5 Maytown Terrace, Fountain St., Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

5 Maytown Terrace, Fountain Street, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' terraced dwelling, built around 1896 by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to designs by an unknown architect. It forms part of a terrace of seven broadly identical houses (the adjoining No. 7 was added in the early 20th century) fronting onto Main Street, Bessbrook, set back from the road by a wide tarmac public footpath. The building is of L-plan form, facing northwest, with a single-storey rear return.

Architectural Character and Materials

The walls are constructed in generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — a granite-like stone quarried from the immediate area — with stepped red brick dressings to door and window jambs, stone sills, and square-headed gauged-brick openings to all doors and windows. The eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above, demonstrating good quality external brick detailing that gives the terrace its distinctive character. The roof is pitched, now covered in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles, replacing the original slates. The chimney stack to the northeast is rectangular-section red brick with two buff clay pots; the corresponding stack to the southwest has been rebuilt in rustic brick and carries two terracotta clay pots. Rainwater goods to the front are generally cast iron with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes; uPVC goods have been used to the rear.

Principal (Northwest) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and near-symmetrical, with a regular fenestration pattern. There are two windows at first-floor level aligned directly above the two ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung sliding timber sash windows with horns and reduced-size top panes. The panelled painted timber front door opens directly onto the public footpath; its top half is glazed with an elliptical-shaped glazed section, and above it sits a square-headed fanlight.

Rear and Side Elevations

To the northeast, the building is attached to No. 4 Maytown Terrace. To the southwest, it is attached to No. 6 Maytown Terrace. Access to the rear southeast elevation is limited, but where visible it shows a single-storey rear return projecting from the southwest end of the elevation into an enclosed rear yard. This return has a flat roof with a timber-decked terrace enclosed by wire fencing supported on timber posts, accessible via a glazed uPVC door at first-floor level, with a top-opening uPVC casement window to its northeast side. The area of yard to the northeast of the rear return is covered by a monopitch corrugated Perspex roof. The rear yard boundary wall has a smooth cement render finish, with a painted sheeted timber door leading to a rear access route. The rear return itself has a painted render finish.

Alterations

The building retains its external character despite several later changes: the original roof slates have been replaced with fibre cement tiles, the original front door has been replaced, and a flat-roofed extension has been added to the rear. The rear facades of most dwellings in the terrace have been substantially altered, and most of the original stone rear yard boundary walls along the terrace have been lost. Rear boundaries are now defined by a local access lane and an area of rough grazing to the southeast.

Historical and Social Context

No. 5 Maytown Terrace is of significant local historical and social importance as part of the planned model village of Bessbrook, one of the earliest such villages in the British Isles. The origins of the settlement lie in 1761, when the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened at a site then known simply as "The Green" by a Mr John Pollock, who later renamed it Bessbrook after his wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). By the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey map in the 1830s, only a handful of buildings existed at Bessbrook, the most notable being Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

The village as it is known today 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 building housing for his factory workers. Richardson chose the location deliberately, having, in his own words, "a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town" and seeking instead a country district with water power and local flax cultivation. His 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 was developed in phases, beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street in the 1840s. Richardson's philanthropic ideals drove the social experiment: he brought poor, unqualified, and destitute people from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, hoping to improve their circumstances. The village became widely known as a settlement without the "Three P's" — no Public House, no Pawn Shop, and therefore no need for Police — a condition stipulated by Richardson himself. In place of alcohol, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea, and cocoa to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve this arrangement in the 1870s, and to this day Bessbrook has no public house. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863 Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after purchasing his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a significant boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson greatly enlarged both his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal employer and landowner in Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to house the growing workforce; between 1861 and 1871 the village's population rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296. By the turn of the 20th century the population stood at approximately 4,000.

Nos 1–6 Maytown Terrace were constructed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company around 1896. Annual Revisions record the total rateable value of No. 5 at £3 at that time, with the Bessbrook Spinning Company initially leasing the house to a Ms Mary Frame. Under the 1911 Census of Ireland, the house was occupied by Robert Craig, a damask weaver at Richardson's factory, and was described as a second-class dwelling of five rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the house was occupied by a Mr Samuel Nelson, with its rateable value raised to £5 and 10 shillings.

During the Second World War, workers at Bessbrook Mill were tasked with producing cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of most housing in the village until the 1960s, when post-war decline in the local textile market prompted the sale of properties. This downturn foreshadowed the eventual closure of the mill in 1972, after which the mill building was occupied by the British Army. Around 1961, No. 5 Maytown Terrace was purchased outright by a Mr Joseph Glass, who leased it to tenants; by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), its rateable value stood at £8.

The Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square, is considered to have directly influenced the famous English model villages at Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bournville (developed by the Cadbury family in 1895), which have in turn "directly influenced town and country planning all over the world."

No. 5 Maytown Terrace was listed in 1982 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village with a distinct form and character. It has group value with the other six historic buildings of the terrace along Main Street.