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

10 Deramore (Derrymore) Terrace, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian end-of-terrace house, built around 1892 to designs by an unknown architect. It forms the last in a row of ten similar dwellings — known locally as Richardson's Terrace — set back from the northeast side of Derrymore Road, leading into Bessbrook village. The house faces southwest and follows a rectangular plan, with a single-storey pitched-roof rear return and a later monopitched lean-to extension, both projecting to the rear. The listing extends to the house itself, its boundary walling, metal railings, and entrance gate.

Exterior

The walls are built of random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — the same high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate that was used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool. Dressings to door and window openings are of stepped red brick, with square-headed gauged-brick surrounds throughout. Flush dressed granite quoins mark the corners. The roof is covered in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles, and the eaves are flush, finished with separate red and buff brick courses and an alternating red-and-buff brick corbel course above. There are two rectangular-section red brick chimneys: the one to the northwest carries three buff clay pots and a single terracotta clay pot; the one to the southeast, now rendered, carries a single terracotta clay pot. Rainwater goods are generally painted metal, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

Principal (southwest) elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and near-symmetrical in its fenestration. There are two windows at first-floor level, positioned directly above the ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung, one-over-one sliding timber sashes with horns. At ground-floor level, a window sits to the northwest side of the front door. The door itself is a painted sheeted timber design with a polished metal letterbox and a square-headed fanlight above.

The modest front garden is laid to lawn and enclosed by dwarf stone walling topped by vertical painted metal railings with pointed finials. A foot gate hung on circular-section cast iron posts is positioned to the southeast corner, and a decorative dressed granite pillar with a pyramidal cap marks the southern corner of the yard. A concrete path leads from the gate to the front door.

Northwest elevation

The building is attached at this elevation to No. 9 Deramore Terrace.

Northeast (rear) elevation

Access to the rear is limited. Where visible, the elevation retains its original stone walling. At first-floor level there is a timber casement window to the centre. To the southeast a gabled single-storey pitched-roof rear return projects into the enclosed rear yard, with a single timber casement window visible at its centre and a modern metal chimney flue at the gable. To the northwest, a monopitched lean-to with corrugated Perspex roofing also projects into the rear yard. The rear yard is enclosed by random-coursed, rock-faced local stone boundary walling with random stone coping; a painted sheeted timber door to the southeast gives access from the shared rear service route.

Southeast (side) elevation

At the southwest end there is low stone walling forming the front garden boundary. The central section is a two-storey gabled block finished in smooth cement render, with a rendered chimney at its apex. To the northeast there is a single-storey pitched-roof block, with original stone rear yard boundary walling at its northeast end. The single-storey rear return is also smooth cement rendered and has a single reduced-size window with a slim concrete cill.

Setting

The ten houses of Deramore Terrace are each set back from Derrymore Road behind modest front yards enclosed by dwarf stone walling and metal railings. To the rear, each property has a yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling, with a square-headed doorway opening onto a wide shared rear access route running northwest to southeast, accessible from both ends of the terrace. To the northeast of this access route each house has a rear garden, many of which contain later outbuildings; the rear garden and outbuildings belonging to No. 10 are now overgrown. The rear facades and yard boundary walls across the terrace are generally much altered. The terrace overlooks parkland associated with Derrymore House to the southwest, which has stone walling to the roadside and mature trees. The terrace has group value with the nine other houses in the row, and its setting and character are closely related to the historic buildings found in the Bessbrook Squares.

History

The development of industry at Bessbrook dates to 1761, when the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened by a Mr John Pollock. The site was then simply called 'The Green' but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth — known as Bess — and the nearby Camlough River. By the 1830s, when the first edition Ordnance Survey map was produced, few buildings had been erected at the site; the principal structures shown were Mount Caulfield House, the residence of the Nicholson family, along with 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 and a member of the Religious Society of Friends, purchased one of the derelict mills on the site and began building housing for his factory workers nearby. Richardson later explained that he had a strong aversion to being responsible for a factory population in a large town, and so chose a rural location near Newry with water power, a ready local workforce, and flax grown in the surrounding countryside. His 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 shared Penn's combination of pragmatic and altruistic aims: by providing good living conditions, he hoped to foster positive relations between employer and workers. He is recorded as having brought the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, hoping to help them improve their circumstances.

The village was established in phases. Fountain Street was laid out in the 1840s, and Charlemont Square followed between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate a rapidly growing workforce. In 1863, Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after buying out his brother's shares. The American Civil War (1861–65) brought a boom to the local linen industry as access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson expanded his factory and workforce accordingly. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him both the main employer and principal landowner at Bessbrook. Between 1861 and 1871 the village's population rose from 637 to 2,215, with the number of houses increasing from 73 to 296. By the turn of the 20th century the population stood at approximately 4,000.

Bessbrook is widely referred to as a village without the 'Three Ps', reflecting Richardson's stipulation that there would be no public house and no pawnshop in the settlement, and therefore no need for police. In place of alcohol, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, a number of well-stocked shops at Charlemont Square East, 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 is no public house at Bessbrook. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

Deramore Terrace was built in 1892, as recorded in the Annual Revisions. The architect is unknown, though the majority of housing in Bessbrook was constructed by masons and joiners employed directly by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. No. 10 was initially valued at £4 and leased by Richardson to a Mr William Downey. 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 in ownership, the terrace was renamed Richardson's Terrace in 1901. The Census of Ireland in that year recorded No. 10 as occupied by George Galbraith, aged 30, employed as a Master Carpenter. The census building return described the house as a second-class dwelling comprising five rooms with three sheds as outbuildings. The First Survey (1969) suggests that Deramore Terrace was built specifically for elderly residents of the village; however, census records around 1900 show that the majority of early tenants were under 50 years of age or remained in employment at the Bessbrook Spinning Company.

The site was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906, depicted in its current layout. During the Second World War, the mill workers were engaged in supplying cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of housing in the village until the 1960s, when a post-war downturn in the textile market prompted the sale of most properties, foreshadowing 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. 10 was raised to £7 and 10 shillings at that time, and a Mr Thomas Priestly was recorded as occupant. The house was listed in 1985 and was in use as a private dwelling at the time of the Second Survey.

Deramore Terrace is noted as contemporary with other English model villages, including Port Sunlight (begun 1888) and Bournville (begun 1895), all of which went on to contribute to town and country planning worldwide.