2 Deramore (Derrymore) Terrace, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

2 Deramore Terrace (also known as Richardson's Terrace), Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built in around 1892, forming part of a planned row of ten similar dwellings on the northeast side of Derrymore Road, a main approach road leading into Bessbrook village. The architect is unknown, though the majority of housing in Bessbrook was built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The house was originally constructed as mill workers' housing for the nearby Bessbrook Mill, and its listing extends to include the yard walling, railings, and gate.

Architectural Character and Materials

The building has an L-shaped plan form facing southwest, with a later single-storey rear return. The external walls are of generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — a high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate, notable for having also been used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Window and door openings are square-headed with stepped red brick dressings to the jambs and gauged brickwork surrounds. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. Eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. There are two rectangular-section red brick chimneys: the northwest chimney, now rendered, carries two terracotta clay pots and one buff clay pot; the southeast chimney, rebuilt in modern brick, carries three terracotta clay pots. Rainwater goods to the front are generally metal, with galvanised half-round guttering discharging to a cast-iron circular-section downpipe; uPVC rainwater goods have been fitted to the rear.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and is near-symmetrical in its fenestration. There are two windows at first-floor level directly above the ground-floor openings, all being double-hung 1-over-1 sliding timber sash windows with horns and margin panes. At ground-floor level there is a window to the northwest side of the door. The entrance is a polished sheeted timber half-door with a glazed panel to the centre of the upper section, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight with margin panes above. It is fronted by an open painted timber trellised porch with a pitched roof. A path of quarry tiles leads from the entrance gate to the front door. The modest gravelled front yard is enclosed by a dwarf stone wall topped by vertical painted metal railings with pointed finials, with a matching foot gate hung on circular-section cast-iron posts to the southeast.

Northwest, Northeast and Southeast Elevations

To the northwest, the house is attached to No. 1 Deramore Terrace. To the southeast, it is attached to No. 3 Deramore Terrace. Access to the rear northeast-facing elevation is limited, but where visible it consists of a single-storey rendered extension with a monopitched corrugated metal roof at the southeast end, projecting into the enclosed rear yard. The rear elevation retains its original stone walling, with a uPVC window visible at first-floor level to the centre; the ground floor of the rear elevation has been finished in painted smooth cement render. The rear yard boundary is formed by random-coursed rock-faced local stone walling, with a sheeted timber door to the southeast leading to the shared rear access route.

Setting

The terrace sits on the northeast side of Derrymore Road, with each of the ten houses set back from the pavement behind a modest front yard enclosed by dwarf stone walling and metal railings. To the rear, each dwelling has a yard typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide shared rear access route running northwest to southeast, accessible from both ends of the terrace. To the northeast of this shared access route, each house has a rear garden, many of which now contain later outbuildings. The rear garden of No. 2 is an undeveloped open area of rough grazing, gravelled in some parts, to the northeast of the shared access route. Rear facades and rear yard boundary walls across the terrace are now generally much altered. The terrace overlooks parkland associated with Derrymore House to the southwest, which has stone walling to the roadside and mature trees.

Historical Background

The development of industry at Bessbrook dates from 1761, when the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened by a Mr John Pollock. The site was known simply as 'The Green' but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). The first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s shows very few buildings at Bessbrook at that time, with only Mount Caulfield House (the residence of the Nicholson family) and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills recorded.

The village of Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg and a member of the Religious Society of Friends, purchased one of the derelict mills on the site and began building housing for his factory workers in the immediate vicinity. Richardson, in his own words, 'had a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town, so on looking around, fixed upon a place near Newry… with water power and a thick population around, and in a country district where flax was cultivated in considerable quantities.' Richardson's layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for the planning of Philadelphia in the late 17th century. His philanthropic outlook led him to bring the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, hoping to encourage them to improve themselves and abandon old habits.

The village was established as a 'model village' in several phases, beginning with Fountain Street in the 1840s, and is contemporary with other English model villages such as Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville (1895), which latterly contributed to town and country planning all over the world. Bessbrook is often referred to as a village without the 'Three P's', reflecting Richardson's stipulation that there would be no public house or pawn shop in the settlement, and therefore no need for police to be stationed there. In exchange, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve this arrangement in the 1870s and, to this day, there remains no public house at Bessbrook. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863 Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company following the purchase of his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a significant boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off. Richardson took advantage of this by greatly enlarging his factory and increasing his workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal employer and landowner at Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of new workers; between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296. By the turn of the 20th century the village's population stood at approximately 4,000.

The Annual Revisions record that Nos. 1–10 Deramore Terrace (Richardson's Terrace) were constructed in 1892 and leased to tenants by the Richardson estate. A First Survey note from 1969 suggests the terrace was built specifically for elderly residents, though the 1901 Census of Ireland recorded that the majority of the terrace's early tenants were under the age of 50 or remained employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. Deramore Terrace was laid out in the countryside approximately half a mile to the southeast of Richardson's mill — and of the majority of other housing in Bessbrook — on a plot of land near Woodhouse, Derry House, and the Friends' Meeting House.

No. 2 was valued at £4 by the Annual Revisions. It was initially leased by Richardson to a Mr Thomas Gray. The 1901 Census records Thomas Gray (aged 35) as a mechanical engineer employed at Richardson's mill, and describes the house as a second-class dwelling consisting of five rooms, with a shed and fowl house as its sole outbuildings to the rear. Ownership of the terrace passed from the Richardson estate to the Trustees of the neighbouring Friends' Meeting House in 1900, with William Davies — a local magistrate and Richardson's land agent — acting as secretary. Following this change in ownership the terrace was renamed 'Richardson's Terrace' in 1901. The house was first recorded on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906, shown in its current layout.

During the 20th century the Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to expand and gained international recognition. During the Second World War, the mill workers were tasked with supplying cloth for military uniforms. The company continued to own housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when most dwellings began to be sold to private individuals and firms, a process driven by the post-war downturn in the local textile market that foreshadowed the closure of the mill in 1972. Under the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), ownership of Deramore Terrace had reverted to the Bessbrook Spinning Company; the rateable value of No. 2 was increased to £7 and 10 shillings at this time, and the valuer recorded that a Mr John McClelland occupied the house during this period. No. 2 Deramore Terrace was listed in 1985 and was in use as a private dwelling at the time of the Second Survey.