1 Main St., Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 1 Main Street is a two-storey, three-bay, double-fronted former corner dispensary, built around 1876 to designs by an unknown architect. It stands on a corner site in uncoursed squared local Newry Granodiorite with red brick dressings, and was refurbished for use as a funeral parlour around 2015. The listing covers the building itself together with its yard walling, gates, piers, and a small outbuilding.

Historical Background

The building forms part of the planned model village of Bessbrook, one of the earliest and most complete examples of its kind in Ireland. The village was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a Quaker linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased a derelict mill near Newry and began constructing housing for his textile workers. Richardson later wrote that he had "a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town" and chose the site for its water power, rural setting, and local flax cultivation. The village layout was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson shared Penn's Quaker values, and his development of Bessbrook combined pragmatic commercial ambition with a genuine philanthropic intention to provide workers with good living conditions, employment, and self-improvement.

Bessbrook became famous as a village without the "Three Ps" — no public house, no pawn shop, and consequently no need for a police presence — a condition that the majority of the population voted to preserve in the 1870s, and which remains in force to this day. In place of a pub, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and had milk, tea and cocoa distributed to mill workers. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

The village's population grew rapidly: from 637 in 1861 to 2,215 by 1871, with housing rising from 73 to 296 dwellings in the same period. This growth made new healthcare provision essential. The dispensary at No. 1 Main Street was built in 1876 by the Bessbrook Spinning Company, replacing an earlier health centre at No. 41 Fountain Street, to dispense medicine and provide free medical advice to the company's employees. The building was first recorded in the Annual Revisions of 1884, valued at £12, with the dispensary operating at ground floor level and a private dwelling — occupied by the local doctor or nurse — on the upper floor. The building first appeared on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1906 in its current rectangular form.

The dispensary continued to operate from this address until around 1912. Following the National Insurance Act of 1911 and the introduction of state medical insurance the following year, the Bessbrook Spinning Company discontinued its private medical provision. The building was then converted into a public bath house, known as the "Sissilian Baths," which opened in 1913. By the 1930s it was no longer in use as a bath house: under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the building was recorded as a private dwelling occupied by a Mr. John Cunningham, with two retail units at ground floor level and a total rateable value of £20 and 10 shillings. Around 1949 the dwelling was occupied by a Ms. Edith Hill, while the ground floor shops continued to be let to separate tenants.

During the Second World War the Bessbrook mill supplied cloth for military uniforms, gaining the Spinning Company international recognition. The company retained ownership of much of the village's housing until the 1960s, when a post-war downturn in the textile market began to force the sale of properties. The mill ultimately closed in 1972, after which the building was occupied by the British Army. No. 1 Main Street was purchased outright by a Mr. George Preston around 1968. By the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the building continued to be divided into two shops with a dwelling above, with a total rateable value of £29 and 15 shillings. The building was listed in 1981 and included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of the village's significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. It remained in use as a ground floor shop with an upper floor apartment until around 2005, when it fell vacant. Conversion to a funeral parlour was completed in 2015–16. The building was previously known as No. 1 Fountain Street.

Bessbrook predates the better-known English model villages of Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville (1895), and No. 1 Main Street is of significant local architectural and historical importance as part of that broader social experiment.

Exterior Description

The building has a rectangular plan and faces both north-west onto Main Street and south-west onto Derrymore Road. The roof is gabled and hipped, finished in fibre cement tiles with angled fibre cement ridge tiles. The red brick chimney has stepped corbel courses, a red brick cornice, a decorative half-round red brick coping, and four terracotta clay pots; it has been newly refurbished. The eaves are detailed with a double red brick course, a single buff brick course, and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course. Rainwater goods are uPVC with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The walling throughout is of squared blocks of random-coursed local Newry Granodiorite. Door and window openings are square-headed with gauged-brick arches, stepped red brick dressings to jambs, and stone sills. Windows are generally double-hung 2/2 sliding timber sash with horns, unless otherwise noted.

North-west (principal) elevation onto Main Street: The central ground floor opening has a painted sheeted timber door with a square-headed two-part fanlight above. To the south-west of the door is a timber-framed shop window with six panes; to the north-east is a double-hung 2/2 timber sash. The first floor has two equally spaced timber sash windows aligned above the ground floor openings. This elevation has a hipped roof and is set back from the public footpath. To the north-east of the building, a set of painted sheeted timber vehicular gates lead to an enclosed yard and the north-east elevation. The gates are hung on rectangular-section stone and red brick pillars with granite caps. The yard is enclosed by high stone walling.

South-west elevation onto Derrymore Road: This three-bay façade is set back from a wide paved public footpath. The central bay has an eight-panelled painted timber door with a square-headed fanlight above, opening onto two concrete steps. To the north-west of the door is a timber-framed shop window with six glazed panes; to the south-east is a timber sash window. The north-west bay, containing the shop window, is the widest of the three. The first floor has three timber sash windows aligned above the ground floor openings. The red brick chimney at the ridge falls between the first and second bays from the north-west.

South-east (rear) elevation: This gabled elevation faces south-east onto lower ground and has a plinth of uncoursed rubble stone walling with a smooth cement render finish above. Original high stone yard boundary walling runs to the north-east. A rectangular vent is located centrally in the gable above the plinth.

North-east elevation (into yard): This elevation, finished in lined cement render, faces into the enclosed yard. The first floor has three windows grouped towards the centre and south-east. The ground floor has two openings: a door at the south-east end — a painted sheeted timber door with a glazed top half and a two-part fanlight above — and a timber sash window at the north-west. The red brick chimney at the ridge falls between the first and second windows from the north-west.

The stone yard boundary walling is of random-coursed rock-faced local stone with random stone coping and red brick quoins. It rises to first floor level along most of its length, increasing to mid-first-floor level at the south-east end of the yard.

A small single-storey corrugated tin outbuilding is attached to the north-east boundary wall on its external face, facing onto Mount Charles North. It has a pitched corrugated tin roof and timber-sheeted double doors.

Setting

No. 1 Main Street stands at the heart of Bessbrook village, on the main road running through the conservation area. College Square lies immediately to the north-west: a formally designed late Victorian square comprising 53 mill workers' dwellings arranged as three terraces around a central bowling green and playground. The square also contains Bessbrook's Town Hall or Institute Building and the former National School. The building has strong group value with College Square and with these other surviving public buildings of the model village.

Materials summary: fibre cement roof tiles; uPVC rainwater goods; Newry Granodiorite walling; timber sash windows.