6 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 6 College Square West is a two-storey, two-bay terraced mill workers' dwelling built in approximately 1874, constructed of locally quarried Newry Granodiorite stone. It is likely, though not certain, that the building was designed by John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881, who was also responsible for extending the mill. The house forms part of a terrace of 18 similar dwellings that make up the western side of College Square — a formally planned late-Victorian square consisting of 53 mill workers' dwellings in total, arranged on three sides around a central bowling green, playground and lawn. The building is listed together with its gate, railings and boundary walling, and forms part of the Bessbrook Conservation Area.

The plan is L-shaped, facing northeast, with a two-storey rear return added in approximately 1987.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

The walling is of generally random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite — a high-quality local granite also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Dressings throughout are in stepped red brick, with painted stone cills and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings.

The dwellings along College Square West are arranged in pairs. Each pair is symmetrical, with doors grouped at the centre and single windows flanking them on opposite sides at ground floor level. Each pair is set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping, rising to rectangular-section chimneys at the apex. The line of the verge continues vertically down each front facade as stepped red brick quoins, with recessed downpipes flanking each paired set of dwellings. The roof is pitched, finished in fibre cement tiles with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The rectangular-section chimney to the southeast is built in red and buff brick, featuring recessed panels of buff brick, a raised corbel course of red and buff brick below a decorative chimney cap, and six pots. The eaves are flush, with a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Rainwater is carried at the front elevation by half-round metal guttering discharging to circular-section cast iron downpipes recessed into the stepped red brick quoins.

PRINCIPAL ELEVATION

The northeast front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and nearly symmetrical, with a regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first floor level aligned above two openings at ground floor level, all fitted with top-opening uPVC casements. The ground floor door has a stepped red brick surround and a gauged brick arch with a flush keystone detail to the head. The window to the southeast side of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath the cill. A paved path leads from a foot gate — hung on slim posts and fitted with hooped painted metal railings — to a uPVC door with a square-headed fanlight above. The modest front garden is laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped painted metal railings. It should be noted that the decorative eaves course to the front facade is now masked by modern electrical wiring, and numerous television aerials detract from the overall setting.

OTHER ELEVATIONS

To the southeast, the building is attached to No. 5 College Square West. To the northwest, it is attached to No. 7 College Square West.

The rear southwest elevation retains its original stone walling. At first floor level there is a single uPVC top-opening casement window, aligned above a similar window at ground floor level. The southeast end of this elevation is abutted by a mono-pitched outbuilding projecting to the southwest. The two-storey rear return at the northwest end, added in approximately 1987, has a smooth cement render finish. It has two uPVC casement windows at first floor level facing southeast, above a single three-part uPVC casement at ground floor. The only opening on the southwest side of the rear return is a uPVC back door at ground floor level opening into the rear yard; no openings are visible to the northeast. The ground floor of the rear return, the outbuilding, and the internal face of the yard boundary walling are all finished in painted smooth render. Rainwater goods to the rear return are generally uPVC, with ogee guttering discharging to square-section downpipes.

The rear yard is enclosed, L-shaped, and concrete-surfaced. The yard boundary walling is of random-coursed rock-faced stone with a painted sheeted timber door leading to the rear access route.

INTERIOR

The building retains much of its original plan form and some original internal joinery, although the 1987 rear extension and modern internal finishes detract from its character.

SETTING

No. 6 forms part of College Square West within a planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings. The square is composed of east, north and west terraces arranged 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. To the rear, each dwelling is typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades across the square are generally much altered.

The eastern terrace is composed of 23 dwellings built in a similar style but with some significant differences in detailing; they are stepped in groups of six to respect the subtle relief of the site, and terminate at their southeastern end with the village Town Hall — the old Institute building. The northern terrace is the shortest side of the square at only 12 houses wide; although similar in style to the other terraces, these are distinctly larger two-storey buildings. The former school building is located at the southeast end of the western terrace.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The northwest section has 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 sits to the southeast, and an open children's playground occupies the centre of the square. Within the playground stand 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"; an inscription on the opposite side records that this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, formerly in the grounds of Bessbrook Mill and recently moved to its current location, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to the Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The village of Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a Quaker linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased a derelict mill at the site and began building housing for his factory workers. Richardson, in his own words, "had a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town, so on looking around, fixed upon a place near Newry … with water power and a thick population around, and in a country district where flax was cultivated in considerable quantities." The site had originally been known simply as "The Green" but was renamed Bessbrook after John Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook), following the opening of the first woollen mill and bleach green by Pollock in 1761.

Richardson laid out Fountain Street in the 1840s as the first phase of the planned village. His approach 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 the poor, unqualified and destitute from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, hoping to encourage self-improvement. Bessbrook became known as a village without the "Three P's" — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police. In place of alcohol, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve this arrangement in the 1870s, and to this day there remains no public house at Bessbrook. 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. The local linen industry experienced a boom during the American Civil War (1861–65) as access to American cotton was cut off. Richardson greatly enlarged his factory and workforce, and following Lord Charlemont's sale of the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, he became the principal employer and landowner at Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate 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 in stages between approximately 1874 and 1890 as Richardson's business continued to expand. The mid-1880s saw a period of intense building activity in the village, and the factory was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. The annual revisions first recorded nos. 1–12 College Square West in 1874, with nos. 13–18 added by 1877. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company using Newry Granodiorite from a quarry opened on the former Charlemont Estate. Each house was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required under their lease to adhere to conditions including restrictions on keeping fowl and pigs within the family quarters, and an obligation to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

No. 6 College Square West was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr James Hunter and valued at £6. Its occupants changed frequently over the following decades. During the 1911 Census of Ireland the house was occupied by John White, a local blacksmith, and was recorded as a second-class dwelling containing six inhabited rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the building was valued at £7 10 shillings and occupied by a Mr William Scott.

During the Second World War, the mill workers were tasked with supplying cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when the post-war downturn in the local textile market foreshadowed the closure of the mill in 1972. The Bessbrook Spinning Company began selling dwellings along College Square to private individuals and firms, and George Preston purchased No. 6 outright in approximately 1969, continuing to lease it to William Scott. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value had risen to £10.

No. 6 College Square West was listed in 1981 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area when it was designated in 1983, in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. The carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square, is recognised as having influenced the famous English model villages of Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville, developed by the Cadbury family in 1895, which have directly influenced town and country planning all over the world. The building underwent an extensive renovation in approximately 1987, which included the construction of the two-storey rear return.