The Institute (Town Hall), College Square East, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

The Institute (also known as the Town Hall), Bessbrook

The Institute is a two-storey, multi-bay, asymmetrical Gothic Revival community building constructed of local stone between 1885 and 1886 to designs by architect William James Watson. It was restored in 1998 following bomb damage, to designs by T. Gilsenan. The building sits at the south-eastern end of College Square East, facing south-east, and forms an integral part of a formally planned late-Victorian square comprising 53 mill workers' dwellings arranged on three sides around a central bowling green and playground, primarily accessed from Fountain Street to the south-east. The building retains its original plan form and internal features, and is one of the most distinctive buildings within Bessbrook's Conservation Area.

Historical Background

Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813–1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased a derelict mill at the site and began constructing housing for textile workers. Richardson, a member of the Religious Society of Friends, described having "a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town" and chose Bessbrook for its water power, local flax cultivation and rural setting. The village was laid out as a model settlement, its planning influenced by the work of William Penn, the American Quaker responsible for the development of Philadelphia in the late 17th century. Richardson's philanthropic approach aimed to provide his workers — including the poor, unqualified and destitute from the surrounding countryside — with good living conditions in the hope of improving their circumstances and habits.

Bessbrook is widely known as a village without the "Three Ps": Richardson stipulated there would be no public house and no pawnshop in the settlement, and therefore no need for police. In their place he provided recreational and educational facilities at The Institute, well-stocked shops, and distributed milk, tea and cocoa to mill workers. The majority of the population voted to preserve these arrangements 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.

The Institute was one of the last major benefactions made by the Richardson family to its workers, who had requested a purpose-built building for local civic and social functions. It was erected between October 1885 and March 1886 at a cost of £2,600, fully funded by Richardson and constructed by his own workers. The architect, William James Watson, was a local architect and magistrate also responsible for churches, hotels and civic buildings in Newry, Rostrevor and Warrenpoint. The building was constructed primarily of Newry Granodiorite, the same locally quarried granite used in most buildings at Bessbrook, produced at a quarry 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.

A contemporary account by Bassett (1888) described the completed building as "a handsome granite structure [which] has a spacious assembly room and reading room and library. The working people elect their own committee of control and appear to enjoy the benefits of the institution." The building contained one of the largest halls in County Armagh, capable of seating approximately 1,000 people, along with a library, billiard room and newsroom open to all workers. The Institute became Bessbrook's principal social venue, where villagers played chess, draughts, table tennis, badminton and billiards and attended lectures. A motto in the main hall reads: "In essentials Unity, in non-essentials Liberty, in all things Charity."

The building was initially rated at a total rateable value of £65 and was owned outright by the Bessbrook Spinning Co., Richardson's firm, which also leased the majority of housing in the village. The 1906 Ordnance Survey Town Plan recorded the building in its current general layout, with a pair of ball alleys to its south-eastern side. By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the rateable value had risen to £85, and the building was noted as being partially occupied by the local Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). The Institute also served as a meeting hall for Bessbrook District Loyal Orange Lodge No. 11 from at least the 1950s, and its value was further raised to £100 by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72).

Following the closure of Richardson's mill in 1972 and its subsequent conversion into an army base, The Institute suffered a number of bomb attacks during the 1970s and fell into advanced disrepair. It was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area in 1983, designated in recognition of Bessbrook's historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character. The building was listed in 1985, when records note that general repairs and renovations were carried out in support of its listing. In 1998, a substantial restoration funded in part by Lottery money was designed by T. Gilsenan, converting the former Town Hall into a multi-purpose community centre that continues to serve the village. To the front of the building, south-west of the ball alleys, stands a polished granite obelisk-type memorial to the innocent victims murdered at Kingsmill on 5th January 1976.

Exterior

The plan is irregular, with a large rectangular hall block to the rear and a pair of ball alleys detached to the south-east. The walling is generally random-coursed, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite, squared to the front elevation, with smooth granite dressings, cills, stepped window jambs and quoins. The roof is pitched and hipped, covered in natural slate with roll-top terracotta clay ridge tiles, rolled lead hips, and triangular dormers with painted timber ogee lucarnes. The central section has a monopitched roof. Two tall rectangular-section dressed granite chimneys rise from this section, each with a moulded cornice cap, angled coping and two buff clay pots. The eaves project openly, with exposed painted sheeted timber and decorative moulded brackets. Rainwater goods are generally cast iron, with half-round guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes.

Principal (south-west-facing) Elevation

The front elevation is asymmetrical and consists of a central range five bays wide, with a projecting hipped bay to the north-west and a gabled bay to the south-east. The central bay has five windows at first floor level. At ground floor level there are three windows to the south-east side and a single-storey dressed stone porch with a balustrade parapet featuring pierced quatrefoil detailing. The porch doorway has a pointed arch with attached columns; the door itself is a panelled painted timber two-part door with a pointed arch fanlight, and a stone drip mould with block stops above. The central range has two dormers. The north-west wing is square in plan with a hipped roof and a single dormer; it has a five-part window at ground floor and a four-part window at first floor. The projecting gabled wing at the south-east end has raised verges, moulded kneelers and stone gablets at the apex of the pitched roof. There are three square-headed windows at ground floor level and a three-part window at first floor, with ocular and trefoil lights within a pointed arch above; a clock face sits above the first-floor window. Throughout the front elevation, a moulded stone string course runs between ground and first floor. Windows generally have splayed dressed granite cills and are double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns.

North-west Elevation

This elevation faces onto the rear access route for College Square East. It consists of a hipped-roof block to the south-west and a larger gabled pitched-roof hall block to the north-east, fronted by a monopitched rectangular-plan block to the north-west. The hipped-roof block has four timber sash windows at first floor with stepped red brick jambs, red brick heads and projecting granite cills; two ground-floor windows have galvanised metal grills. The monopitched block has two similar windows to its south-west elevation and painted sheet metal doors to its north-west elevation. A separate barrel-roofed building to the north is now derelict, with only one or two Belfast Roof Trusses surviving (no access was available). The monopitched block has a section of smooth cement render walling at its north-east side.

North-east (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation consists of a rectangular-section pitched-roof hall block with raised verges and two rectangular dormer skylights. The eaves are flush, with painted timber fascia and a smooth cement render band at eaves level.

South-east Elevation

Access to the south-east elevation was limited. Where visible, it consists of a gabled hall block to the north-east with a smooth cement render finish, and a pitched-roof gabled block to the south-west with stone walling and two pairs of square-headed windows at first floor level. Moulded kneelers with moulded trefoil detailing are present at the gablets at eaves and apex of the raised verges. A modern painted metal security gate restricts access to the remainder of this elevation. The pair of ball alleys to the south-east have a painted smooth cement render finish.

Setting

The Institute forms the south-eastern end of College Square East and is part of a planned arrangement of 53 mill workers' dwellings. The square is composed of East, North and West terraces arranged around a central bowling green, playground and lawned area. Each house is set back from the perimeter public road and footpath, with a modest front yard typically enclosed by dwarf walling topped by hooped metal railings. The East terrace is stepped in groups of six dwellings, respecting the subtle relief of the site; the West terrace is composed of paired dwellings in a similar style. The Institute looks onto a lawned area enclosed by dwarf smooth rendered walling topped by galvanised hooped metal railings set between square-section rendered pillars with concrete caps; the walling to the south-east of the lawned area has a concrete balustrade with ball finials to the pillars. The former school building is located directly opposite on the west side of the square.

Materials

Walling: Newry Granodiorite. Roof: natural slate. Rainwater goods: cast iron. Windows: timber sash.