19 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Two-storey two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built around 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, though possibly by civil engineer Mr John Hardy. The building is L-plan in form, facing southwest, with a two-storey rear return and a single-storey covered yard extension to the rear northwest. No. 19 College Square East is one of twenty-three similar houses forming the eastern side of College Square, a formally designed late-Victorian square of fifty-three dwellings in total arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The walling is generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped painted red brick dressings, painted stone cills and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The pitched roof is covered in fibre cement tiles with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest, reconstructed around 1997, carries two terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush with separate red and buff brick courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. The rainwater goods are generally uPVC with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The principal southwest-facing front elevation is nearly symmetrical and flush with the rest of the terrace. A modest paved front garden is enclosed by hooped painted metal railings with a matching foot gate. A concrete path leads from the gate to a painted panelled timber door at the southeast end of the facade, with two glazed panels to its upper half, painted metal furniture and a square-headed fanlight above. The facade has regular fenestration with two windows on the first-floor level in line with the main entrance and a window to ground-floor level. Windows are generally double-hung sliding timber sashes with window horns to the front southwest elevation and timber casement windows to the rear northeast elevation.

To the northwest, the building is attached to No. 20 College Square East. The rear elevation faces northeast, with a two-storey pitched-roof return projecting northeast into a concrete rear yard. A monopitched block to the northwest has a single top-opening casement window above it at first-floor level. The monopitched extension has a corrugated Perspex roof and painted planked timber walling to the yard with some glazing and a door facing southeast. A flat-roofed block is located at the northern corner of the rear yard. The rear return has single top-opening timber casement windows to the northeast gable at both ground and first-floor levels. Random-coursed rock-faced yard boundary walling includes a painted planked timber door leading from the rear access route to the yard. The facade and rear return have generally painted smooth cement render walling, with a similar finish to the interior face of the original yard boundary walling. To the southeast, the building is attached to No. 18 College Square East.

College Square East forms part of a planned arrangement of fifty-three 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 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 subtle relief of the site. The western terrace comprises paired dwellings in similar style. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route. The front facades are nearly uniform along the eastern terrace, with the village Town Hall (the old Institute building) located to the southeast. The central area of the square is divided into three sections laid to lawn, with a bowling pavilion and green to the northwest enclosed by painted hooped metal railings and some established trees at its boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings is located to the southeast, and an open children's playground with three granite monuments is in the centre of the square. One monument commemorates George Wright, Head Mason; John McClelland, Head Millwright; Michael Boyle, Flax Buyer; Robert Ross, Mill Manager; and Austin Kennedy, Rougher, each of whom served the Bessbrook firm for nearly fifty years. Another 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 noting this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, recently moved from the grounds of Bessbrook Mill, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Co Ltd in 1878.