Old School, College Square West, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

The Old School, College Square West, Bessbrook

This is a single-storey, five-bay former national school building finished in painted lined render, originally constructed in 1853 (though a plaque at the site suggests a school may have stood here as early as 1849) and significantly enlarged in 1875. The building was further extended with the addition of a single-storey wing to the northwest and converted for use as a day resource centre around 1984, with a further renovation around 1993 that included alterations to the interior and the demolition of original outbuildings. It is now known as the Millview Resource Centre. The building is listed in its own right, and the extent of listing covers the former school together with its gate pillars, steps, and boundary walling.

Architectural Character and Plan

The building follows an L-plan form, facing northeast onto College Square. It has a flush flat-roofed extension to the rear and the single-storey northwest extension added around 1984, which projects into an enclosed yard. The general walling is painted lined render with stucco raised quoins and label mouldings to the window openings. Window openings are typically square-headed with double-hung 3-over-3 sliding timber sash windows with horns to the front and side elevations; casement windows with top-opening hopper lights are used to the rear. All windows have stone sills unless otherwise noted. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. The eaves project and are finished with decorative painted timber bargeboards and fascia. Rainwater goods are metal, comprising half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

Brett, writing in Buildings of County Armagh, noted that the building owes its present appearance largely to the 1875 enlargement and observed that it possesses a surprisingly Regency flavour for such a late construction date. The 1875 enlargement also raised the school's rateable value from £22 to £28. The building was originally depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1861 as an irregular shape; by the 1906 Ordnance Survey Town Plan it was shown in an H-shaped layout. A single-storey rear extension connecting the north and south wings was added to the building at some point between 1909 and 1936. Brett records that the original lattice windows were replaced in the 1920s.

Principal (Northeast) Elevation

The front elevation faces northeast onto College Square and is symmetrical. The central section is a recessed three-bay entrance block approached by a flight of four granite steps. It has a panelled painted timber double-leaf door flanked by sash windows, and opens onto a covered porch formed by oversailing eaves supported on two cast iron pillars set on octagonal stone plinths with a painted finish. A pair of engaged cast iron columns on a granite plinth support a cast iron bracket with trefoil detail at each end of the open porch. The central entrance block is flanked on each side by a single-bay gabled block with decorative timber bargeboards and blind lancets above the ground-floor windows — these gabled blocks accommodated the boys' and girls' schoolrooms respectively. Each gabled block has an entrance door in its side wall opening onto the front porch; these are six-panel painted timber doors.

Southeast (Side) Elevation

The southeast elevation faces into the garden of No. 6 Fountain Street (the adjacent former schoolteacher's dwelling) and presents a five-bay facade with label moulds to the windows and decorative timber scrollwork fascia to the projecting eaves. The first window from the southwest has small rectangular panes and a hopper light to the top.

Southwest (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation faces southwest directly onto the rear access route to College Square West, adjacent to Thomas Street. It consists of a three-bay pitched-roof block flanked by projecting gabled blocks to the northwest and southeast. The central block has an attached flat-roofed infill block extending to the southwest boundary, creating a flush facade. Window openings have modern galvanised metal grills and painted stone sills. The soffit and fascia are generally plain painted timber. The flat roof of the central block is finished in asphalt and has a hipped skylight at its centre; the pitched roof above has two gabled attic dormers. The central block has two windows, both with multiple panes and hopper lights to the top, and a painted flush timber door to the southeast of the windows.

The southeast gabled block has a window at ground-floor level and a diminutive triangular-arched window with lattice glazing at attic level. The northwest gabled block has a window with multiple panes and a hopper light at ground-floor level, a similar but taller window at first-floor level, and a diminutive double-hung sliding timber sash window to the southeast of the ground-floor window. The northwest gabled block has a flush three-bay extension to the northwest, with multiple panes and hopper lights to the windows. Stone yard boundary walling extends to the northwest site boundary. A lower pitched-roof boiler house sits at the northwest end of the three-bay extension on the yard side of the boundary wall. A square-headed opening to the northwest of the boundary wall is fitted with a modern galvanised metal gate.

