11 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

11 College Square West, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a two-storey, two-bay terraced dwelling built in approximately 1874 for workers at Bessbrook Mill. It is constructed of locally quarried Newry Granodiorite stone and sits within College Square, a formally planned late-Victorian square that is a rare example of its kind in Ulster. 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, who was responsible for the factory's extension in 1884–85. The house forms part of a row of 18 similar dwellings making up the western terrace of College Square, which together with the north and east terraces comprises 53 mill workers' dwellings in total, arranged around a central green. The building is listed in its own right and also carries group value as one component of this planned architectural composition. It lies within the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983.

Historical and Social Context

Bessbrook was established as a model village from the 1840s onwards by John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a Quaker linen merchant from Lambeg. Richardson purchased a derelict mill on the site in 1845 and began building housing for his workforce, deliberately choosing a rural location to avoid the social problems he associated with large industrial towns. His approach was shaped by Quaker ideals and influenced by the planning principles of William Penn, the Quaker founder of Philadelphia. The village became famous as a settlement without the so-called "Three P's" — no public house, no pawn shop, and consequently no need for police. In place of these, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to his workers. The ban on alcohol was preserved by popular vote in the 1870s and no public house exists in Bessbrook to this day. Police were not stationed in the village until the early 20th century.

The local linen industry expanded significantly during the American Civil War (1861–65), when disruption to the supply of American cotton drove demand for Irish linen. Richardson used this opportunity to enlarge his factory and workforce considerably. Between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook grew from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses rose from 73 to 296. The earlier Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate this growth; College Square followed in stages between approximately 1874 and 1890 as expansion continued. The mid-1880s were a particularly active period of building, coinciding with a major extension and modernisation of the mill in 1884–85.

The stone used throughout Bessbrook, including at College Square, is Newry Granodiorite, quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. This is a high-quality granite that was also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Each house in the village was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and typically contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required under their lease to maintain their gardens, keep pigs and fowl in designated areas away from the house, and send their children to school until they were old enough to work in the mill.

The influence of Bessbrook's planned layout extended well beyond Ireland. The Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide notes that the development here, including the uniform terraces of 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 from 1895, which in turn have directly influenced town and country planning across the world.

The Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to own the houses at College Square until the 1960s, when a post-war downturn in the textile market forced the sale of properties to private individuals. The mill itself closed in 1972 and was subsequently occupied by the British Army. No. 11 College Square West was listed in 1981.

Architectural Description

The house faces northeast and is built in the L-plan form typical of the terrace, with a single-storey rear return added in approximately 1998. The principal walling material is generally random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite to the front northeast facade, with stepped painted red brick dressings to the jambs, stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick surrounds to the door and window openings.

Along the western terrace, dwellings are grouped in pairs, each pair being symmetrical with the front doors placed centrally and flanked on either side by a single window at ground-floor level. Each pair is set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping, rising to rectangular-section chimneys at apex level. The line of these verges continues vertically down the front facade as stepped red brick quoins, with recessed downpipes flanking each paired set of dwellings. The single dwellings at each end of the terrace are unpaired.

The roof to the front elevation is covered in fibre cement tiles, natural slates to the rear, and roll-top black clay tiles to the ridge. The chimney to the northwest is of rectangular section in red and buff brick, with recessed panels of buff brick, a raised corbel course of red and buff brick below the cap, and six buff clay pots. The eaves are flush with a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above.

Rainwater goods to the front northeast elevation are cast iron, with the downpipe recessed into the stepped red brick quoins; uPVC half-round guttering and circular-section downpipes are used to the rear southwest elevation.

Principal (Northeast) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and near-symmetrical in its fenestration. There are two windows at first-floor level aligned with the ground-floor openings. All four windows are double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns. At ground-floor level, the door surround has a stepped red brick surround and a gauged brick arch with a flush keystone detail to the head; the window to the northwest side of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath the cill. All red brick detailing to the front facade is now painted.

The front garden is modest in size, laid to lawn, and enclosed by hooped painted galvanised metal railings with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts to the southeast. A paved path from the gate leads to a panelled painted timber door with two glazed panels to its upper half, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above.

Southeast Elevation

To the southeast the building is attached to No. 10 College Square West.

Southwest (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation faces southwest. There are two skylights to the natural slate roof, no visible openings at first-floor level, and a pitched-roof rear return with fibre cement tiles to the northwest, projecting to the site boundary at the southwest. A two-part timber casement window in the return overlooks the rear access route. The rear yard to the southeast is a single reduced bay in width, with a panelled painted timber door in rendered walling giving access from the rear access route. The finish to the rear elevation, rear return, and rear yard boundary wall is generally pebble dash render. The southeast side of the rear return has a panelled painted timber door with a glazed top half opening into the rear yard, and a two-part side-opening timber casement window to the northeast side of the door.

Northwest Elevation

To the northwest the building is attached to No. 12 College Square West.

Setting

No. 11 College Square West forms part of a planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square with east, north, and west terraces arranged around a central area now divided into three sections. To the northwest is a bowling pavilion and green, enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its northwest boundary, added in 1911. To the southeast is a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings. In the centre is an open children's playground containing 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 that this was the last stone cut from the 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 through to the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Ltd in 1878.

Each house in the square is set back from the perimeter road and footpath behind a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. Rear yards are generally enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route; rear facades across the square are generally much altered.

The east terrace comprises 23 dwellings in a similar style but with some significant differences in detailing. They are stepped in groups of six to respect the subtle relief of the site and terminate at their southeastern end with the village Town Hall, the former Institute building. The north terrace is the shortest side of the square at 12 houses wide; its dwellings are similar in style but are distinctly larger two-storey buildings. The former school building is located at the southeast end of the western terrace.

Condition and Alterations

The replacement of the original roof slates with fibre cement tiles to the front elevation, and the addition of the single-storey rear return in approximately 1998, detract from the building's character. The 1998 renovation also included the installation of the current window frames. The use of locally quarried Newry Granodiorite to the front facade contributes to the distinct sense of identity and place that characterises Bessbrook as a whole, and each building, including No. 11 College Square West, plays a significant role in the overall composition of the square and its planned architectural effect.