7 Deramore (Derrymore) Terrace, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

7 Deramore Terrace (also known as Richardson's Terrace), Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced house, built in around 1892 to designs by an unknown architect. It forms part of a row of ten similar houses on the northeast side of Derrymore Road, a main approach leading into Bessbrook village. The house is constructed in an L-plan form facing southwest, with a later single-storey rear return added subsequently. The listing covers the house itself together with its yard walling, railings, and gate.

Architectural Description

The walls are built of randomly coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — a high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate — with stepped red brick dressings to the door and window jambs, and square-headed, gauged-brick openings throughout. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. There are two rectangular-section red brick chimneys, one to the northwest with four buff clay pots, and a similar chimney to the southeast. The eaves are flush, finished with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Rainwater goods to the front (southwest) elevation are uPVC half-round guttering discharging to a circular-section cast iron downpipe; to the rear (northeast) elevation, fibre cement half-round guttering on rise-and-fall brackets discharges to a uPVC downpipe.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and nearly symmetrical, with a regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first-floor level aligned with the ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung 1-over-1 sliding timber sashes with horns and margin panes. At ground-floor level, a window sits to the northwest side of the front door. The entrance door is a painted sheeted timber door with a square-headed fanlight above incorporating margin panes. A terracotta tile path leads from the front gate to the door.

The modest gravelled front yard contains some mature shrubs and is enclosed by a dwarf stone wall topped by vertical painted metal railings with pointed finials. A matching footgate is hung on circular-section cast iron posts to the southeast.

Northwest Elevation

The building is attached to No. 6 Deramore Terrace at this elevation.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation

Access to the rear elevation is limited, but where visible it retains original stonework at first-floor level, with a window at centre — a double-hung 1-over-1 sliding timber sash with horns and margin panes. At ground-floor level, a single-storey flat-roofed extension projects from the southeast end of this elevation into the enclosed rear yard. The rear return has a flat felt-covered roof and smooth cement-rendered walls. The rear yard is enclosed by randomly coursed rubble stone boundary walling, with a painted sheeted timber door to the southeast opening onto a shared rear access route.

Southeast Elevation

The building is attached to No. 8 Deramore Terrace at this elevation.

Setting

No. 7 Deramore Terrace sits within a planned row of ten mill workers' dwellings, each set back from the footpath with a modest front yard enclosed by dwarf stone walling and metal railings. To the rear, each dwelling has a yard enclosed by random rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a shared access route running northwest to southeast, accessible from both ends of the terrace. Rear facades and rear yard boundary walls across the row are now generally much altered. Each house also has a rear garden beyond the shared access route, many of which now contain later outbuildings. No. 7 has a gravelled back garden with a modern corrugated metal garage building at its northeast end. The terrace overlooks parkland associated with Derrymore House to the southwest, which has stone walling to the roadside and mature trees.

Historical Context

The development of industry at Bessbrook dates from 1761, when the first woollen mill and bleach green were established by a Mr John Pollock. The settlement was known simply as "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 very few buildings at Bessbrook at that time — principally Mount Caulfield House (the residence of the Nicholson family) and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

The village of Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased one of the derelict mills on the site and began building housing for his factory workers nearby. Richardson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, explained his choice of location in his own words: he "had a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town, so on looking around, fixed upon a place near Newry … with water power and a thick population around, and in a country district where flax was cultivated in considerable quantities." Richardson's layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning and developing Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson established Bessbrook as a social experiment — a model village where his workers could both live and work in contentment. His philanthropic approach led him to bring the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, in the hope of encouraging them to improve themselves and leave behind old habits.

Bessbrook was established in phases, beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street in the 1840s. Richardson stipulated that there would be no public house and no pawn shop in the settlement, and consequently no need for a police presence — a principle that gave rise to the village's reputation as a place without the "Three P's." In exchange, he provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve this arrangement in the 1870s, and to this day there remains no public house at Bessbrook. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863 Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after purchasing his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson took advantage of this by greatly expanding his factory and workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson both the main employer and principal landowner at Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of new workers; between 1861 and 1871 the 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.

The Annual Revisions record that Nos. 1–10 Deramore Terrace (Richardson's Terrace) were constructed in 1892 and leased to tenants by the Richardson estate. The First Survey of 1969 suggests the terrace was built specifically for elderly residents, although Census of Ireland records from around 1901 show that the majority of early tenants were under 50 or still employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. Deramore Terrace was laid out in the countryside approximately half a mile to the southeast of Richardson's mill and the main body of Bessbrook housing, on a plot near Woodhouse, Derry House, and the Friends' Meeting House.

The architect of the terrace is unknown. Most housing in Bessbrook was built by masons and joiners employed directly by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The Natural Stone Database records that most structures in the village were built of Newry Granodiorite, quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. Bessbrook granite is of notably high quality and was used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool.

No. 7 was valued at £4 by the Annual Revisions and was initially leased by Richardson to a Mr Andrew Taggart. In 1900 ownership of the terrace passed from the Richardson estate to the Trustees of the neighbouring Friends' Meeting House, with William Davies — a local magistrate and Richardson's land agent — acting as secretary. Following this change of ownership the row was renamed "Richardson's Terrace" in 1901. The 1901 Census of Ireland recorded Andrew Taggart (aged 62) as employed as a milkman; the accompanying building return described the house as a second-class dwelling consisting of five rooms with a shed as its sole outbuilding. The building appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906 in its current layout.

During the 20th century the Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to expand, gaining international recognition, and during the Second World War the mill workers were engaged in producing cloth for military uniforms. The company retained ownership of housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when most dwellings began to be sold to private individuals and firms, a process driven by a post-war downturn in the local textile market that foreshadowed the closure of the mill in 1972. By the time of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72), ownership of Deramore Terrace had reverted to the Bessbrook Spinning Company; the rateable value of No. 7 was increased to £7 10 shillings, and the house was occupied by a Mr Alexander Galbraith during this period.

No. 7 Deramore Terrace was listed in 1985 and was in use as a private dwelling at the time of the Second Survey. It has group value as one of ten similar houses along the row, and the terrace as a whole is significant as part of an early planned mill village that is broadly contemporary with other English model villages such as Port Sunlight (begun 1888) and Bournville (begun 1895), settlements which went on to influence town and country planning across the world.