9 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

9 College Square West, Bessbrook

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' terraced dwelling built around 1874 of local Newry Granodiorite stone, possibly designed by civil engineer John Hardy. The building forms part of a terrace of 18 similar houses (numbers 1-18) comprising the western side of College Square, a formally planned late-Victorian residential square containing 53 dwellings in total arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground.

The house is constructed of random-coursed rock-faced local stone with stepped red brick dressings to window and door jambs. Dwellings are grouped in symmetrical pairs along the terrace, with doors positioned at the centre flanked by single windows on opposite sides at ground floor level, set between raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping that rise to rectangular section chimneys. The line of the verge is continued vertically down each front elevation with stepped red brick quoins and recessed downpipes. Single dwellings at each end of the terrace are unpaired. The roof is pitched with fibre cement tiles and roll-top black clay ridge tiles; a replacement rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest has terracotta clay pots. Flush eaves feature a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Rainwater goods are generally metal to the front elevation with galvanized metal half-round guttering discharging to a cast iron circular section downpipe (with uPVC section to top) recessed into the stepped red brick quoins. Rear return rainwater goods are uPVC.

The principal northeast-facing elevation is nearly symmetrical with regular fenestration: two windows at first floor level corresponding to ground floor openings. All windows are double hung 1/1 sliding timber sash with horns. The ground floor has stepped red brick surrounds and gauged brick arches with flush keystone detail to the door head; the window to the northwest side of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath its cill. The front door is panelled painted timber with two glazed panels to its upper half, brass furniture and a square-headed fanlight above. A modest front garden is set to lawn and enclosed by hooped galvanized metal railings with a similar foot gate hung on slim posts to the southeast. A paved path from the gate leads to the front door.

An L-plan form with a two-storey rear return was added around 2012. The rear southwest elevation is of limited visibility but shows a single reduced bay at the northwest with a uPVC top opening casement window at first floor in line with a similar window at ground floor. The two-storey pitched roofed return at the southeast projects southwest into an enclosed L-shaped concrete rear yard, with a monopitched block attached near its southern corner. Replacement boundary walling to the southwest of the yard has smooth cement render finish topped with galvanised metal railings, and a similar foot gate hung on slim posts to the northwest opens onto a shared rear access route. The rear return has uPVC facia and sheeted uPVC soffit with a two-part side opening uPVC casement window at centre of first floor level and a similar window at ground floor, and a uPVC door visible to the northwest side. The elevation has smooth cement render finish with uPVC casement windows and concrete cills.

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

College Square itself comprises a planned arrangement of mill workers' dwellings with formal terraced rows on the east, north and west sides arranged around a central area containing a bowling green, playground and lawn. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath with a modest front yard enclosed by dwarf walling topped by 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. The eastern terrace contains 23 dwellings built in similar style with some significant detailing differences, stepped in groups of six to respect the site's subtle relief, terminating at its southeastern end with the village Town Hall (the old Institute building). The shorter northern terrace contains 12 houses which are distinctly larger two-storey buildings. The former school building is located at the southeast end of the western terrace. The central area is divided into three sections of lawn: the northwestern area has a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its boundary; a lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings is located to the southeast; and an open children's playground with three granite monuments occupies the centre. One monument records those who faithfully served the Bessbrook firm for nearly 50 years; another commemorates James N. Richardson and records that this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry; the third, recently relocated from Bessbrook Mill grounds, details the mill's history from Pollock family ownership in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.