12 College Square North, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

No. 12 College Square North, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' end-of-terrace dwelling, built in approximately 1890 of locally quarried stone, to an L-plan form facing southeast with a single-storey rear return. The architect is unknown, though the building may be the work of John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect to the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1881. The house forms part of a row of twelve similar dwellings comprising the northern terrace of College Square, and is listed along with its gate, railings and boundary walling.

Historical and Social Context

Bessbrook was effectively founded as a model village in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a Quaker linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased a derelict mill near Newry and began building housing for his factory workers. Industrial activity in the area dates further back to 1761, when a John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green on the site, then known simply as "The Green" and later renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). The first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s records only Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills on the site at that time.

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's aim was to create a social experiment in which his workers could live and work contentedly, and his philanthropic approach led him to bring the poor, the unqualified and beggars from the surrounding countryside into employment and decent housing. Bessbrook is famously known as a village without the "Three Ps" — no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police — a stipulation of Richardson's that the majority of the population voted to preserve in the 1870s, and which remains in effect to this day. In exchange, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops, and had milk, tea and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. Police were not stationed at the village until the turn of the 20th century.

Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863 following the purchase of his brother's shares, and took full advantage of the boom in the local linen industry during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him the principal employer and landowner in Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of workers; between 1861 and 1871 the population rose from 637 to 2,215 and the number of houses from 73 to 296.

College Square was laid out in stages between approximately 1874 and 1890 in response to further growth in Richardson's business. The mid-1880s were a period of intense building activity in the village, during which the factory was greatly extended and modernised (1884–85), and the earlier ideals of the village plan were re-established. The northern terrace of College Square — the row of twelve houses of which No. 12 forms a part — was the last row to be laid out, erected in approximately 1890. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The walling material is Newry Granodiorite, a locally quarried granite of high quality that was used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St George's Hall in Liverpool.

Each house was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and possessed between three and five rooms. Tenants were required to sign an agreement containing stipulations about the keeping of fowl and pigs (permitted in outbuildings or a garden run, but not in the family quarters), and were under obligation to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

No. 12 College Square North was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a James Murphy, valued at £5 and 10 shillings. Occupancy changed frequently over the following decades. The 1911 Census records the house as occupied by George Kidd, a linen finisher employed at Richardson's factory, and describes it as a second-class dwelling consisting of five inhabited rooms. Under the First General Revaluation (1936–57) the building remained valued at £5 and 10 shillings and was occupied by a Samuel Bradley. During the Second World War the mill workers were tasked with supplying cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company began selling its housing stock in the 1960s as a post-war downturn in the textile market foreshadowed the closure of the mill in 1972. No. 12 College Square North was purchased outright by a Mr A. Galbraith in approximately 1969. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the total rateable value of the house stood at £8. The building was listed in 1980 and included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village.

The carefully planned development of Bessbrook, including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square, is considered to have influenced the design of the famous English model villages at 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.

Exterior Description

The walling is of generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite throughout the front southeast, side northeast and rear northwest facades. Door and window openings are square-headed with stepped red brick dressings to the jambs, stone cills, and gauged-brick heads. The roof is pitched with fibre cement tiles and roll-top black clay ridge tiles. The chimney to the southwest has a rectangular-section red brick shaft with three buff clay pots and one terracotta clay pot; the chimney to the northeast has three buff clay pots. The eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above — though this decorative eaves course is now masked along the full northern terrace by modern electrical wiring. Rainwater goods are generally uPVC, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

Principal (Southeast) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and is near-symmetrical, with a regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first-floor level aligned above two ground-floor openings. All windows are top-opening timber casements. A modest front garden is laid to lawn and enclosed by a red brick dwarf wall topped with hooped painted metal railings, with a matching foot gate hung on slim posts to the northeast. A paved path leads from the gate to a painted panelled timber door with two glazed upper panels, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. There is a window to the southwest side of the door.

Southwest Elevation

The southwest elevation is attached to No. 11 College Square North.

Northwest (Rear) Elevation

Access to the rear northwest elevation was limited at the time of survey. Where visible, the rear comprises a single-storey flat-roofed return at the northeast projecting northwest into an enclosed rear yard. The yard boundary walling is of random-coursed rock-faced local stone with a concrete coping and a painted sheeted timber door leading to the yard. At first-floor level the original stone walling is visible, with a timber casement window to the centre and a similar-sized top-opening timber casement window to the right-hand side (southwest), both with concrete cills. Part of an original brick window head — now altered and blocked with modern blocks — is visible between the two windows. The visible portions of the rear return have a smooth cement render finish and a painted timber fascia. A single-storey outbuilding to the western corner of the rear yard has a flat concrete roof.

Northeast Elevation

The northeast elevation forms the end of the College Square North terrace. It has original stone walling and a red brick chimney with three buff clay pots at the gable apex. An area of red brick walling at first-floor level rises to meet the chimney. Original stone walling to the rear yard is visible to the northwest.

Setting and Group Value

No. 12 College Square North has substantial group value as one of twelve similar houses forming the northern side of College Square, itself part of a formally planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings comprising north, west and east terraces arranged around a central 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 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. Rear facades across the square are generally much altered.

The eastern terrace is composed of 23 dwellings, stepped in groups of six to respect the subtle relief of the site, terminating at its southeastern end with the village Town Hall (the old Institute building). The western terrace is composed of 18 dwellings, for the most part arranged in pairs, built in a similar style but with some significant differences in detailing; the former school building is located at the southeast end of this terrace. The northern terrace — of which No. 12 forms a part — is the shortest in the square at only 12 houses wide, but these are distinctly larger two-storey buildings with steeply pitched roofs.

The central area of the square is now divided into three sections, each laid to lawn. The northwest section has a bowling pavilion and green, enclosed by painted hooped metal railings with established trees at its northwest boundary; this was added in 1911. A lawn enclosed by hooped metal railings is located to the southeast. An open children's playground occupies the centre of the square and includes three granite monuments. One monument 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"; the inscription on the opposite side notes that this was the last stone cut from Bessbrook quarry. A third monument, formerly in the grounds of Bessbrook Mill and recently moved to its current location, details the mill's history from its ownership by the Pollock family in 1760 to the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Ltd in 1878.

The building's use of locally quarried Newry Granodiorite throughout the main facades creates a strong and distinctive sense of identity and place. Some modern external finishes — including the timber casement windows — detract somewhat from the building's character and heritage value, as does the modern electrical wiring masking the decorative eaves course.