3 College Square North, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 3 College Square North is a modest two-storey, two-bay terraced dwelling built in local stone around 1890, forming part of the northern terrace of College Square in Bessbrook, County Armagh. It was built to designs by an unknown architect, though the work may be attributable to John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881. The building has a rectangular plan facing southeast, with a single-storey L-plan rear return.

HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL CONTEXT

Bessbrook itself was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased a derelict mill on a site that had first been developed in 1761 when John Pollock opened a woollen mill and bleach green there. The site had originally been known as simply "The Green" but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). The first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s records few buildings on the site at that time, noting only Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

Richardson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, established Bessbrook as a model village, his approach to planning influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for laying out Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson's intention was to provide good living and working conditions for his employees as a social experiment, and he brought workers from the surrounding countryside, hoping to encourage self-improvement. The village became famously known as one without the "Three P's" — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police — a principle the majority of the population voted to preserve in the 1870s. In place of these, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to his mill workers. Police were not stationed at Bessbrook until the turn of the 20th century.

The village was laid out in stages beginning with Fountain Street in the 1840s. Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863 following the purchase of 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 took advantage by greatly enlarging his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him both principal employer and principal landowner at 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 from 73 to 296.

College Square was laid out in stages between approximately 1874 and 1890 to accommodate the continued expansion of Richardson's workforce. The mid-1880s were described in the Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide as "a period of intense building activity in the village" during which "the earlier ideals of the plan were re-established with the building of College Square." The factory itself was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed directly by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The houses at College Square North — including No. 3 — were the last row to be laid out, erected around 1890 according to the Annual Revisions. Both College Square and the earlier Charlemont Square are considered of potential international importance as part of one of the earliest planned mill villages, and are recognised as having 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 throughout the world.

The stone used throughout the buildings at Bessbrook is Newry Granodiorite, quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. This stone is of high quality and 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 Bessbrook Spinning Company. Tenants were required to sign an agreement containing clauses about the keeping of fowl and pigs (permitted in the garden in a pig-sty or fowl-run, but not in the family quarters or yard), and were also obliged to send their children to school until they were old enough to work in the mill. Each house possessed between three and five rooms with a garden or yard of approximately one eighth of an acre.

No. 3 College Square North was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr William Thomas at a rateable value of £5 and 10 shillings. The occupancy changed frequently over subsequent decades. By the 1911 Census it was occupied by Jeannie Cromwell, a weaver employed at Richardson's mill; the census building return described it as a second-class dwelling with five inhabited rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the value remained at £5 10s and the building was still occupied by the Cromwell family.

During the 20th century, Bessbrook Mill continued to expand and gain international recognition; during the Second World War its workers supplied cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company began selling its housing stock in Bessbrook from the 1960s onwards, prompted by the post-war downturn in the local textile market, which ultimately led to the closure of the mill in 1972. The Cromwell family purchased No. 3 outright in 1968, subsequently leasing it to a Mr Robert Moffett. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value had risen to £8.

No. 3 College Square North was listed in 1980 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village. An extensive renovation took place around 1997, including replacement of window frames, repointing of stonework, and restoration of the front railings.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

College Square is a formally designed late-Victorian square comprising 53 mill workers' dwellings in total, arranged on three sides around a central area and accessed primarily from Fountain Street to the southeast. The northern terrace, of which No. 3 forms part, consists of 12 houses and is the shortest of the three terraces in the square; these northern houses are distinctly larger two-storey buildings with steeply pitched roofs. The eastern terrace comprises 23 dwellings, stepped in groups of six to respect the subtle relief of the site, terminating at its southeastern end with the village's former Institute building (the Town Hall). The western terrace comprises 18 dwellings, for the most part arranged in pairs and built in a similar style but with some significant differences in detailing; the former school building is located at the southeastern end of this terrace. The central area of the square is divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The northwestern section contains a bowling pavilion and green (added in 1911) enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at the northwestern boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings lies to the southeast, and an open children's playground in the centre contains three granite monuments. One monument 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," with an inscription on 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 to the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Ltd in 1878.

Each house along College Square is set back from the perimeter road and footpath behind a modest front garden, typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped with hooped metal railings, and has a rear yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. Rear facades across the terrace are generally much altered.

The walls of No. 3 are of generally random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite, with stepped red brick dressings to the door and window jambs, stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick openings to doors and windows. The roof is pitched and finished in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles. The flush eaves are detailed with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above, though this decorative eaves course to the front facade is currently masked by modern electrical wiring. The rainwater goods are generally uPVC, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes. There are two rectangular-section red brick chimneys: the one to the southwest has three buff clay pots and one terracotta pot; the one to the northeast has been rebuilt in modern brick and has four terracotta clay pots.

The principal (southeast) elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and is near-symmetrical in composition, with a regular fenestration pattern. There are two windows at first-floor level aligned with the two ground-floor openings, all fitted with double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns and exposed sash boxes. The modest front garden is laid to lawn and enclosed by a red brick dwarf wall topped with hooped painted metal railings, restored around 1997, with a matching foot gate hung 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.

To the southwest, the building is attached to No. 2 College Square North; to the northeast, it is attached to No. 4 College Square North.

The rear (northwest) elevation consists of original stone walling at first-floor level with a single timber casement window to the centre. At ground-floor level, the single-storey L-plan rear return projects into an enclosed rear concrete yard. This return has a flat felt-covered roof, a painted timber two-part glazed back door, and a three-part timber casement window to its left-hand side, both facing northwest into the yard. A single-storey flat-roofed rectangular outbuilding is attached to the rear return at the western corner of the yard. Both the outbuilding and the rear return have a painted smooth render finish. The rear yard boundary walls are of random-coursed rock-faced stone with a painted smooth render finish to their internal face, and have a painted sheeted timber door leading to the rear access route.

The building retains much of its original plan and some original internal joinery. The single-storey rear extension is considered more appropriate than the larger two-storey rear returns found elsewhere along the terrace, as it remains subservient to the original building, retains first-floor level detailing and the original rear yard boundary walling, and results in significantly less loss of overall character than the larger extensions seen on neighbouring properties. A modern extension and some modern finishes do nonetheless detract somewhat from the building's character and heritage value.