8 Charlemont Square North, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

8 Charlemont Square North is a two-and-a-half-storey, two-bay mid-Victorian end-of-terrace house, built between approximately 1862 and 1866 by an unknown architect. The listing covers the house itself together with its gate, railings and yard walling.

The building is constructed in an L-plan form, facing southeast, and is built of random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite (a high-quality local granite) with painted red brick dressings, painted stone cills, and gauged-brick cambered window openings — though these openings have since been squared off with painted smooth cement render. The roof is finished in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles, and features a three-part canted dormer window with a top-hung opening timber casement to the centre. A rectangular-section red brick chimney, now rendered, sits to the southwest and retains five original perforated buff clay pots and one terracotta pot. The eaves project and are finished with uPVC soffit and fascia boards. Rainwater goods are generally uPVC with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes, though the entrance porch retains its original cast iron rainwater goods.

The front (southeast) elevation is nearly symmetrical and flush with the main terrace. A good-sized gravelled front yard is enclosed by a red brick dwarf wall topped with plain hooped painted metal railings, with a matching foot gate hung on circular-section painted metal posts with cast metal conical caps. A concrete path leads from the gate to a panelled painted timber door set on the southwest side of a single-storey gabled projecting side entry porch. The door has two glazed upper panels and brass furniture. The porch, finished in painted smooth render, adjoins the matching porch of the neighbouring No. 7 Charlemont Square North to the northeast, and is decorated with a painted timber wave-scroll bargeboard and finial, with a single top-opening timber casement window to its southeast gable. The main facade has a near-regular fenestration pattern: two windows at first-floor level aligned with a reduced-size southeast window of the entrance porch, and a wider window to the right-hand side at ground-floor level. Windows to the front are generally four-pane top-opening timber casements; those to the rear are plain top-opening timber casements.

The southwest gable elevation faces a public footpath connecting Charlemont Square to the southeast and a rear access route to the northwest. It is finished with a painted smooth render plinth course and roughcast cement render above, with a rendered mid-ridge chimney at the gable apex and narrowly projecting eaves with replacement uPVC soffit and fascia. At the northwestern end of this elevation, a two-storey rear return is set back, with a single window at first-floor level. A later single-storey extension with a mono-pitched roof adjoins it at ground-floor level and extends to the yard boundary walling at the southwest.

The rear (northwest) elevation has a single top-opening timber casement window with a painted stone cill at first-floor level, and a single-storey mono-pitched extension at ground-floor level with a painted timber glazed door and a two-part timber casement window to its right. The two-storey rear return is attached to the northeastern end of this elevation and has flush eaves, a brick corbel course, and a fibre cement tile roof. The mono-pitched extension has a felt-covered roof. The rear elevation is generally finished in painted smooth cement render with timber casement windows and painted cills. A single skylight is also visible on the main pitched fibre cement tile roof. A painted timber door set within roughcast cement rendered boundary walling gives access from the rear service route to the narrow concrete yard, though no internal access was possible during survey. To the northeast, the building is attached to No. 7 Charlemont Square North.

No. 8 forms part of the northern terrace of Charlemont Square, which is the shortest of the three terraces at just eight houses wide. These northern terrace houses are, however, the largest in the square — distinctly bigger two-and-a-half-storey paired structures, each pair sharing abutting gabled side entry porches and flanked by large rectangular-section chimneys, with painted stepped red brick quoins marking each pair of dwellings. The square as a whole comprises 66 buildings arranged on three sides around a central green, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. Each house is set back from the public road with a modest front yard enclosed by dwarf walling and hooped metal railings. The east and west terraces step in groups of two dwellings to respect the subtle topography of the site. Front facades along the east and west terraces are nearly uniform, with five larger buildings to the southeast of Charlemont Square East and one to the southeast of Charlemont Square West carrying traditional shopfronts at ground-floor level with dwellings above. Rear elevations across the square are considerably more altered, with extensions of varying shapes and sizes. Each house has a larger rear yard enclosed by random-coursed rubble stone walling, with a square-headed door opening onto a wide rear access route. The central green is now laid to lawn, enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings with some established trees at its boundary. A children's playground is located to the southeast and includes a monument to the installation of electric lighting in 1911; Bessbrook's War Memorial is also centrally located to the southeast of the playground.

