1 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

1 College Square East, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian end-of-terrace house, built around 1883. It is one of twenty-three similar houses forming the eastern terrace of College Square, and is part of a formally planned group of fifty-three mill workers' dwellings arranged on three sides around a central green. The architect is not known with certainty, though the most likely candidate is John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881, who was also responsible for extending the mill.

Architectural Description

The house has a rectangular plan, facing southeast, with a rear yard enclosed by random-coursed, rock-faced stone walling. The external walls are built of random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite (a high-quality local granite), with stepped red brick dressings to the jambs and square-headed gauged-brick openings to the doors and windows. The roof is pitched and finished in natural slate with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. There are two rectangular-section red brick chimneys: one to the northwest with two buff clay pots and one black clay pot, and one to the southeast — now rendered — carrying three buff 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 discharging to circular-section downpipes, though a single original cast iron downpipe is retained to the front southwest elevation.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The front elevation is near-symmetrical and flush with the main terrace to the northwest. A modest front yard is laid to lawn and enclosed by original stone dwarf walling to the southeast, with replacement concrete dwarf walling topped by painted timber fencing to the remainder, and a similar foot gate hung on slim posts. A concrete path leads from the gate to a uPVC door at the southeast end of the façade. The door has a single rectangular glazed light to the centre of its upper half and a square-headed fanlight above. The initials "AL" are inscribed in a brick to the northwest side of the door surround, likely referring to a member of the Littlewood family, who are recorded as occupants. The building has red brick quoins to its southern corner. The façade has a regular fenestration pattern, with two windows at first-floor level aligned above the main entrance door at ground-floor level. Windows are generally top-opening uPVC casements.

Northwest Elevation

The building is attached at this elevation to No. 2 College Square East.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation

Access to the rear elevation is limited, but where visible it consists of random-coursed, rock-faced walling to first-floor level, and a yard boundary wall with a painted planked timber door opening onto a rear access route. There is a single top-opening uPVC casement window with a red brick surround at first-floor level, and a smaller, later window opening with a concrete cill to the northwest. A single red brick corbel course runs to the eaves, with generally uPVC rainwater goods. Red brick quoins appear at the eastern corner of the dwelling and at the rear yard boundary walling.

Southeast Elevation

This elevation is generally finished in roughcast cement render, with a rendered chimney at the roof apex. Random-coursed, rock-faced walling is present to the front yard at the southwest and the rear yard at the northeast.

Setting and Group

No. 1 College Square East forms part of a planned composition of fifty-three mill workers' dwellings arranged in east, north, and west terraces around a central bowling green, playground, and lawn. 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. The eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings to follow the subtle relief of the site. The western terrace is composed of paired dwellings in a similar style. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with square-headed doorways opening onto a wide rear access route; rear façades are generally much altered. The village Town Hall — the former Institute building — is located to the southeast of the eastern terrace.

The northern terrace is the shortest at twelve houses wide; though similar in style, these are distinctly larger two-and-a-half storey buildings. The central area of the square is now divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The northwest section contains a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings, with some established trees at its northwest boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings lies to the southeast. In the centre of the square is an open children's playground containing three granite monuments. One records: "Erected A.D. 1911 in respectful memory of George Wright, Head Mason. John McClelland, Head Millwright. Michael Boyle, Flax Buyer. Who each faithfully served the Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years. Also Robert Ross, Mill Manager. Austin Kennedy, Rougher." A second 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 on the opposite side noting that this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, formerly standing in the grounds of Bessbrook Mill and recently relocated to the square, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 through to the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Ltd in 1878.

Historical Context

The origins of Bessbrook date to 1761, when a Mr. John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green on the site, which was then simply known as "The Green." The settlement was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. By the 1830s, as recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, few buildings had been erected; the most significant structures were Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

The village of Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased one of the derelict mills and began building housing for his factory workers. Richardson was a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and, in his own words, had "a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town," choosing instead a country district near Newry with water power and local flax cultivation. His layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson's philanthropic approach led him to bring the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, hoping to encourage self-improvement. The village is often described as being without the "Three P's" — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police — a policy supported by the majority of residents when put to a vote in the 1870s. To compensate, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea, and cocoa to mill workers. No public house exists in Bessbrook to this day, and police were not stationed there until the turn of the 20th century.

The village was developed in phases, beginning with Fountain Street in the 1840s. Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863 following purchase of his brother's shares. The local linen industry boomed during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off, prompting Richardson to greatly enlarge his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him the principal employer and landowner 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. College Square was laid out around 1883 in response to further business expansion and is situated to the east of Charlemont Square. The mid-1880s were described in the Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide as "a period of intense building activity in the village" during which "the earlier ideals of the plan were re-established." Richardson's factory was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. The houses were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company, using local Newry Granodiorite from a quarry on the former Charlemont Estate — a granite of sufficiently high quality to have been used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the steps of St. George's Hall in Liverpool.

Each house at Bessbrook was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and comprised between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign a lease containing specific stipulations: pigs and fowl were not to be kept in the family quarters or yard (though a pigsty and fowl run were permitted in the garden), and tenants were obliged to send their children to school until old enough for mill work.

No. 1 College Square East was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr. James McConnell and valued at £5 and 10 shillings, a valuation that remained unchanged until the 1950s. The occupancy changed frequently over the following decades. By the time of the 1911 Census of Ireland, the house was occupied by David James Littlewood, whose family worked at the local factory. The building return described it as a second-class dwelling with five rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the property remained valued at £5 and 10 shillings and was occupied by a Mr. William Littlewood.

The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of the housing until the 1960s, when dwellings along College Square began to be sold, the majority being purchased by a Mr. George Preston around 1969. This was necessitated by the post-war downturn in the local textile market, which led to the closure of the mill in 1972, after which the building was occupied by the British Army. The Littlewood family purchased No. 1 College Square East outright in 1968, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the total rateable value of the building had risen to £8. The property was listed in 1981 and included within the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village.

In 1993, the house underwent an extensive renovation that included reslating of the roof in natural slate and the installation of cast iron rainwater goods. Despite this, the building's external character has been diminished by the subsequent replacement of the original windows, rainwater goods, and front railings with uPVC and concrete alternatives.

Bessbrook is internationally significant as one of the earliest planned mill villages in the British Isles, begun in the 1840s, and is considered a contemporary precursor to the English model villages of Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bourneville (developed by the Cadbury family in 1895), all of which have directly influenced town and country planning worldwide.