22 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

22 College Square East, Bessbrook

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built around 1883, designed by an unknown architect, though possibly by civil engineer John Hardy. The building has an L-plan form facing southwest with a single-storey L-plan rear return.

The house is constructed of random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to door and window jambs and painted stone cills. Window and door openings are square-headed with gauged brick. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles and topped with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest has been rebuilt in rustic red brick and 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 are mostly uPVC with half-round guttering and circular section downpipes, except to the front elevation which retains metal guttering.

The front elevation facing southwest is near symmetrical and flush with the adjoining terrace. A modest concrete front garden is enclosed by concrete dwarf walling with pierced quatrefoil blocks and a hooped painted metal gate hung on slim posts. A concrete path leads from the gate to a uPVC door with a square-headed fanlight above. Two windows to the first floor and two to the ground floor all contain wood-effect top-opening uPVC casement windows.

The northeast elevation features an L-plan single-storey flat-roofed rear return projecting into the yard. A uPVC casement window is visible at first-floor level with original stone walling below. The random-coursed rock-faced yard boundary wall has a painted planked timber door providing access to the rear. A single-storey flat-roofed outbuilding stands at the southern corner of the yard.

The building is attached to No. 23 College Square East to the northwest and No. 21 College Square East to the southeast.

No. 22 forms part of College Square, a planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square with east, north and west terraces arranged around a central bowling green, playground and lawn. 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 eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings to respect the site's subtle relief. The western terrace comprises paired dwellings in similar style. Front facades along the eastern terrace are nearly uniform. Bessbrook Town Hall (the old Institute building) is located to the southeast. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route; rear facades are generally much altered.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections. The northwest section contains a bowling green and pavilion enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its boundary. To the southeast is a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings. A children's playground with three granite monuments occupies the centre. One monument records names of workers who served the Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years, erected in 1911. Another records the arrangement of a memorial garden by the wife of James N. Richardson in November 1927, with an inscription noting this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, recently relocated, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.