3 Lakeview, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 3 Lakeview, Bessbrook

No. 3 Lakeview is a two-and-a-half-storey, three-bay, semi-detached mid-Victorian dwelling, built between 1861 and 1866 to designs by an unknown architect. It is constructed of local Newry Granodiorite stone — random-coursed and rock-faced to the rear — with painted lined cement render walling to the front and sides, raised granite quoins, and granite dressings throughout. The building is listed along with its yard walling, and sits within the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983.

Architectural Description

The building has a rectangular plan and faces south-east towards Bessbrook Lake, a former mill pond associated with Bessbrook Mill. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. Three half-dormer windows punctuate the roof at attic level, each with reduced-height plain painted timber bargeboards and plain painted render surrounds. The gable ends carry rectangular-section painted smooth cement render chimneys, both fitted with octagonal-section buff clay pots: the north-east chimney has six pots, while the south-west chimney is shared with the adjoining No. 4 Lakeview and has nine pots. The eaves are flush, with a dressed granite eaves course. Rainwater goods are generally cast iron throughout, with ogee guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

Walling to the principal elevations is finished in painted lined cement render with raised granite quoins and painted stone window cills. Window openings are square-headed with raised and stepped painted render surrounds, and are glazed with 2/2 sliding timber sash windows with horns.

The principal south-east elevation is near-symmetrical. At ground floor level there is a canted bay window to the south-west bay, with a continuous cill course and projecting eaves carried on painted moulded timber corbels. To the centre bay sits a single-storey, hipped-roof, side-entry porch added in 1995, with quoins; this porch has a six-panel painted timber door in its north-east wall opening onto a paved area, a 2/2 timber sash to its south-east wall, and a 1/1 timber sash to its south-west wall. Similar 1/1 sash windows flank the canted bay window. At first floor level, windows sit on a continuous painted stone cill course. The three attic half-dormers are as described above.

The north-west rear elevation, where visible, is a symmetrical two-and-a-half-storey three-bay block. Walling here is random-coursed rock-faced Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and square-headed gauged-brick window openings. At first floor level, a tall semi-circular-headed window opening is visible at the centre, presumably lighting the interior stairwell. There are five skylights at attic level. Projecting from the centre of this elevation at ground floor level is a single-storey, single-bay, hipped-roof back porch leading into the enclosed rear yard.

The north-east gable elevation, where visible, is a two-and-a-half-storey block with a chimney at its apex, finished in painted lined cement render with raised quoins. No window openings are visible on this elevation. It faces into a shared alleyway leading to the rear yard and towards the gable of No. 2 Lakeview, which is accessed from the front elevation through a set of modern timber gates.

The south-west elevation is attached to No. 4 Lakeview.

Setting and Group Value

No. 3 forms part of 'Lakeview', the collective name for two pairs of semi-detached dwellings. It is attached to the similar No. 4 Lakeview to the south-west. The earlier No. 1 and later No. 2 Lakeview are similar in style but are two-storey dwellings with some significant differences in detailing. All four houses face south-east towards their respective gardens, which are enclosed by stone walling at their south-east extent and run down towards Bessbrook Lake. Shared access from Prospect Place to the north-east is via a gravelled road leading south-west from a set of painted metal vehicular gates composed of vertical irons with ball finials, hung on slim dressed granite pillars with pyramidal caps, and flanked by similar foot gates and railings with spearhead finials. No. 3 also forms an important group with the former shop and Quaker meeting house at the centre of the village. The rear yard is enclosed and has access to Church Road to the north-west; its boundary walling is random-coursed rock-faced stone with square-section stone-built pillars incorporating red brick quoins and pyramidal granite capstones. A temporary galvanised metal fence serves the gateway. A rectangular-plan, one-and-a-half-storey, stone-built outbuilding with red brick dressings stands at the west corner of the yard; this is thought to be original, having been depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1906.

Historical Context

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 at the site and began building housing for his factory workers in the immediate vicinity. The origins of the settlement are older still: in 1761, a Mr. John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green at a place then simply known as 'The Green', which was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth ('Bess') and the nearby Camlough River ('Brook'). By the 1830s, the first edition Ordnance Survey map recorded few buildings at the site beyond Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

Richardson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, established Bessbrook as a model village, beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street in the 1840s. He later wrote that he 'had a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town' and chose the Bessbrook site deliberately for its water power, local flax cultivation, and rural character. 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 aims led him to bring workers from the surrounding countryside — including the poor and unqualified — hoping to improve their living conditions and habits. Bessbrook became known as a village without the 'Three Ps': Richardson stipulated there would be no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police. In their place he provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, a number of well-stocked shops, and the distribution of milk, tea and cocoa to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve this ordinance in the 1870s, and to this day no public house exists at Bessbrook. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

No. 3 Lakeview was constructed during a period of significant expansion. In 1863, Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after purchasing his brother's shares. The local linen industry boomed during the American Civil War (1861–65) as access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly enlarged his factory and workforce as a result. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him both the principal employer and the main landowner at Bessbrook. 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. Unlike the majority of housing built for factory workers during this period, the four houses along Lakeview were occupied by members of the professional classes — linen merchants, doctors, and senior mill managers.

The architect of the Lakeview terrace 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.

No. 3 Lakeview is not recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861 or in Griffith's Valuation of 1862, and was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1866, at which point it was noted alongside the adjoining No. 4. The rateable value was set at £16, and the site was initially leased to a Mr. Francis Davis by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. Davis remained at the address until around 1877, when the property passed to Samuel Lamb, a Managing Director at Richardson's mill. By 1898 Thomas Haydock, a local flax buyer, was in occupation. The 1901 Census of Ireland described the house as a first-class dwelling with nine rooms. The Reverend Moses Douglas, a Methodist minister who preached at the neighbouring Methodist Church on Church Road, occupied the house from around 1908. He retired by at least 1911 and remained at No. 3 Lakeview until his death in 1913. The occupants continued to change frequently until the 1930s, when Samuel Hood, a factory manager at Richardson's mill, took possession. The rateable value was increased to £33 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57). Following Hood's death in 1945, the house passed to his widow Henrietta, who remained until around 1960, after which a Mr. Alexander Quinn was recorded as occupant. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the rateable value stood at £42.

The Bessbrook Conservation Area was designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. The Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square, influenced the design of the later English model villages at Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bourneville — developed by the Cadbury family in 1895 — which have in turn directly influenced town and country planning all over the world.

In 1995, No. 3 Lakeview underwent an extensive renovation recorded by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Works included the reslating of the roof in natural slate, the installation of cast iron rainwater goods, the replacement of all window frames, and the construction of the entrance porch.