4 College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

4 College Square West, Bessbrook

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

The building is constructed of randomly coursed, rock-faced local stone with stepped red brick dressings to window and door jambs. Stone cills and square-headed gauged brick openings are typical of the terrace. The dwellings are grouped in pairs, each symmetrical pair having doors positioned centrally and flanked by single ground floor windows on opposite sides. The pairs are separated by raised roof verges in red brick with clay tile coping, which rise to rectangular-section chimneys. Stepped red brick quoins and recessed downpipes mark each paired set. The single dwellings at each end of the terrace are unpaired. The pitched roof is covered with fibre cement tiles and topped with roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The southeast chimney has been rebuilt in rustic brick and carries six terracotta clay pots. Eaves are flush with a double red brick course, a single buff brick course and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above.

The front elevation faces northeast and is nearly symmetrical, with two windows on the first floor positioned directly above two ground floor openings, all fitted with double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows. The ground floor has a stepped red brick surround with gauged brick arches and flush keystone detailing above the door. The window to the southeast of the door has flush red brick detailing beneath its cill. A modest front garden laid to lawn is enclosed by dwarf red brick walling topped with hooped galvanised metal railings, with a similar foot gate to the northwest. A paved path leads from the gate to a painted four-panel timber door with a semi-circular light fitted with three radial glazing bars to its upper half, brass furniture and a square-headed fanlight above.

The southeast elevation is attached to No. 3 College Square West. The southwest elevation has a two-storey pitched roof rear return, added around 2000, projecting to the site boundary. No openings appear on the southeast or southwest faces of this return. The southwest elevation has a single reduced bay to the northwest of the return with a timber sash window with stone cill visible at first floor level, and two similar windows with concrete cills visible at first floor level to the northwest side of the rear return. The rear elevation generally has a smooth cement render finish. A rear yard boundary wall has a painted timber sheeted door providing access to the rear yard. The northwest elevation is attached to No. 5 College Square West.

Guttering is generally uPVC to the rear southwest and metal to the front northeast, with half-round guttering discharging to circular section downpipes. The cast iron downpipe to the front northeast is recessed into the walling of stepped red brick quoins.

The house forms part of the planned College Square development, which consists of an East Terrace of 23 dwellings (initially stepped in groups of six), a shorter North Terrace of 12 larger two-storey buildings, and the West Terrace containing No. 4. The former school building stands at the southeast end of the western terrace. The central area of the square is laid to lawn in three sections; the northwest section contains a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its boundary, the southeast section is a lawn similarly enclosed, and the centre contains an open children's playground with three granite monuments recording the mill's history and commemorating key workers and figures from Bessbrook.