4 College Square North, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Number 4 College Square North is a modest two-storey, two-bay terraced dwelling built in around 1890 for workers at the Bessbrook Spinning Company. It forms part of a row of twelve similar houses making up the northern terrace of College Square, and is constructed from locally quarried Newry Granodiorite. The architect is unknown, though the work may be attributable to John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect in 1881 who was also responsible for extending the mill itself.

Origins and 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 near Newry and began building housing for his factory workers. The site had earlier origins: the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened in 1761 by a Mr John Pollock, and the name Bessbrook derives from Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. The first Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s shows little development at the site beyond Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

Richardson modelled his approach on the urban planning ideas of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for laying out Philadelphia in the late 17th century. He conceived Bessbrook as a social experiment — a model village where workers would live and work in decent conditions, free from the vices associated with industrial towns. The village became famous for its absence of the so-called "Three Ps": no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police. In their place, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to his workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve these conditions 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.

Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863, following the purchase of his brother's shares. The American Civil War (1861–65) created a boom in the local linen trade as access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly expanded his factory and workforce during this period. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him the principal landowner and employer in the area. Between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296. Charlemont Square, the earlier of the two planned squares in the village, was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate this influx. College Square followed in stages between around 1874 and around 1890, driven by the continuing growth of Richardson's business. The mid-1880s were a period of particularly intense building activity, and the factory itself was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. The Annual Revisions record that numbers 1 to 12 College Square North — the northern terrace, of which this house forms part — were erected in around 1890 and were the last row along the square to be completed.

The houses along College Square were built by masons and joiners employed directly by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The stone used throughout most of Bessbrook's buildings is Newry Granodiorite, quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. This is a high-quality granite that was also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Each house in Bessbrook was owned by the Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign an agreement including various stipulations: they could keep pigs and fowl only in a dedicated sty or run in the garden, not in the family quarters or yard, and were obliged to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

Number 4 College Square North was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr Hugh McConnell at a rateable value of £5 and 10 shillings. The occupancy of the house changed frequently over the following decades. By the 1911 Census it was occupied by John Sterritt, a mechanic employed at the mill, and the building was described at that time as a second-class dwelling with five inhabited rooms. During the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the house remained valued at £5 and 10 shillings and was still occupied by the Sterritt family.

During the Second World War the mill's workers were engaged in producing cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of housing in the village until the 1960s, when the post-war downturn in the textile market — which ultimately led to the mill's closure in 1972 — forced the sale of properties. The Sterritt family purchased Number 4 outright in 1968, by which time the total rateable value had risen to £8 under the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). The building was listed in 1980 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area when it was designated in 1983, in recognition of Bessbrook's significance as a planned mill village with a distinct form and character.

The carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces of Charlemont Square and College Square, is widely considered to have influenced the later English model villages of Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville — developed by the Cadbury family from 1895 — which in turn directly influenced town and country planning across the world. Both College Square and the earlier Charlemont Square could be considered of international importance in this context.

Exterior

The front elevation faces southeast and sits flush with the rest of the northern terrace. It is near-symmetrical, with two windows at first-floor level directly above the ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung, one-over-one sliding timber sash with horns. The walling is generally random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite. Window and door openings have stepped red brick dressings to the jambs, stone cills, and square-headed gauged brick arches. The roof is finished with fibre cement tiles and roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The flush eaves feature separate red and buff brick eaves courses, with an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above — though this decorative eaves course is now masked across the northern terrace by modern electrical wiring. The chimney to the southwest has been rebuilt in modern rustic brick and carries four terracotta clay pots; the chimney to the northeast retains its original brick and carries three buff clay pots and a single terracotta clay pot. Rainwater goods to the front elevation are metal, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes; uPVC rainwater goods are used to the rear.

The modest front yard is paved and enclosed by a red brick dwarf wall with a concrete coping, topped with hooped painted metal railings. A foot gate hung on slim posts to the northeast gives onto a tarmac path leading to a panelled painted timber door with two glazed upper panels, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. A window sits to the southwest side of the door.

The rear and side elevations are generally finished in rough-cast cement render, with top-opening timber casement windows. The northwest elevation has limited access but includes a two-storey rear return projecting northwest to the site boundary. The rear yard to the southwest is now covered with corrugated Perspex and is a single reduced bay in width, with a sheeted timber door leading from the rear access route. An oil tank raised on concrete lintels partially obscures the single top-opening casement window visible above the yard. Two windows at first-floor level and one at ground-floor level are visible to the southwest side of the rear return. No openings are visible to the northeast face of the return. To the southwest the building is attached to Number 3 College Square North, and to the northeast to Number 5 College Square North.

A large two-storey rear return was added in around 1992, and some modern external finishes have been applied. These alterations detract somewhat from the building's character and heritage value.

Setting and Group Value

Number 4 College Square North has substantial group value as one of twelve similar houses forming the northern terrace of College Square, itself one of three terraces — north, west, and east — enclosing a central open area and comprising 53 mill workers' dwellings in total. Each dwelling is set back from the perimeter road and footpath behind a modest front yard, typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped with hooped metal railings. Rear yards are typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling, with a square-headed doorway onto a wide rear access lane. Rear facades are generally much altered.

The eastern terrace of 23 dwellings is stepped in groups of six, following the subtle relief of the site, and terminates at its southeastern end at the former Institute building, known locally as the village Town Hall. The western terrace of 18 dwellings is arranged largely in pairs and built in a similar style, though with some significant differences in detailing; the former school building stands at the southeastern end of this terrace. The northern terrace, of which this house forms part, is the shortest, comprising only 12 houses, but the dwellings are distinctly larger than those on the other two sides, with steeply pitched roofs.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections, all laid to lawn. To the northwest is a bowling pavilion and green, enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at the northwest boundary; the bowling green was added in 1911. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings sits to the southeast, and an open children's playground occupies the centre of the square. The playground contains 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"; the inscription on the opposite side notes 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 Company Limited in 1878. The square is primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.