16 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

A two-storey two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' terraced dwelling, constructed around 1874 from local Newry Granodiorite stone, possibly to designs by civil engineer John Hardy. The building forms part of a formally planned square of 18 similar houses running along the western side of College Square, part of a larger ensemble of 53 dwellings arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The house is built in an L-plan form facing northeast, with a two-storey rear return added around 1997. Walling is generally random-coursed rock-faced local stone with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and painted stone cills. Door and window openings are square-headed with gauged brick surrounds. The dwellings are grouped in pairs along the terrace; each pair is symmetrical with doors grouped centrally and flanked on opposite sides by single windows at ground floor level. These are set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping, which rise to rectangular-section chimneys at apex level. Stepped red brick quoins continue the line of the verge vertically down each front northeast façade, flanking each paired set of dwellings, with recessed downpipes. The pitched roof is laid with fibre cement slate with roll-top black clay ridge tiles.

The rectangular-section red and buff brick chimney to the southeast has recessed panels of buff brick and a raised corbel course of red and buff brick below a decorative chimney cap with four terracotta clay pots and two buff clay pots. Flush eaves feature a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Metal rainwater goods run to the front northeast elevation and uPVC to the rear southwest; half-round guttering discharges to circular-section downpipes, with the front downpipe recessed into the stepped red brick quoins. The rear return has box guttering discharging to square-section downpipes.

The principal northeast-facing elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and nearly symmetrical with regular fenestration. Two windows to first floor level align with ground floor openings; all windows are double hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns. Ground floor features a stepped red brick surround and gauged brick arches with flush keystone detail to the head of the door; the window to the southeast side of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath the cill. A modest front garden is laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped painted metal railings with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts to the northwest. A paved path from the gate leads to a panelled painted timber door with two glazed panels of clear and coloured glass to its upper half, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight with two vertical glazing bars above.

To the southeast, the building is attached to No. 15 College Square West. The southwest-facing rear elevation, where visible, comprises a top-opening timber casement window to first floor at the southeast end with coloured glazing and stone cill, and a similar window with clear glazing below at ground floor, both looking into an enclosed rear yard. A two-storey pitched roof rear return projects from the northwest end of the elevation to the rear site boundary at the southwest. Yard boundary walling has a smooth cement render finish with a set of tall modern two-part galvanised metal gates leading from the rear access route to a narrow concrete yard. The southwest side of the rear return has a two-part side-opening timber casement window to first floor level; the southeast side has a three-part casement window with a door to its northeast, both at ground floor facing into the rear yard. The elevation generally has smooth cement render finish with timber casement windows; first floor windows have modern metal grills fitted and windows of the rear return have slim concrete cills. To the northwest, the building is attached to No. 17 College Square West.

The building 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 public road and footpath with a modest-sized front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. Rear yards are typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route; rear façades are generally much altered. The eastern terrace comprises 23 dwellings in similar style but with some significant differences in detailing, stepped in groups of six respecting the subtle relief of the site, terminating at the southeastern end with the village 'Town Hall' (the old Institute building). The northern terrace is the shortest in the square with only 12 houses; these are distinctly larger two-storey buildings similar to the other terrace dwellings. The former school building is located at the southeast end of the western terrace. The central area of the square is divided into three sections laid to lawn: an area to the northwest has a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its northwest boundary; a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings to the southeast; and an open children's playground in the centre featuring three granite monuments. One monument records the memory of three men who served the Bessbrook firm for nearly fifty years, another commemorates James N. Richardson with a playground for Bessbrook's children and records that this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry, and a third, recently moved from the grounds of Bessbrook Mill, details the mill's history from ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.