The building retains its external character and some internal fittings, despite the replacement of the original windows and roof slates.

Charlemont Square was laid out by John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a prominent linen merchant from Lambeg and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), to house the large influx of workers attracted to Bessbrook during the boom years of the local linen industry. The population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215 between 1861 and 1871, and the number of houses increased from 73 to 296 in the same period. Richardson purchased a derelict mill at the site in 1845 and began constructing housing for his factory workers, effectively founding the village of Bessbrook. He later became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company in 1863, and Lord Charlemont sold him the remainder of the Camlough Estate in 1865, making Richardson both the main employer and principal landowner in the area.

The development of industry on the site dates back to 1761, when a Mr. John Pollock opened the first woollen mill and bleach green. The location was known simply as "The Green" until it was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River. By the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s, few buildings had been erected: the only significant structures shown were Mount Caulfield House (the residence of the Nicholson family) and several thread manufactories and bleach mills. The village was formally established from 1845 onwards, beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street.

Richardson modelled his approach on the work of the American Quaker William Penn, who had planned and developed the city of Philadelphia in the late 17th century. His philosophy combined commercial pragmatism with altruistic concern for his workers' welfare. He brought the poor and unqualified from the surrounding countryside to live and work at Bessbrook, hoping to improve their living standards and habits. The village became known as a place without the "Three Ps" — no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police — and Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops at Nos 1–5 Charlemont Square East, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to his mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve the prohibition on alcohol in the 1870s and, to this day, there is no public house at Bessbrook; police were not stationed there until the turn of the 20th century. Each house in the village was owned by the Bessbrook Spinning Company and had between three and five rooms. Tenants were required under the terms of their lease to keep fowl and pigs out of the family quarters and yard (though a pig-sty and fowl-run were permitted in the garden), and to send their children to school until they were old enough for mill work.

The architect of the majority of the housing at Bessbrook is unknown. Brett suggests that John Hardy, a civil engineer appointed as company architect in 1881, may have carried out some work in Bessbrook during the 1860s, but his role may have been limited to the expansion of the mill buildings. The terraces were built by masons and joiners employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The stone used is Newry Granodiorite, quarried locally on the former Charlemont Estate. This granite is of notably high quality and was used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St. George's Hall in Liverpool. Charlemont Square was not shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861, but construction had commenced by 1862. Griffith's Valuation of that year noted that Charlemont Square West — captioned "new row" — was the only completed side, though its 26 buildings remained unoccupied. The remaining buildings around the square were completed and occupied by at least 1866, according to the Annual Revisions.

No. 8 Charlemont Square North was depicted on the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Bessbrook of 1906 in its current form, including the entrance porch and rear return. The Annual Revisions record that the house was initially let by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to a Mr. Robert Adams and was valued at £8, a figure that remained unchanged until the 1930s. The occupants changed frequently over the following decades. The 1911 Census of Ireland records that the house was occupied by Edmondson McClelland, an engineer employed by the Bessbrook Spinning Company; the census building return describes the house as a second-class dwelling consisting of eight rooms. The McClelland family continued to reside there until at least the 1970s. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value of No. 8 was increased to £10. During the Second World War, workers at Bessbrook Mill were tasked with supplying cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company continued to own the housing along Charlemont Square until the 1960s, when the dwellings began to be sold to private individuals and firms; the majority were purchased by C. R. Morrow, a local car and farm machinery dealer, around 1970. The sale of the company's housing stock was driven by the post-war decline in the local textile market, which ultimately led to the closure of the mill in 1972, after which the building was occupied by the British Army. No. 8 Charlemont Square North was purchased outright by J. R. McClelland in 1968 and its value was increased to £15 and 10 shillings under the Second General Revaluation (1956–72).

The house was listed in 1981 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area, designated in 1983 in recognition of the village's historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. Bessbrook is internationally significant as one of the earliest planned mill villages, preceding the famous English model villages of Port Sunlight (begun 1888) and Bournville (developed by the Cadbury family from 1895), and contemporary with Saltaire (begun 1852), all of which have directly influenced town and country planning throughout the world. At the time of the most recent survey, No. 8 continued in use as a private dwelling.