12 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

12 College Square West, Bessbrook

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced dwelling built around 1874 in local Newry Granodiorite stone, possibly designed by civil engineer John Hardy. The house forms part of a terrace of 18 similar dwellings comprising the western side of College Square, a formally planned scheme of 53 mill workers' houses arranged on three sides around a central bowling green, playground and lawn.

The building is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced local stone with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and painted stone cills. Square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings punctuate the facades. The dwellings are grouped in pairs; each pair is symmetrical with doors grouped centrally and flanked by single windows at ground floor level. They sit between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping, which rise to rectangular section chimneys at apex level. The line of the verge continues vertically down each front northeast facade with stepped red brick quoins and recessed downpipes flanking each paired set.

The pitched roof is finished with fibre cement tiles to the front elevation and natural slate to the rear, topped with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The rectangular section chimney to the southeast has recessed panels of buff brick, a raised corbel course of red and buff brick below a decorative cap and six buff clay pots. Flush eaves comprise a double red brick course, single buff brick course and alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Metal rainwater goods to the front northeast and uPVC to the rear southwest discharge via half-round guttering to circular section downpipes; the front downpipe is cast iron and recessed into the stepped red brick quoins.

The northeast-facing principal elevation is flush with the terrace and nearly symmetrical, with regular fenestration: two windows to first floor level aligned with ground floor openings, all fitted with top-opening uPVC casements. The ground floor has stepped red brick surrounds and gauged brick arches with flush keystone detail to the door head; the window to the southeast of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath the cill. A modest gravelled front yard is enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts. A paved path from the gate leads to a panelled painted timber door with two glazed panels to its upper half, brass furniture and a square-headed fanlight above.

To the southeast the building is attached to No. 11 College Square West. The rear elevation faces southwest and has a uPVC top-opening casement window at first floor level in line with a similar ground floor window to the southeast. A two-storey rear return projects from the northwest end into an enclosed L-shaped concrete rear yard. The yard boundary walling to the southwest is random-coursed rock-faced stone with a painted sheeted timber door leading from the rear access route. The southeast side of the rear return has a two-part side-opening uPVC casement window to ground floor and a similar three-part window in line to first floor. A six-panelled painted timber door sits to the southwest end of the rear return with no visible openings to the northwest. The rear elevation has a rough-cast cement render finish with uPVC casement windows and slim concrete cills. To the northwest the building is attached to No. 13 College Square West.

College Square itself comprises three terraces of mill workers' dwellings arranged around a central bowling green, playground and lawn, each house set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The eastern terrace contains 23 dwellings of similar style but with some detailing differences, stepped in groups of six to respect the site's subtle relief and terminating at the southeastern end with the village Town Hall (the old Institute building). The northern terrace is the shortest, comprising 12 larger two-storey buildings distinctly different in scale. The former school building is located at the southeastern end of the western terrace. The central area is divided into three sections: a bowling pavilion and green to the northwest enclosed by painted hooped railings with established trees at its boundary; a lawn to the southeast similarly enclosed; and an open children's playground in the centre featuring three granite monuments. One records figures who served Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years; another commemorates James N. Richardson and was laid out as a playground in November 1927, with the inscription noting this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry; a third monument, recently moved from Bessbrook Mill grounds, details the mill's history from ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Co Ltd in 1878.