3 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Three College Square East, Bessbrook

A two-storey two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built around 1883, possibly designed by civil engineer John Hardy, though the architect is unknown. The building is one of twenty-three identical houses forming the eastern side of College Square, a formally planned late-Victorian square containing 53 dwellings in total, arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The house is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite walling with stepped red brick dressings to door and window jambs, stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The pitched roof is covered in fibre cement tiles with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest carries four terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush with a separate red and buff brick courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. The building has uPVC rain water goods with half-round guttering discharging to circular downpipes.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is nearly symmetrical, flush with the adjoining terrace. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by modern dwarf block walling topped by replacement painted metal railings, with a matching gate. A concrete path leads from the gate to a six-panelled painted timber door at the southeast end of the facade, fitted with brass furniture and a square-headed fanlight above. The facade has a regular fenestration pattern of two windows at first-floor level aligned with ground-floor openings, all now uPVC casements. The northwest elevation is attached to No. 4 College Square East. To the northeast, a two-storey hipped-roof rear return projects into an L-shaped concrete rear yard, now partially covered with a monopitched corrugated Perspex roof on the northwest side. The rear elevation has a single top-opening casement window at first-floor level, with a three-part side-opening casement window facing northwest. Random-coursed rock-faced boundary walling encloses the yard, with a painted timber door providing rear access. A flat-roofed outbuilding stands at the northern corner of the yard. The southeast side is attached to No. 2 College Square East.

The building forms part of a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings, with the eastern terrace initially stepped in groups of six to respect the site's subtle relief. Each house is set back from the perimeter road and footpath with a modest front yard. Rear yards are enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling. The front facades remain nearly uniform along the eastern terrace, with Bessbrook Town Hall located to the southeast. The central area of the square is divided into three sections: a bowling green to the northwest enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees, a lawn to the southeast similarly enclosed, and an open children's playground in the centre containing three granite monuments. One records individuals who served Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years, erected in 1911; another commemorates James N. Richardson's memory as a playground for local children, dated November 1927, with inscription noting it was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry; a third, recently relocated, details the mill's history from Pollock family ownership in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.