2 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 2 College Square East is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mid-terrace house, built around 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, although possibly the work of John Hardy, a civil engineer who was appointed company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881. It forms one of twenty-three similar houses making up the eastern terrace of College Square, which together with the other two terraces comprises a formally planned group of 53 mill workers' dwellings in total, arranged on three sides around a central bowling green, playground and lawn. The square is primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast, and represents a rare example of a formally designed Victorian square in the province.

Origins and Historical Context

Bessbrook village was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased a derelict mill near Newry and began building housing for his factory workers. Richardson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, modelled the settlement as a social experiment — a model village informed in part by the Quaker town-planning work of William Penn in Philadelphia in the late 17th century. He aimed to provide his workers with good living conditions, recreational and educational facilities, and a stable community free from social ills. The village became famous as a settlement without the "Three P's": no public house, no pawn shop, and — for most of its history — no need for police, a stipulation the majority of residents voted to preserve in the 1870s. To this day there remains no public house in Bessbrook. The development of industry at the site dates back to 1761, when a Mr John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green. The location was originally known simply as "The Green" but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River.

Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863. The American Civil War (1861–65) created a boom in the local linen industry as access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly expanded his factory and workforce during this period. The population of Bessbrook rose from 637 in 1861 to 2,215 in 1871, and the number of houses grew from 73 to 296. The earlier Charlemont Square, situated to the west of College Square, was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate this influx of workers. College Square followed around 1883 as Richardson's business continued to expand, a period described in the Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide as one of "intense building activity in the village" in which "the earlier ideals of the plan were re-established." Richardson's factory was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85 as part of the same phase of development. The terraces of College Square were built by masons and joiners employed directly by the Bessbrook Spinning Company, and the houses were first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1883.

The granite used throughout Bessbrook, including at College Square, is Newry Granodiorite, quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. It is a high-quality stone that was also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. The last stone cut from the Bessbrook quarry is commemorated by one of three granite monuments now located in the central area of College Square (see Setting below).

Each house at Bessbrook was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required under their lease to observe various conditions, including rules about the keeping of pigs and fowl (permitted only in a designated sty and fowl-run in the yard, not in the house or main yard area), and an obligation to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

No. 2 College Square East was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr James Fearn and was valued at £5 and 10 shillings, a valuation that remained unchanged until the 1950s. The occupants changed frequently over the following decades. By the time of the 1911 Census of Ireland, the house was occupied by William Beattie, a general labourer whose family worked at Richardson's factory. The census building return described it as a second-class dwelling containing five rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the building was still valued at £5 and 10 shillings and was occupied by a Ms Emma Beattie.

During the 20th century the mill continued to expand and gained international recognition, with workers supplying cloth for military uniforms during the Second World War. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of the College Square housing until the 1960s, when the post-war downturn in the textile market led to the properties being sold off. The majority of houses in the square were purchased by a Mr George Preston around 1969. The mill itself closed in 1972 and was subsequently occupied by the British Army. The Beattie family purchased No. 2 College Square East outright in 1968. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value of the building had risen to £8.

The building 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 with a 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 English model villages at Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bourneville (developed by the Cadbury family from 1895), which have directly influenced town and country planning around the world.

Exterior Description

The house has a rectangular plan form facing southwest, with a two-storey rear return added around 1983 and a single-storey covered yard extension to the rear northeast. The walls are built in generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to the door and window jambs, stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick openings to both doors and windows. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red-and-buff brick corbel course above. The chimney stack to the northwest has been rebuilt in rustic red brick and carries four terracotta clay pots. Rainwater goods to the front southwest elevation are generally cast iron, with uPVC to the rear northeast; guttering is half-round, discharging to circular-section downpipes.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The front elevation is near-symmetrical and is flush with the rest of the terrace. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by hooped painted metal railings with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts to the southeast. A concrete path leads from the gate to a painted panelled timber door at the southeast end of the facade. The door has a semi-circular light to its upper section with radial glazing bars, metal furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. A window sits to the northwest side. The facade has a regular fenestration pattern, with two windows at first floor level set in line with the ground floor openings. The windows to the front southwest elevation are double-hung sliding timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, window horns, and granite cills; to the rear northeast elevation the windows are timber casements.

Northwest Elevation

To the northwest the building is attached to No. 3 College Square East.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation faces northeast and has a two-storey pitched-roof rear return projecting into an L-shaped concrete rear yard. This yard is now covered by a monopitched corrugated Perspex roof and is a single reduced bay in width at its northwest extent. Single top-opening casement windows are provided at both ground and first floor levels on the northeast elevation. The rear return has single side-opening timber casement windows to the northeast gable at both ground and first floor levels, and a painted timber hollow-fibre door to its northwest side with a window to the left-hand side of the door on the northeast face. The random-coursed rock-faced yard boundary walling has a painted planked timber door leading from the rear access route into the covered yard extension. Walling to the rear facade and return is generally rough-cast cement render, with smooth-finish cement render to the interior face of the original yard boundary walling.

Southeast Elevation

To the southeast the building is attached to No. 1 College Square East.

Alterations

The building retains its external character, though it has been altered in a number of respects. A large rendered two-storey rear return was added around 1983, and the original front door and internal finishes have been replaced. In 1999 the original windows were replaced with new sliding sash window frames.

Setting

No. 2 College Square East forms part of a planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square made up of east, north, and west terraces arranged around a central bowling green, playground, and lawn. 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. The eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings, respecting the subtle relief of the site. The western terrace is composed of paired dwellings in a similar style. To the rear, each yard is enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades are generally much altered. Front facades are nearly uniform along the eastern terrace, with the village Town Hall — the old Institute building — located to the southeast. The northern terrace, the shortest at only twelve houses in width, consists of distinctly larger two-and-a-half storey buildings in a similar style.

The central area of the square is 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 is located to the southeast. An open children's playground occupies the centre of the square and includes three granite monuments. The first 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." The 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"; the inscription on the opposite side records that this was the last stone cut from the Bessbrook quarry. The third monument was formerly located in the grounds of Bessbrook Mill and has recently been moved to its current location; it details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 through to the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Ltd in 1878.

Materials

Roof: natural slate. Rainwater goods: cast iron to front, uPVC to rear. Walling: Newry Granodiorite. Windows: timber sash to front, timber casements to rear.