9 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 9 College Square West is a two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced mill workers' dwelling, built in local stone around 1874. It was designed by an unknown architect, though the most likely candidate is John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881, who was also responsible for extending the nearby mill. The house forms part of a terrace of 18 similar dwellings making up the western side of College Square, itself a formally planned late-Victorian square — a rare occurrence in the province — comprising 53 mill workers' dwellings in total, arranged on three sides around a central bowling green, playground and lawn, with principal access from Fountain Street to the southeast. The listing covers the house, its gate and railings.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

The building is of rectangular plan, facing northeast, with a two-storey rear return added around 2012 and an attached single-storey monopitched outbuilding to the rear. The walling to the front northeast facade is generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to the jambs, painted stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. This locally quarried stone is a defining characteristic of Bessbrook, contributing a unique sense of identity and place that the listing aims to protect.

Along the terrace, dwellings are grouped in pairs, each pair being symmetrical, with doors grouped to the centre flanked on either side by a single window at ground-floor level. Each pair is set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping, rising to rectangular-section chimneys at the apex. The line of each verge continues vertically down the front facade as stepped red brick quoins, with recessed downpipes flanking each paired set of dwellings. Single dwellings at each end of the terrace are unpaired.

The roof is pitched and covered with fibre cement tiles, with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The replacement chimney to the northwest is rectangular-section red brick with terracotta clay pots. The eaves are flush, with a decorative course made up of a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above — though this decorative eaves course is now masked along the terrace by modern electrical wiring, and television aerials further detract from the overall character. Rainwater goods to the front northeast elevation are generally metal, with galvanised metal half-round guttering discharging to a cast iron circular-section downpipe (with a uPVC section to the top), recessed into the stepped red brick quoins. Rainwater goods to the rear return are uPVC, with box guttering discharging to square-section downpipes.

PRINCIPAL ELEVATION

The front elevation faces northeast and is flush with the rest of the terrace. It is near-symmetrical, with a regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first-floor level aligned with the ground-floor openings, all being double-hung 1-over-1 sliding timber sash windows with horns. At ground-floor level, the door surround has a stepped red brick surround and gauged brick arch with a flush keystone detail to the head; the window to the northwest side of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath the cill. The front door is a panelled painted timber door with two glazed panels to its upper half, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. A modest front garden is laid to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings, with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts to the southeast. A paved path leads from the gate to the front door.

OTHER ELEVATIONS

To the southeast, the building is attached to No. 8 College Square West. To the northwest it is attached to No. 10 College Square West.

The rear southwest-facing elevation has limited access, but where visible consists of a single reduced bay at the northwest with a uPVC top-opening casement window at first-floor level, aligned with a similar window at ground-floor level. A two-storey pitched-roofed return at the southeast projects southwest into an enclosed L-shaped concrete rear yard. The rear return has a monopitched block attached near its southern corner. Replacement boundary walling to the southwest of the yard has a smooth cement render finish topped with galvanised metal railings, with a foot gate hung on slim posts to the northwest, opening onto a shared rear access route. The rear return has uPVC fascia and sheeted uPVC soffit. There is a two-part side-opening uPVC casement window to the centre of first-floor level and a similar window at ground-floor level; a uPVC door is visible to the northwest side of the rear return, with no openings visible to the southeast. The elevation has a generally smooth cement render finish with uPVC casement windows and concrete cills.

SETTING

No. 9 forms part of the planned arrangement of College Square, with each house set back from the perimeter public road and footpath behind a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped with hooped metal railings. Rear yards are typically enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route, though rear facades across the square are generally much altered.

The eastern terrace of 23 dwellings is built in a similar style but with some significant differences in detailing; these are stepped in groups of six to follow the subtle relief of the site and terminate at their southeastern end with the village's former Institute building (the old Town Hall). The northern terrace, the shortest side of the square at only 12 houses wide, contains dwellings that are distinctly larger two-storey buildings, though similar in character. The former school building is located at the southeast end of the western terrace.

The central area of the square is divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The area to the northwest contains a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings, with established trees at the northwest boundary. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings is located to the southeast. An open children's playground in the centre of the square contains three granite monuments. One 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 recording that this was the last stone cut from the Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, recently moved from the grounds of Bessbrook Mill to its current location, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 through to the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Ltd in 1878.

ALTERATIONS

A large rendered two-storey rear return was added around 2012, and original boundary walling to the rear yard has been removed and replaced with modern finishes. These alterations detract from the building's character. The front gate and railings are included within the extent of the listing.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The village of Bessbrook traces its origins to 1761 when a Mr John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green on what was then known simply as "The Green." The site was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s recorded only a handful of significant structures — 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, purchased one of the derelict mills and began building housing for his factory workers. Richardson, in his own words, "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." A Quaker himself, Richardson's layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson held a typical Quaker mix of pragmatic and altruistic expectation, aiming to provide jobs and good working conditions while also creating a community where workers could 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, hoping to help them improve their lives.

Bessbrook is widely known as the village without the "Three Ps": Richardson stipulated there would be no public house and no pawnshop — and therefore no need for police. In their place he provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and the distribution of milk, tea and cocoa to mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve the ordinance in the 1870s, and to this day there remains no public house in 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 buying out his brother's shares. The local linen industry boomed during the American Civil War (1861–65), as American cotton became inaccessible, and Richardson greatly enlarged his factory and workforce to capitalise on this. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal landowner and main employer. Between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215, with the number of houses rising from 73 to 296. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of workers.

College Square was laid out in stages between around 1874 and around 1890, driven by further expansion of Richardson's business. The mid-1880s were a period of intense building activity in the village, during which the earlier ideals of the plan were re-established. The factory was greatly extended and modernised in 1884–85. The houses along College Square West specifically were constructed between around 1874 and around 1877: Annual Revisions first recorded Nos. 1–12 College Square West in 1874, with Nos. 13–18 added by 1877. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company using Newry Granodiorite from a quarry opened on the former Charlemont Estate — a high-quality granite that was also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool.

The bowling green at the southern end of the square was added in 1911. Each house at Bessbrook was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and contained between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign an agreement containing stipulations about the keeping of fowl and pigs (permitted in a garden sty or run, but not in the house or yard), and were obliged to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

No. 9 College Square West was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr William Laughlin (who also occupied the adjoining No. 10) and was valued at £6. The house changed hands with great frequency over the following decades. During the 1911 Census of Ireland the house was occupied by John McKee, a mechanic at Richardson's mill, and was described as a second-class dwelling consisting of six inhabited rooms. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the building was valued at £7 10s and was occupied by a Ms Isabella Blair.

During the Second World War, mill workers at Bessbrook were engaged in supplying cloth for uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to own housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when the post-war downturn in the local textile market prompted the sale of dwellings to private individuals and firms, ahead of the mill's closure in 1972 (after which the mill building was occupied by the British Army). George Preston purchased No. 9 College Square West outright around 1969 and leased the house to a Mr Hugh McConnell. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value of the building had risen to £10.

No. 9 College Square West was listed in 1981 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. The carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square, is recognised as having influenced the design of the famous English model villages of Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville (developed by the Cadbury family in 1895), which in turn directly influenced town and country planning all over the world. Both College Square and the earlier Charlemont Square could be considered of international importance as part of this early planned mill village, begun in the 1840s. An extensive renovation around 2012 resulted in the construction of the current rear return.