32 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

32 Charlemont Square East, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay mid-Victorian end-of-terrace house, built between 1862 and 1866 as part of one of the most historically significant planned mill villages in the British Isles. The listing covers the house itself together with its gate, railings, and yard walling.

Architectural Description

The building is arranged on an L-plan, facing southwest, with a single-storey rear return. Walls are constructed in generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — a high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate and also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall, Liverpool. Dressings are in painted red brick, with painted stone cills and stepped red brick surrounds to gauged-brick cambered door and window openings, though the door and window heads have generally been squared off with bands of painted smooth cement render to the surrounds. The pitched roof is now covered in fibre cement rather than the original slates, with angled black clay ridge tiles. There is a rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest with a single terracotta pot. The eaves are flush, with a red brick corbel course. Cast iron rainwater goods with half-round guttering discharge to circular-section downpipes on the principal elevations; uPVC rainwater goods have been fitted to the northeast elevation and rear return.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The front elevation is near-symmetrical and sits flush with the main terrace of houses, set slightly further back than the larger shop buildings at the southeastern end of the terrace. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by hooped metal railings, with a painted metal foot gate to the southeast. A section of rock-faced random-coursed dwarf stone walling runs to the northwest. A paved path from the gate leads to a panelled painted timber door positioned to the southeast of the façade; the upper half of the door has two glazed panels with a square-headed fanlight above. A window sits to the northwest side. At first-floor level, two windows align directly above the ground-floor openings; all windows are double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns and exposed sash boxes. The current sash frames were installed in 1999. Stepped red brick quoin detailing appears at the western corner of the façade. The elevation looks onto the northeast wall of No. 1 Charlemont Square North, separated by a wide public footpath.

Northwest Elevation

The northwest gable forms the northwestern extent of Charlemont Square East. It is finished in roughcast cement render, with the red brick chimney visible at the gable apex. The tarmacked road of the rear access route abuts this gable.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation

Access to the rear elevation is limited, but where visible it shows a single-storey flat-roof rear return at the northwest end projecting northeast to the boundary of the enclosed rear yard. A planked painted timber door set within smooth cement-rendered boundary walling leads from the rear access route into the yard. The rear elevation generally retains its original random-coursed rock-faced walling, with one timber sash window visible at first-floor level. The rear return has a smooth rendered finish and uPVC rainwater goods.

Southeast Elevation

To the southeast, the building is attached to No. 31 Charlemont Square East.

Setting and Group Value

No. 32 forms part of Charlemont Square East, one of three terraces — East, North, and West — arranged around a central green to form a formally planned square of 66 buildings in total. The square is primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. No. 32 is one of twenty-seven similar two-storey houses in the eastern terrace, which also includes five larger two-and-a-half-storey shop buildings to the southeast. The East and West terraces are stepped in groups of two dwellings to follow the subtle relief of the site. Each house is set back from the perimeter road and footpath behind a modest front yard, typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. To the rear, each dwelling generally has a larger enclosed yard of random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route; rear façades are much altered with extensions of varying shapes and sizes. Front façades along the East and West terraces are nearly uniform. The five larger buildings at the southeastern end of Charlemont Square East and one at the southeastern end of Charlemont Square West carry traditional shop fronts at ground-floor level with dwellings above. The northern terrace, though only eight houses wide, is made up of distinctly larger two-and-a-half-storey paired buildings. The central green is now laid to lawn, enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings with established trees along its boundary. A children's playground to the southeast incorporates a monument commemorating the installation of electric lighting in 1911. Bessbrook's War Memorial is centrally located to the southeast of the playground.

Historical Context

The development of industry at Bessbrook dates from 1761, when a woollen mill and bleach green were opened by a John Pollock. The site, then known simply as "The Green," was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s recorded very few buildings — only Mount Caulfield House and several thread manufactories and bleach mills. The village as it is known today was effectively founded in 1845, when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg and a member of the Religious Society of Friends, purchased one of the derelict mills and began building housing for his factory workers. Richardson later described his motivation: he had "a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town" and chose a country district near Newry with water power and a ready supply of locally grown flax. His layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for the planning and development of Philadelphia in the late 17th century.

Bessbrook was developed as a model village and social experiment in a number of phases, beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street in the 1840s. Richardson's philanthropic approach led him to bring the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to live and work at Bessbrook, in the hope of encouraging self-improvement. The village became known for the absence of the "Three Ps": there was no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police. In exchange, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops at Nos 1–5 Charlemont Square East, and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. The majority of residents voted to preserve these arrangements in the 1870s, and there remains no public house in Bessbrook to this day. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863, Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after buying out his brother's shares. The local linen industry boomed during the American Civil War (1861–65), as the supply of American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly enlarged both his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal landowner and employer in the area. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to house the influx of new workers; between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296.

The architect of the buildings at Charlemont Square is not known with certainty. Charles Brett suggests that John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed company architect in 1881, may have carried out some work at Bessbrook in the 1860s, though his role may have been limited to the expansion of the mill buildings. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company.

Charlemont Square does not appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861, but construction had commenced by 1862. Griffith's Valuation of that year noted that Charlemont Square West — captioned "new row" — was the only completed side, though all 26 of its buildings remained unoccupied. The remaining sides of the square were completed and occupied by at least 1866, according to the Annual Revisions. Each house was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign an agreement containing a number of stipulations: fowl and pigs were not to be kept in the family quarters or yard, though a pig-sty and fowl-run were permitted in the garden. Tenants were also obliged to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

History of No. 32

No. 32 Charlemont Square East was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a James Garrett and valued at £5 and 10 shillings. The occupants changed frequently over the following decades, though the valuation remained unaltered until the 1950s. The building appears on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1906 in its current layout. The 1911 Census records the house as occupied by William Truesdale, a Damask Weaver employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company; the census building return described it as a second-class dwelling of five rooms. The 1906 Ordnance Survey Town Plan also shows a tennis ground within the central green.

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the occupants continued to change frequently, but from 1954 the house was occupied by James McCamley, who remained at the address until at least the 1970s. During the Second World War, the mill workers were tasked with supplying cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of housing along Charlemont Square until the 1960s, when dwellings began to be sold. The majority of houses along the square were purchased by C. R. Morrow, a local car and farm machinery dealer, around 1970. No. 32 was among these, purchased outright by Morrow in 1970 and valued at £7 and 10 shillings under the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). The post-war downturn in the local textile market led to the closure of the mill in 1972, after which the building was occupied by the British Army.

No. 32 Charlemont Square East was listed in 1981 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. Renovation works recorded by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency included repointing of the stone façade and the addition of cast iron rainwater goods; the current sliding sash window frames were installed in 1999. A single-storey flat-roof extension was added to the rear of the building.

Broader Significance

Bessbrook is internationally significant as one of the earliest planned mill villages in the British Isles, predating the famous English model villages of Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bourneville — developed by the Cadbury family from 1895 — all of which have been recognised as having directly influenced town and country planning all over the world.