painted timber brackets. Two equally spaced double-hung 6/6 sash windows are positioned at first-floor level. The elevation is generally finished in smooth cement render.

The former Mullaghglass Masonic Hall occupies a prominent position north of a crossroads where four roads converge: Maytown Road to the northwest, Millvale Road to the southeast, Main Street Bessbrook to the southwest, and a local access road to the northeast. This crossroads sits on one of the main approaches to Bessbrook village, an important historic mill village containing a former linen mill, two formally designed residential squares built for mill workers—Charlemont Square (built between circa 1862–66) and the later College Square (built circa 1883)—as well as various other secular and ecclesiastical buildings of note. The hall stands outside the Bessbrook Conservation Area, forming part of a cluster of buildings at the crossroads that includes Mullaghglass Orange Hall to the east (circa 1897) and a former rectory to the west.