14 College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian terraced house built around 1883 to designs by an unknown architect, possibly the civil engineer Mr John Hardy. The building has a rectangular plan form facing southwest with two single-storey extensions to the rear.

The house is constructed of generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite walling with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and painted stone cills. The square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings are now fitted with slim bands of painted smooth cement render. The pitched fibre cement tile roof has roll-top black clay ridge tiles, and the flush eaves feature separate red and buff brick courses with an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. The original rectangular-section red brick chimney to the northwest was reconstructed around 1995. The guttering is generally uPVC with half-round profile discharging to circular section downpipes, though a single original cast-iron downpipe is preserved to the front southwest elevation.

The principal front elevation faces southwest and is nearly symmetrical, flush with the terrace line. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by replacement painted rough-cast concrete render walling topped by painted metal scrollwork railings and a matching foot gate. A concrete path from the gate leads to a panelled painted timber door at the southeast end of the facade, fitted with two glazed upper panels, brass furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. The facade displays a regular fenestration pattern with two windows at first-floor level and one window at ground-floor level. These are generally top-opening uPVC casement windows.

To the northwest, the building adjoins No. 15 College Square East. The rear elevation faces northeast and is enclosed by rock-faced random-coursed stone boundary walling to a concrete yard. From the northwest end, a single-storey monopitched rear return projects northeast into the yard, with a narrower flat-roofed block attached and a separate flat-roofed boiler house to the northeast. The flat-roofed block features a panelled uPVC door with glazed top half and a side window opening onto a covered portion of rear concrete yard partly roofed with corrugated Perspex. The boiler house is accessed via a painted planked timber door. A single first-floor window on the rear elevation is reduced in height by the monopitched roof return but retains its stone cill. The rear elevation generally has a painted smooth cement rendered finish with concrete cills and uPVC casement windows at ground-floor level, although original stone walling is retained at first-floor level. To the southeast, the building adjoins No. 13 College Square East.

No. 14 College Square East forms part of College Square, a planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings comprising a formal square with East, North, and West 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 typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The eastern terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings to respect the subtle relief of the site. The western terrace consists of paired dwellings in a similar style. Each dwelling has a rear yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. The front facades of the eastern terrace are nearly uniform, with the village Town Hall (the old Institute building) located to the southeast. The northern terrace comprises 12 larger two-and-a-half-storey buildings. The central area of the square is divided into three sections: a bowling pavilion and green enclosed by painted hooped metal railings to the northwest, a lawn enclosed by similar railings to the southeast, and an open children's playground with three granite monuments in the centre. These monuments record the service of senior mill workers and the donation of the playground by James N. Richardson's widow in November 1927, with an inscription noting it was cut from the last stone of Bessbrook quarry. A third monument details the mill's history from the Pollock family ownership in 1760 to Bessbrook Spinning Company Limited in 1878.