1 Maytown Terrace, Fountain St., Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Number 1 Maytown Terrace is a modest two-storey, two-bay end-of-terrace mill workers' dwelling, built in locally quarried stone around 1896 by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to designs by an unknown architect. It forms the north-eastern end of a uniform row of seven similar houses (numbers 1 to 7 Maytown Terrace) facing northwest onto Main Street, Bessbrook, County Armagh, set back from the road by a wide tarmac public footpath. The building has a rectangular plan form with a single-storey L-plan rear return added during renovations around 1994.

Architectural Description

The front and main structural walls are built of random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite — a local granite-type stone — with cement strap-pointing. The window and door openings are square-headed with gauged-brick arches, stepped red brick dressings to the jambs, and stone cills. The roof is pitched and covered with natural slate, finished with angled black clay ridge tiles. At the north-eastern gable there is a rectangular-section red brick chimney stack with a single terracotta clay pot; a similar chimney at the south-western end has two pots. The eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Rainwater goods are generally uPVC half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

The front elevation is near-symmetrical, flush with the rest of the terrace, with a regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first-floor level aligned directly above two ground-floor openings, all fitted with top-opening uPVC casements. The front door is uPVC with a square-headed fanlight above and opens directly onto the public footpath. There is a further window to the north-east side of the door. A timber street sign reading "MAYTOWN TERRACE" is fixed at the north-eastern end of the first-floor level.

The north-eastern gable elevation has a roughcast cement render finish, a red brick chimney to the gable apex, and a single-storey block extending to the south-east into the enclosed rear yard. There is a single uPVC casement window at ground-floor level of the two-storey block.

The rear south-eastern elevation faces into an enclosed concrete yard and incorporates a single-storey extension. The yard boundary walling has a rough cement render finish with exposed stone coping and a painted sheeted timber door leading to a rear access route. At first-floor level the wall has a roughcast cement render finish and a single uPVC casement window to the centre. The single-storey rear return has a smooth cement render finish and a pitched roof, with a mono-pitched block at its north-eastern end forming the L-plan. The rear return has a panelled painted timber door with two glazed sections to its upper half, opening onto three concrete steps, with a window to the south-west side of the door and a single top-opening uPVC casement window to the south-eastern end of the mono-pitched block. To the south-west, the building is attached to number 2 Maytown Terrace.

Interior

The building retains some of its original plan form and internal fittings, preserving much of its historic character, despite the replacement of the original windows, rainwater goods, and front door with uPVC.

Historical and Social Context

Bessbrook was established as a model village from 1845 onwards by John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a Quaker linen merchant from Lambeg. Richardson purchased one of the derelict mills on the site — an area with industrial roots stretching back to 1761, when a John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green, renaming the place "Bessbrook" after his wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). The First Edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s recorded few buildings at the site beyond Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

Richardson, influenced by the planned urban work of the late 17th-century American Quaker William Penn — responsible for laying out Philadelphia — began constructing housing for his factory workers, starting with Fountain Street in the 1840s. His motivations combined pragmatic and altruistic aims: he sought good relations between employer and employees by providing high standards of living, and hoped to encourage improvement among the poor and unemployed he brought from the surrounding countryside. Bessbrook became famously known as the village without the "Three Ps" — no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for a police presence — a stipulation Richardson enforced by providing recreational and educational facilities at the village Institute, well-stocked shops, and the distribution of milk, tea, and cocoa to mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve the prohibition on alcohol in the 1870s, and Bessbrook still has no public house today. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863 Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after buying out his brother's shares. The local linen industry boomed during the American Civil War (1861–65), when disruption to American cotton supplies drove demand for linen. Richardson greatly expanded the factory and workforce, and after Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, Richardson became both the principal employer and the main landowner at Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to house 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. By the turn of the 20th century the population stood at approximately 4,000.

Numbers 1 to 6 Maytown Terrace were constructed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company around 1896 (an adjoining number 7 was added in the early 20th century). Annual Revision records show that in 1896 the total rateable value of number 1 was set at £3, with the Bessbrook Spinning Company initially leasing it to a John Hamilton. In 1899 the house passed to William Nelson, employed at Richardson's mill. The 1911 Census of Ireland described number 1 as a second-class dwelling of five rooms. The Nelson family continued in residence until the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), which raised the rateable value to £5 10 shillings and recorded a George Clarke as occupant. During the Second World War, mill workers at Bessbrook were engaged in producing cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of its housing until the 1960s, when a post-war downturn in the textile market led to the gradual sale of properties. The mill itself closed in 1972 and was subsequently occupied by the British Army. George Preston purchased number 1 Maytown Terrace outright around 1969, continuing to lease it to the Clarke family. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) the rateable value had risen to £8.

Number 1 Maytown Terrace was listed in 1982 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village with a distinct form and character. The Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook — including the uniform terraces at Charlemont Square and College Square — influenced the design of the famous English model villages at Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bournville (developed by the Cadbury family from 1895), which have in turn directly influenced town and country planning across the world.

Around 1994 the building underwent extensive renovation including the construction of the single-storey rear return. Around 1997 the current front entrance door was installed.

Setting and Group Value

Number 1 Maytown Terrace has group value with the other six historic buildings of the terrace, all of which share similar materials and proportions and together make a prominent contribution to the character of Main Street, Bessbrook. The rear facades of the terrace are generally much altered, with most dwellings having lost their original stone rear yard boundary walls. Rear boundaries are defined by a local access route and an area of rough grazing to the south-east.