3 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 3 College Square West is a two-storey, two-bay terraced mill workers' dwelling built in local stone around 1874, and forms part of the western terrace of College Square in Bessbrook, County Armagh. Its architect is unknown, though it was possibly designed by John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881, who was also responsible for the extension of the mill. The building is listed along with its railings and gate, and falls within the Bessbrook Conservation Area.

The house has a rectangular plan facing northeast. A two-storey rear return was added around 1995, accompanied by an attached single-storey monopitched block and a covered extension to the rear yard, giving the building an overall L-shaped plan form.

Exterior

The walling to the principal northeast-facing elevation is of generally random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite — a locally quarried granite of high quality, also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Dressings are in stepped red brick to the door and window jambs, with stone cills and square-headed gauged-brick arches to all openings. The dwellings along the terrace are grouped in pairs, each pair being symmetrical with doors grouped to the centre, flanked on opposite sides by single windows at ground floor level. Each pair is set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile copings, rising to rectangular-section chimney stacks at apex level. The line of each verge continues vertically down the front facade as stepped red brick quoins, with recessed downpipes flanking each paired set of dwellings. Single dwellings at either end of the terrace are unpaired.

The roof is pitched and clad in natural slate with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. Eaves are flush, with a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. The rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest has been rebuilt in rustic brick and carries six terracotta clay pots. Rainwater goods are generally uPVC half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes, though the downpipe to the front northeast elevation is cast iron and is recessed into the stepped red brick quoins.

Principal Elevation

The front northeast elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and is near-symmetrical in its fenestration. Two windows at first floor level align with the openings below. All windows are top-opening timber casements. At ground floor level, the door surround has a stepped red brick surround and a gauged brick arch with a flush keystone detail to the head; the window to the northwest 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 set in dwarf red brick walling topped with hooped painted metal railings — to a painted three-panel timber door with a glazed top half, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. The modest front garden is laid to lawn.

Southeast and Northwest Elevations

To the southeast, No. 3 is attached to No. 2 College Square West. To the northwest, it is attached to No. 4 College Square West.

Rear and Southwest Elevation

Access to the rear southwest-facing elevation is limited. Where visible, it consists of a two-storey pitched-roof return at the southeast end, projecting southwest into the rear yard. A single-storey monopitched block is attached to the southwest end of this return and connects to a covered section of the rear yard which abuts the southwest boundary wall. The covered yard area extends to the full width of the southwest end and has corrugated roofing. The rear return has fibre cement tiles to its roof. The southwest elevation is a single bay wide to the northwest of the return and has a top-opening timber casement window at first floor level; a further timber casement window is visible on the northwest side of the rear return, also at first floor level. No openings are visible to the southeast. The yard boundary wall has a painted smooth cement render finish, with a painted four-panel timber door leading from the rear access route into the covered yard area. The rear elevation is generally finished in painted smooth cement render with timber casement windows and slim concrete cills.

Setting

No. 3 College Square West is one of 18 similar houses forming the western terrace of College Square, itself a formally planned late-Victorian square consisting of 53 mill workers' dwellings in total. The dwellings are arranged along the north, west, and east sides of a central green, with the square primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. Each house is set back from the perimeter road and footpath, with a modest front yard enclosed by dwarf walling topped with hooped metal railings. Rear yards are 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 consists 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 former Institute building, which served as the village Town Hall. The northern terrace is the shortest, comprising only 12 houses; while 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 divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The area to the northwest contains a bowling pavilion and green, enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at the northwest boundary; this bowling green was added in 1911. 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." Another 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 to the opposite side noting that this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, formerly 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 development of industry at Bessbrook dates from 1761, when a woollen mill and bleach green were opened by a John Pollock. The site was originally known as "The Green" but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. By the 1830s only a small number of buildings had been erected at the site, the most notable being 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 and a member of the Religious Society of Friends, purchased a derelict mill at the site and began building housing for his 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." His layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for the planning of Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson's approach combined practical and altruistic ambitions: by providing his workers with good living conditions, he hoped to foster good relations between employer and employee and to improve the lives of the poor, unqualified workers and beggars he brought from the surrounding countryside.

Bessbrook became well known as a village without the "Three P's" — no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for a police presence — a stipulation that Richardson maintained as part of his Quaker principles. In exchange, he provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve these arrangements in the 1870s, and to this day no public house exists in 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 after buying out 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 in response. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him the principal employer and landowner in 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 increased from 73 to 296.

College Square was laid out in stages between around 1874 and around 1890 in response to the continued expansion of Richardson's business. The mid-1880s were a period of intense building activity in the village, and the earlier ideals of the original plan were re-established with the building of College Square. The factory was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. 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. The houses along College Square West were constructed between around 1874 and around 1877; the Annual Revisions first recorded nos. 1–12 College Square West in 1874, with nos. 13–18 added by 1877.

Each house at Bessbrook was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign an agreement containing stipulations about the keeping of fowl and pigs — these could be kept in a pig-sty or fowl-run in the garden, but not in the rooms occupied by the family or in the yard. Tenants were also obliged to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

No. 3 College Square West was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a John Gibson and was valued at £6. Occupants changed frequently over the following decades. By the 1911 Census the house was occupied by Benjamin Honeyford, a hackle setter whose son worked as an iron moulder; the census building return described it as a second-class dwelling of six inhabited rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) it was valued at £7 and 10 shillings and occupied by a Jane Priestly.

During the 20th century the mill at Bessbrook continued to expand, gaining international recognition. During the Second World War the mill workers supplied cloth for uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of its housing until the 1960s, when the dwellings along College Square began to be sold to private individuals and firms, a process driven by the post-war downturn in the textile market which preceded the closure of the mill in 1972. A David Sterritt purchased No. 3 College Square West outright around 1969 and continued to lease it to the Priestly family. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value of the building had risen to £10.

No. 3 College Square West 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. The carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces at both 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 from 1895), which have in turn directly influenced town and country planning across the world. Both College Square and the earlier Charlemont Square can be considered of international importance as part of this early planned mill village begun in the 1840s.

Condition and Character Notes

The building retains considerable external character through its well-proportioned design and modest but carefully executed detailing. However, a large rendered extension to the rear and some modern finishes, including casement windows in certain locations, detract from its heritage value. The use of locally quarried Newry Granodiorite to the front northeast facade contributes to a strong and distinctive sense of place that is considered important to preserve. Each building in the square, including No. 3, plays a significant role in the overall architectural composition of the planned square.

Materials: natural slate roof; cast iron and uPVC rainwater goods; Newry Granodiorite walling; timber casement windows.