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

No. 1 Deramore Terrace is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian end-of-terrace house built around 1892, forming the northwesternmost dwelling in a row of ten similar houses. The architect is unknown, though construction was almost certainly carried out by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The listing extends to the house itself, together with its boundary walling, railings, and gate.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The building has a rectangular plan facing southwest, with a two-storey rear return added around 1991. The walls are built of randomly coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — a high-quality granite quarried on the former Charlemont Estate — with stepped red brick dressings to door and window jambs, square-headed gauged brick door and window openings, and flush dressed granite quoins. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. There are two rectangular-section red brick chimneys: the one to the northwest carries three buff clay pots, while the one to the southeast, now rendered over, has two terracotta pots and a single buff clay pot. The eaves are flush, with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Cast iron rainwater goods serve the front southwest elevation, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes; uPVC rainwater goods have been fitted to the rear.

Principal (Southwest) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace to the southeast and is near-symmetrical in its fenestration. At first-floor level there are two windows aligned directly above the ground-floor openings. All windows are double-hung 2-over-2 sliding timber sash with horns. At ground-floor level there is a window to the northwest side of the entrance door. A cast iron sign displaying "DERAMORE TERRACE" is fixed at first-floor level to the northwest corner. The entrance is via a panelled painted timber door with two glazed panels to its upper half, black iron door furniture, and a square-headed fanlight above. A modest paved front yard is enclosed by a dwarf stone wall topped by vertical painted metal railings with pointed finials. A foot gate hung on circular-section cast iron posts sits to the southeast, and a decorative dressed granite pillar with a pyramidal cap marks the western corner of the yard. A paved path leads from the gate to the front door.

Northwest Elevation

The northwest elevation forms the end of the terrace and presents a two-storey gabled block with stone walling, red brick to the chimney flues, and a red brick chimney at the gable apex. The two-storey rendered rear return projects to the northeast. The front yard wall to the southwest is of randomly coursed, rock-faced stone with random stone coping.

Northeast (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation faces northeast and is dominated by the two-storey pitched-roof rear return, which projects the full width of the rear yard. The remainder of the concrete yard is enclosed by smooth cement-rendered walling, with a gap to the northwest leading to the shared rear access route. Concrete steps orientated northwest-to-southeast rise to a raised back door at the southeast end of the elevation; this door is a sheeted painted timber door with a glazed top half. There is a pair of top-opening uPVC windows to the northwest side of the door, and two uPVC casement windows at first-floor level aligned above the ground-floor openings. A diminutive window sits above the door, and a two-part window sits above the ground-floor window to the northwest. The rear return is finished generally in smooth cement render, with uPVC casement windows and slim concrete cills.

Southeast Elevation

To the southeast, No. 1 is attached to No. 2 Deramore Terrace.

Materials

The roof is covered in natural slate. Rainwater goods to the front are cast iron; those to the rear are uPVC. The principal walling material is Newry Granodiorite. Original windows are timber sash; later replacements are uPVC casement.

SETTING

No. 1 Deramore Terrace sits at the northwestern end of a planned row of ten mill workers' dwellings on the northeast side of Derrymore Road, a main approach to Bessbrook village. Each house is set back from the pavement behind a modest front yard, typically enclosed by dwarf stone walling topped by metal railings. The rear yard of each dwelling is typically enclosed by randomly 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. Rear façades and rear yard boundary walls are now generally much altered. To the northeast of the shared access route, each dwelling has a rear garden, many of which contain later outbuildings. No. 1 has an additional garden to the northwest, enclosed by dwarf stone walling and laid to lawn with mature shrubs and trees. The terrace looks out to the southwest over parkland associated with Derrymore House, which is bounded by stone walling along the roadside and screened by mature trees.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The origins of settlement at Bessbrook date to 1761, when a Mr. John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green on the site, which was then known simply as "The Green." It 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, relatively little had been built at the location: the map records only Mount Caulfield House (the residence of the Nicholson family) and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

The village as it is known today 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 described his reasoning in his own words: he had "a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town, so on looking around, fixed upon a place near Newry… with water power and a thick population around, and in a country district where flax was cultivated in considerable quantities." His layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning and developing Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson's approach combined pragmatic and altruistic aims: by providing his workers with good standards of living, he hoped to foster good relations between employer and employees. He brought the poor, the unqualified, and beggars from the surrounding countryside to live and work at Bessbrook, intending to help them improve their circumstances and break old habits.

Bessbrook became well known as a village without the "Three Ps" — no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police — in accordance with Richardson's stipulations. In exchange for keeping the village free of alcohol, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, a number of well-stocked shops, and arranged for milk, tea, and cocoa to be distributed to his mill workers. The arrangement proved effective: the majority of the population voted to preserve the ordinance 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.

In 1863 Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company after buying out his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a significant boom during the American Civil War (1861–65), when access to American cotton was cut off; Richardson expanded his factory considerably and increased his workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal employer and landowner at Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of new workers; between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215, and the number of houses from 73 to 296. By the turn of the 20th century the population had reached approximately 4,000. Bessbrook is contemporary with other English model villages including Port Sunlight (begun 1888) and Bourneville (begun 1895), all of which went on to influence town and country planning around the world.

The Newry Granodiorite used to build most of the village, including Deramore Terrace, was quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. This stone is of high quality and was also used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St. George's Hall in Liverpool.

The Annual Revisions record that Nos. 1–10 Deramore Terrace — also known as Richardson's Terrace — was constructed in 1892 and leased to tenants by the Richardson estate. A First Survey record from 1969 suggests the terrace was built specifically for elderly residents of the village, though the Census of Ireland shows that at the turn of the 20th century most of its early tenants were under 50 years of age or remained employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The terrace is contemporary with other workers' terraces in Bessbrook such as Maytown Terrace, but unlike most of the village's housing it was laid out in the countryside approximately half a mile to the southeast of Richardson's mill, on a plot near Woodhouse, Derry House, and the Friends Meeting House.

No. 1 was initially valued at £4 and its first recorded tenant was a Mr. William Hodge, to whom Richardson leased the property. Ownership of the entire terrace passed from the Richardson estate to the Trustees of the neighbouring Friends Meeting House in 1900, with William Davies — a local magistrate and Richardson's land agent — acting as secretary. Following this change of ownership the terrace was renamed "Richardson's Terrace" in 1901. By 1901 William Hodge had vacated the dwelling; the Census of Ireland for that year records William Irvine (aged 37), a local farm servant, as occupant. The accompanying census building return described No. 1 as a second-class dwelling comprising five rooms, with a shed as its sole outbuilding to the rear. The house was first depicted on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906 in its current layout, though at that time it had no rear return.

During the 20th century the Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to expand and gained international recognition; during the Second World War its workers supplied cloth for military uniforms. The company retained ownership of its housing in Bessbrook until the 1960s, when most dwellings began to be sold to private individuals and firms, a process made necessary by the post-war decline in the local textile market that foreshadowed the mill's closure in 1972. Under 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. 1 was increased to £8 and 5 shillings at that time, and the occupant was recorded as a Mr. Thomas Thompson.

Deramore Terrace was listed in 1985. Around 1991 No. 1 underwent extensive alterations, including changes to its interior and the construction of the current two-storey rear return.