11 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' terraced dwelling built circa 1874 in local stone, designed by an unknown architect, though possibly the work of civil engineer John Hardy. The building forms part of a planned terrace of 18 similar houses comprising the western side of College Square, itself a formally designed late-Victorian square of 53 dwellings arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The house is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped painted red brick dressings to jambs, stone cills and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The dwellings are grouped into pairs along the terrace, each pair symmetrical with doors grouped to the centre flanked by single windows at ground floor level, set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping that rise to rectangular-section chimneys at apex level. The vertical line of each verge is continued down the front northeast façade with stepped red brick quoins and recessed downpipes flanking each paired set of dwellings. Single unpaired dwellings occupy each end of the terrace.

The pitched roof carries fibre cement tiles to the front elevation and natural slates to the rear, with roll-top black clay tiles to the ridge. The northwest chimney is rectangular-section red and buff brick with recessed panels of buff brick and a raised corbel course of red and buff brick below a decorative cap featuring six buff clay pots. The eaves are flush with a double red course of red brick, a single buff brick course and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Metal rainwater goods are installed to the front northeast (cast iron, recessed into the stepped red brick quoins) and uPVC to the rear southwest, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The front northeast elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and nearly symmetrical. It features two windows to first floor and two to ground floor, all double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns. The ground floor has a stepped red brick surround and gauged brick arches with flush keystone detail to the door head; the window to the northwest side of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath its cill. Red brick detailing to the front façade is now painted. A modest front garden laid to lawn is 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.

The southeast elevation is attached to No. 10 College Square West. The southwest rear elevation faces the rear and includes two skylights to the natural slate roof with no visible openings to the first floor level. A pitched-roof rear return with fibre cement tiles projects to the site boundary at the southwest. A two-part timber casement window 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 leading from the rear access route and a two-part side-opening timber casement window to the northeast side of the door. The rear return and rear yard boundary wall are finished in pebble dash render. The northwest elevation is attached to No. 12 College Square West. An L-plan form rear return of single storey was added circa 1998.

The building is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest front yard enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings, typical of the arrangement throughout College Square. The rear yard is typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. The rear façades of dwellings in the square are generally much altered.

College Square itself comprises three terraces arranged around a central area divided into three lawn sections: the eastern terrace of 23 dwellings in similar style but with significant differences in detailing, initially stepped in groups of six respecting site relief and terminating with the village Town Hall; the northern terrace of 12 larger two-storey buildings; and the western terrace containing this dwelling. The central area includes a bowling pavilion and green to the northwest enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its boundary, a lawn to the southeast similarly enclosed, and an open children's playground in the centre featuring three granite monuments recording the mill's history and notable local figures. The former school building is located at the southeastern end of the western terrace.