3 College Square North, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Three College Square North is a two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' terraced dwelling built around 1890 from local stone, possibly designed by civil engineer John Hardy, though the original architect is unknown. The house forms part of a planned development of twelve similar dwellings that comprise the northern side of College Square, a formally designed late-Victorian square containing 53 dwellings in total arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast.

The building has a rectangular plan form facing southeast with a single-storey L-plan rear return. It is constructed from generally 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 are evident throughout. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles topped with angled black clay ridge tiles. A rectangular-section red brick chimney to the southwest has three buff clay pots and one terracotta pot, while a similar chimney to the northeast has been rebuilt in modern brick with four terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Guttering is uPVC with half-round configuration and circular section downpipes.

The principal southeast elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and displays near-symmetrical fenestration with two windows at first-floor level aligned with ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns and exposed sash boxes. A modest front garden set to lawn is enclosed by red brick dwarf walling topped with hooped painted metal railings, restored around 1997. A similar foot gate hangs on slim posts to the northeast. A tarmac path leads from the gate to a painted sheeted timber door with a square-headed fanlight above and brass furniture, with a window to the southwest side of the door.

The southwest elevation shows the building attached to No. 2 College Square North. The rear elevation facing northwest consists of original stone walling at first-floor level with a single timber casement window to centre, and a single-storey L-plan return at ground level projecting into an enclosed rear concrete yard. Yard boundary walling is random-coursed rock-faced stone with a painted sheeted timber door and smooth render finish to its internal face. The rear return has a flat felt-covered roof and a painted timber two-part glazed back door with a three-part timber casement window to its left, both facing northwest into the yard. A single-storey flat-roofed rectangular-plan outbuilding is attached to the rear return at the western corner of the yard. Both the outbuilding and rear return have painted smooth render finishes. The northeast elevation shows the building attached to No. 4 College Square North.

College Square itself forms a planned arrangement comprising an East Terrace of 23 dwellings initially stepped in groups of six to respect the subtle relief of the site and terminating at its southeastern end with the village Town Hall; a West Terrace of 18 dwellings arranged mostly in pairs in similar style but with some significant differences in detailing, with the former school building located at its southeastern end; and the North Terrace of twelve dwellings, which are distinctly larger two-storey buildings with steeply pitched roofs. The central area of the square is divided into three sections: the northwest has a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its northwest boundary; the southeast has a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings; and the centre contains an open children's playground with three granite monuments. One monument, erected in 1911, commemorates George Wright (Head Mason), John McClelland (Head Millwright), Michael Boyle (Flax Buyer), Robert Ross (Mill Manager), and Austin Kennedy (Rougher), each of whom faithfully served the Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years. A second monument records the garden arranged by the wife of James N. Richardson in memory of him in November 1927 as a playground for the children of Bessbrook, with an inscription noting this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, recently moved to the square from the grounds of Bessbrook Mill, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Co Ltd in 1878.