1 College Square North, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built around 1890 from local Newry Granodiorite stone, possibly designed by civil engineer John Hardy. The building was constructed as a mill workers' dwelling and forms part of the northern terrace of College Square, a formally designed scheme of 53 dwellings arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The house is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced local stone walling with stepped red brick dressings to door and window jambs. Windows are double hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns, arranged regularly across the principal southeast-facing elevation. The roof is pitched with fibre cement tiles and roll-top black clay ridge tiles. Two chimneys project from the gable ends: a southwest chimney rebuilt in modern brick with two buff clay pots, and a northeast chimney rebuilt in rustic brick with two terracotta clay pots. Flush eaves are formed 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, though a cast iron downpipe survives to the centre of the front elevation.

The front elevation faces southeast and is flush with the terrace. It features a near-symmetrical fenestration pattern with two windows at first-floor level aligned with ground-floor openings. A modest front yard, now paved and enclosed by modern concrete block dwarf walling, contains a hooped painted metal foot gate hung on slim posts. A panelled painted timber door with two glazed upper panels, brass furniture and a square-headed fanlight above provides the principal entrance, with a further window to its southwest side.

The southwest elevation, which forms the end of College Square North, comprises two storeys with a pitched roof to the southeast, topped by a red brick chimney, and a side opening uPVC casement window at first-floor level. A two-storey pitched roof rear return extends northwestward, finished in roughcast cement render with two-part side opening uPVC casement windows. Attached to the northwest end is one-and-a-half storey section of original stone rear yard boundary walling with red brick and stone quoins.

A rear return was added around 2003, extending two storeys toward the northwest boundary. A single-storey monopitched block is attached to its northeast side, and a flat-roofed block with oil tank above is attached at the southwest, both abutting the original rear yard boundary walling. The original random-coursed rock-faced stone yard boundary walling features a painted sheeted timber door providing rear access. The rear return has sheeted uPVC soffit and facia with roughcast cement render finish and a single top-opening uPVC casement window at first-floor level.

No. 1 College Square North is part of a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings. The northern terrace comprises twelve houses, all distinctly larger two-storey buildings with steeply pitched roofs compared to dwellings in the other terraces. 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. Rear yards are generally enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed door openings onto a wide rear access route, though rear facades are generally much altered. The central area of the square is now divided into three sections: a bowling pavilion and green to the northwest enclosed by painted hooped metal railings; a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings to the southeast; and an open children's playground in the centre, featuring three granite monuments commemorating figures significant to the Bessbrook firm and its community.