6 Maytown Terrace, Fountain St;, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

6 Maytown Terrace, Fountain Street, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a modest two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers' terraced dwelling, built around 1896 by the Bessbrook Spinning Company to designs by an unknown architect. It forms part of a terrace of seven similar houses (nos. 1–7 Maytown Terrace) fronting onto Main Street, Bessbrook, set back from the road by a wide tarmac public footpath. The house has an L-plan form facing northwest, with a two-storey rear return added around 1988.

Architectural Description

The walls are built in generally random-coursed, rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite — the distinctive granite-like stone quarried in the area — with stepped red brick dressings to the door and window jambs, painted stone cills, and square-headed gauged-brick door and window openings. The overall proportions are good, and the quality of external brickwork detailing is notably high.

The roof is finished in fibre cement tiles with angled black clay ridge tiles. There are two chimney stacks: the northeast stack, rebuilt around 1988 in rustic brick, carries two terracotta clay pots; the southwest stack carries three terracotta clay pots. 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 are used to the front elevation; uPVC to the rear, with half-round guttering discharging to circular section downpipes.

Principal (Northwest) Elevation

The front elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and is near-symmetrical in its fenestration. At both ground floor and first floor levels, double-hung 2-over-2 sliding timber sash windows with horns and reduced-height top sashes are fitted. The front door is a multiple-panel painted timber door with a small glazed section at the top, opening directly onto the public footpath, with painted metal furniture and a square-headed fanlight above. A window sits to the northeast side of the door.

Northeast Elevation

The building is attached to No. 5 Maytown Terrace on the northeast side.

Southeast (Rear) Elevation

Access to the rear is limited. Where visible, the rear elevation features a reduced bay to the northeast, with a top-opening timber casement window at first floor level overlooking the enclosed rear yard. A two-storey pitched-roof rear return projects from the southwest end of the rear elevation to the rear site boundary, with timber casement windows at both first floor and ground floor levels. The yard boundary walling is cement rendered, with a painted sheeted timber door leading to a rear access route. A monopitched corrugated Perspex roof covers the yard, and a modern oil tank is raised above this covering. The rear elevation and rear return are finished in smooth cement render with slim concrete cills.

Southwest Elevation

The building is attached to No. 7 Maytown Terrace on the southwest side.

Setting

Maytown Terrace sits in a prominent position along Main Street. 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 southeast.

Historical Context

Bessbrook was established as a model village beginning in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg and a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), purchased a derelict mill at the site and began constructing housing for his factory workers. Richardson was influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for planning Philadelphia in the late 17th century. His intention was to create a social experiment in which workers could live and work contentedly, with good standards of living ensuring good relations between employer and employed. He brought poor, unqualified and destitute people from the surrounding countryside, hoping to help them improve their circumstances.

The site had earlier origins: in 1761 a Mr. John Pollock had opened the first woollen mill and bleach green there, on land simply known as "The Green." It was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock's wife Elizabeth (known as Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). By the 1830s, the First Edition Ordnance Survey map records very little built development — only Mount Caulfield House and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills.

Richardson laid out Fountain Street in the 1840s as the first phase of the model village. Bessbrook became widely known as a village without the "Three Ps": by Richardson's stipulation there was no public house, no pawn shop, and therefore no need for a police station. In place of alcohol, Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute, well-stocked shops at Charlemont Square East, and distributions of milk, tea and cocoa to mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve this arrangement in the 1870s, and to this day there remains no public house in Bessbrook. Police were not stationed in the village until the turn of the 20th century.

In 1863, following purchase of his brother's shares, Richardson became sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company. The local linen industry boomed during the American Civil War (1861–65) as access to American cotton was cut off. Richardson greatly expanded the factory and workforce, and Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865, making him both the principal employer and landowner in Bessbrook. Charlemont Square was laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate incoming workers; between 1861 and 1871 the population grew 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.

Nos. 1–6 Maytown Terrace were built by the Bessbrook Spinning Company around 1896 (No. 7 was added to the terrace in the early 20th century). In 1896 the rateable value of No. 6 was set at £3, and the Bessbrook Spinning Company initially leased the property to a Mr. Joseph Moffett. The 1911 Census of Ireland records the occupant as William Clarke, a labourer at Richardson's linen mill; the census building return describes the house as a second-class dwelling with five rooms. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the house was occupied by Eva Watson and its rateable value had risen to £5 10 shillings.

During the Second World War, mill workers at Bessbrook were engaged in supplying cloth for military uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Company retained ownership of most housing in the village until the 1960s, when the post-war downturn in the textile market prompted the sale of properties to private individuals and firms. The mill itself closed in 1972 and was subsequently occupied by the British Army. The Watson family purchased No. 6 Maytown Terrace outright around 1968; by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), its rateable value stood at £8 5 shillings.

No. 6 Maytown Terrace was listed in 1982. Bessbrook was designated a Conservation Area in 1983 in recognition of its historical significance as a planned mill village with a distinct form and character. The Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of the village, 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 in turn directly influenced town and country planning worldwide.

An extensive renovation was carried out in 1988, which included the addition of the two-storey rear return and the reconstruction of the chimney stack. Original roof slates and the front door have also been replaced, and a large two-storey extension added to the rear — alterations that detract from the building's historic character, though it retains its external identity as part of the terrace. No. 6 has group value with the other six historic dwellings of Maytown Terrace, and is of significant local historical and social importance as part of one of Ireland's earliest and most influential model villages.