6 Deramore (Derrymore) Terrace, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 6 Deramore Terrace is a modest two-storey, two-bay late Victorian terraced house built around 1892, forming part of a row of ten similar dwellings known as Deramore Terrace — also referred to historically as Richardson's Terrace — on the northeast side of Derrymore Road, approximately half a mile to the southeast of Bessbrook village. The architect is unknown, though the majority of housing in Bessbrook was constructed by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The listing extends to the house itself, the rear yard walling, the railings, and the gate.

The building is of rectangular plan form facing southwest and is exceptionally intact, retaining its original external character, internal plan, much of its internal historic fabric, and original rear yard. It has well-designed proportions, good detailing, and good-quality external walling of locally quarried stone. As one of ten similar houses in the row, it also carries group value with its neighbours.

The external walls are generally of random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — a high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate and used in notable buildings including Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Openings are square-headed with stepped red brick dressings to the jambs and gauged brick to the door and window surrounds. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. Two rectangular-section red brick chimneys — one to the northwest, one to the southeast — each carry four 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. To the front southwest elevation, drainage is by uPVC half-round guttering; to the rear there is fibre cement half-round guttering on rise-and-fall brackets with a cast iron downpipe.

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and near-symmetrical. It has a regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first floor level in line with the ground floor openings. All windows are double-hung sliding timber sash with margin panes and horns. At ground floor level, a window sits to the northwest side of the door. A modest front garden is enclosed by dwarf stone walling topped with vertical painted metal railings with pointed finials. A foot gate hung on circular-section cast iron posts sits to the southeast. A quarry tile path leads from the gate to a sheeted painted timber door with brass furniture, above which is a square-headed fanlight with margin panes.

To the northwest the building is attached to No. 5 Deramore Terrace, and to the southeast to No. 7 Deramore Terrace.

The rear elevation faces northeast into an enclosed rear yard and retains its original stone walling with red brick dressings and stone cills. To the southeast of the elevation is a painted sheeted timber door opening onto two granite steps. To the northwest of the door is a double-hung sliding timber sash window with margin panes, and to the southeast a diminutive 1-over-1 timber sash window. At first floor level, a single sash window with margin panes is positioned to the centre of the elevation. The rear yard is enclosed by random-coursed rock-faced local stone boundary walling with random stone coping and a painted sheeted timber door to the southeast leading to an enclosed concrete yard. A monopitched outbuilding in red brick occupies the north corner of the yard.

Each house in the terrace is set back from the footpath with a modest front yard, typically enclosed by dwarf stone walling topped by metal railings. The rear yard of each dwelling is enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling, with a square-headed door opening onto a wide shared rear access route running northwest to southeast, accessible from both ends of the terrace. Rear facades and rear yard boundary walls are now generally much altered across the terrace. To the northeast of the shared access route, each dwelling has a rear garden, many of which have later outbuildings. The terrace overlooks parkland associated with Derrymore House to the southwest, with stone walling to the roadside and mature trees.

The history of the building and its setting is deeply rooted in the development of Bessbrook as a planned model industrial village. The site's industrial origins date to 1761, when a Mr John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green on land then simply known as "The Green." The settlement was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). By the 1830s, when the first edition Ordnance Survey map was drawn, few buildings had been erected: the principal 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 and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), purchased one of the derelict mills on the site and began constructing 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" and chose a country location near Newry with water power, a local population, and plentiful flax cultivation. He established the village as a social experiment, providing his workers with good living conditions in the hope of fostering good relationships between employer and employees, and bringing the poor and unemployed from the surrounding countryside to work and better themselves. Richardson's layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century.

Bessbrook is often referred to as a village without the "Three P's" — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police — a stipulation enforced by Richardson from the outset. In exchange, he provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his 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.

The village was laid out in phases, beginning with Fountain Street in the 1840s. 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) when access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly enlarged his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him both the main employer and principal 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 grew from 637 to 2,215, with the number of houses rising from 73 to 296. By the turn of the 20th century the population stood at approximately 4,000.

Annual Revisions record that Nos. 1–10 Deramore Terrace were constructed in 1892 and leased to tenants by the Richardson estate. The First Survey (1969) suggested the terrace was built specifically for elderly residents, though the 1901 Census of Ireland recorded that the majority of early tenants were under the age of 50 or remained employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The terrace is contemporary with other workers' terraces in Bessbrook, such as Maytown Terrace, but is located in the countryside about half a mile southeast of Richardson's mill, near Woodhouse, Derry House, and the Friends' Meeting House.

No. 6 specifically was initially leased to a Mr John Reid and valued at £4 by the Annual Revisions. Ownership of the terrace passed from the Richardson estate to the Trustees of the neighbouring Friends' Meeting House in 1900, with William Davies — a local magistrate and Richardson's land agent — acting as secretary. The terrace was renamed Richardson's Terrace in 1901. The 1901 Census recorded that No. 6 was then occupied by John Cochrane (aged 55), employed as a linen weaver at Richardson's mill; the census building return described it as a second-class dwelling of five rooms with a shed as its sole outbuilding. The building first appeared on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906, depicted in its current layout.

During the 20th century the Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to expand, gaining international recognition, and during the Second World War mill workers supplied cloth for military uniforms. The company retained ownership of housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when a post-war downturn in the textile market led to properties being sold to private individuals and firms, and ultimately to the closure of the mill in 1972. By the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), ownership of Deramore Terrace had reverted to the Bessbrook Spinning Company; the rateable value of No. 6 was increased to £7 10 shillings and a Mr William McKinley was recorded as the occupant. No. 6 Deramore Terrace was listed in 1985 and continues in use as a private dwelling.

The terrace is significant both as an exceptionally intact example of late Victorian mill workers' housing and as part of Bessbrook's wider history as one of the earliest planned model industrial villages in these islands — contemporary with Port Sunlight (begun 1888) and Bourneville (begun 1895) — settlements that went on to influence town and country planning across the world.