15 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

15 College Square East, Bessbrook, County Armagh

A modest two-storey, two-bay, mid-terrace house built around 1883, forming part of the eastern terrace of College Square in the planned mill village of Bessbrook. The architect is unknown, though the work may be attributable to John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881. The listing extends to the house itself, together with its gate, railings and yard walling.

Architectural Description

The house is of L-plan form, facing southwest, constructed in random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite (a high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate) with stepped red brick dressings to the jambs, painted stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The pitched roof is finished in fibre cement tiles with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest carries two terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Rainwater goods to the front southwest elevation are generally cast iron with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes; uPVC goods are used to the rear.

The front elevation is near-symmetrical and flush with the rest of the terrace. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by hooped painted metal railings with a matching foot gate hung on slim posts to the southeast. A concrete path from the gate leads to a polished planked timber door positioned at the southeast end of the facade, which has a single rectangular glazed section to the top centre, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. A window sits to the northwest side of the facade. Fenestration follows a regular pattern, with two windows at first-floor level aligned with the ground-floor openings. The front southwest elevation has double-hung sliding timber sash windows with window horns; the rear northeast facade has timber casement windows.

To the northwest, the building is attached to No. 16 College Square East. To the southeast, it is attached to No. 14 College Square East. Access to the rear northeast elevation is limited, but where visible it shows random-coursed rock-faced yard boundary walling with a painted planked timber door leading from the rear access to the yard. Walling to the facade and rear return is generally painted smooth cement render.

A two-storey pitched-roof rear return projects northeast into the rear yard, constructed around 1986, with a subsequent single-storey extension added around 1996 projecting further from its northeast wall toward the yard boundary walling. The L-shaped yard narrows to a single reduced bay in width at its northwest extent, with a single top-opening casement window visible at first-floor level. The two-storey rear return has a single two-part side-opening timber casement window visible to the northeast gable at first-floor level.

The building retains its overall character despite the replacement of the original natural roof slates, windows and front door, and the addition of these later rear extensions.

Setting and Group Value

No. 15 is one of twenty-three similar houses forming the eastern terrace of College Square, which together with Bessbrook Town Hall (the old Institute building) to the southeast make up the eastern side of the square. College Square as a whole comprises 53 mill workers' dwellings arranged on three sides around a central bowling green, playground and lawn, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. Each house is set back from the perimeter road and footpath with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The rear yard to each dwelling is enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route.

The eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings, respecting the subtle relief of the site. The western terrace is composed of paired dwellings in a similar style. The northern terrace is the shortest at only twelve houses in width, but is distinctly larger, being two-and-a-half storeys. The front facades along the eastern terrace are nearly uniform. The central area of the square is divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The northwest section contains a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with some established trees at its northwest boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings lies to the southeast, and an open children's playground occupies the centre of the square. The playground includes three granite monuments. One records: "erected A.D. 1911 in respectful memory of George Wright, Head Mason. John McClelland, Head Millwright. Michael Boyle, Flax Buyer. Who each faithfully served the Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years. Also Robert Ross, Mill Manager. Austin Kennedy, Rougher." A second records: "The garden in memory of James N. Richardson is arranged by his wife as a playground for the children of Bessbrook whom he loved November 1927," with an inscription on the opposite side noting this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, formerly in the grounds of Bessbrook Mill and recently moved to its current location, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to the Bessbrook Spinning Company Ltd in 1878.

Historical Context

The development of industry at Bessbrook dates from 1761, when a Mr John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green on a site then simply known as "The Green." The settlement was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s records very few buildings at Bessbrook at that time — chiefly Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

The village as it is known today was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased one of the derelict mills and began building housing for his factory workers nearby. 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." A Quaker and member of the Religious Society of Friends, Richardson was influenced in his layout of the village by the work of William Penn, who had been responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century. His philanthropic approach led him to bring poor, unqualified workers and beggars from the surrounding countryside to live and work at Bessbrook, hoping to encourage self-improvement. He provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to mill workers.

Bessbrook is widely known as a village without the "Three P's" — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police. In exchange for keeping the village free of alcohol, Richardson provided these social amenities. The arrangement proved effective: the majority of the population voted to preserve the ordinance in the 1870s, and to this day Bessbrook has no public house. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863 following the purchase of his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly enlarged his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal employer and landowner in Bessbrook. Between 1861 and 1871 the population rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate this growth; the earlier square lies immediately to the west of College Square.

College Square was laid out around 1883 in response to a further expansion of Richardson's business and workforce. The mid-1880s were described in the Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide as "a period of intense building activity in the village" during which "the earlier ideals of the plan were re-established with the building of College Square." The factory itself was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. The square was named after the Primary School on its west side, erected in 1849. The two-storey houses were constructed along three sides of an open green intended for recreational use; the bowling green at the southern end was added in 1911. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The Newry Granodiorite used in their construction was quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate and is of notably high quality — the same stone was used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool.

No. 15 College Square East was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1883, when it was let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr Terence Toner at a rental valuation of £5 and 10 shillings, at which it remained until the 1950s. The 1911 Census of Ireland records the Toner family still in occupation, employed at Richardson's factory, and describes the building as a second-class dwelling of five rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the building remained valued at £5 and 10 shillings and was occupied by a Mr George Morrow.

Each house at Bessbrook was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required under their lease to adhere to various conditions. As noted by Bassett, each house possessed "a garden [or yard] containing an eighth of an acre, and when the tenant enters into possession he is required to sign an agreement which contains certain stipulations in regard to the keeping of fowl and pigs, so that they may not be found in the quarters occupied by the family or in the yard. He can have a pig-sty and fowl-run in the garden if he pleases. Another binding clause places him under obligation to send his children to school until they are old enough for mill work."

During the 20th century the mill continued to expand, gaining international recognition. During the Second World War, mill workers were tasked with supplying cloth for uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company began selling its housing in Bessbrook from the 1960s onwards; the majority of the houses along College Square were purchased by a Mr George Preston around 1969. The sale of property was necessitated by the post-war downturn in the local textile market, which foreshadowed the closure of the mill in 1972, after which the building was occupied by the British Army. No. 15 was purchased outright by the Morrow family in 1968, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) its value had risen to £8.

The house was listed in 1981 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village. The Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook — including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square — influenced the design of the English model villages of Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville (developed by the Cadbury family in 1895), which "have directly influenced town and country planning all over the world." Bessbrook is contemporary with Port Sunlight and Bourneville and is considered internationally significant as one of the earliest planned mill villages, begun in the 1840s.