Northwest Elevation

The northwest elevation faces into a paved yard enclosed by random-coursed, rock-faced local stone walling with random stone coping. The elevation consists of a four-bay block with a three-bay block to the southwest extending to the northwest and attached at a right angle. The two windows to the northeast of the four-bay block are paired casements with lattice glazing to the top half and plain glazing to the bottom half, with a vertical glazing bar. A painted timber door to the southwest has glazed top and bottom halves. The three-bay block at the southwest of this elevation has a painted timber door to the southeast with glazed top and bottom halves, sidelights, and a square-headed fanlight. A pitched-roof boiler house attached to the northwest side of the three-bay block has a painted sheeted timber door with louvres to the top half. The soffit and fascia throughout are generally plain painted timber.

Enclosed Front Yard and Setting

The building is set back from the public road. A paved yard sits to the front of the school building and a garden with mature shrubs lies to the southeast of the paved yard; both are enclosed by hooped galvanised metal railings. The garden adjoins those of the former schoolteacher's dwellings to the southeast and contains a Victorian-style lamp standard with a single brass lantern. A foot gate of similar character, hung on square-section rendered pillars with pyramidal caps and ball finials, sits at the centre of this elevation, opening into the paved yard and leading directly to the steps of the recessed central bay. A set of vehicular gates is located at the northwest end of the front yard.

Historical and Social Context

Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased one of the derelict mills on the site and began building housing for his factory workers nearby. The site had earlier industrial origins dating to 1761, when the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened by John Pollock; the name Bessbrook is said to derive from Pollock's wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). By the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey map of the 1830s, few buildings had been erected here; the only significant structures depicted were Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

Richardson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, established Bessbrook as a model village influenced by the planning principles of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for the layout of Philadelphia in the late 17th century. His intention was to provide good living and working conditions for his employees, extending his workforce to include the poor and unemployed from the surrounding countryside. The village became well known as a settlement without the "Three P's" — no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for police — a condition that the majority of the population voted to preserve in the 1870s, and which held until police were eventually stationed at Bessbrook at the turn of the 20th century. In place of a public house, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute (the Town Hall on the opposite side of College Square), well-stocked shops at Charlemont Square East, and had milk, tea, and cocoa distributed to his mill workers.

In 1863 Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company following the purchase of his brother's shares. The local linen industry experienced a boom during the American Civil War (1861–65) as access to American cotton was cut off, and Richardson expanded his factory and workforce significantly. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making Richardson the principal landowner and employer in the village. Between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215 and the number of houses from 73 to 296, with Charlemont Square laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate this growth.

Brett records that the original schoolhouse of 1853 predated most of the surviving houses in the village and was described as "a neat cottage construction, well ventilated, with a sufficiency of light … with eight desks each eight feet long … in 1853 19 boys and 33 girls attended." The school was administered under the National School System, as recorded in Griffith's Valuation of 1862, at which time it was valued at £22. The adjoining houses at Nos 5–6 Fountain Street were erected around 1862 as residences for the local schoolmasters. Following the rapid growth in Bessbrook's population, the schoolhouse was enlarged in 1875, at which point Brett records that the building was divided into two wings, one for boys and one for girls. Following the Partition of Ireland, the school was administered by the County Armagh Education Authority and became known as the Bessbrook Public Elementary School. Its rateable value rose to £85 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) and to £100 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). The school continued in use until the 1970s, when Brett records it was badly damaged by a bomb attack.

The building was listed in 1981. The Bessbrook Conservation Area was designated in 1983 in recognition of the village's historical significance as a planned mill village. The Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook influenced the design of the famous English model villages at Saltaire (1852), Port Sunlight (1888), and Bourneville — developed by the Cadbury family from 1895 — which have directly influenced town and country planning across the world.

Group Value and Setting

The former school sits within the Bessbrook Conservation Area at the southeast end of College Square West, part of a formally designed late-Victorian square comprising 53 dwellings in total arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the southeast. The building has significant group value with the other historic buildings on College Square, particularly the adjacent former schoolteacher's dwellings to the southeast, built in a similar style. The Institute building, or Town Hall, is located on the opposite side of College Square.