7 Maytown Terrace, Fountain St, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

7 Maytown Terrace, Fountain Street, Bessbrook

A two-storey, two-bay late-Victorian mill workers terraced dwelling built in approximately 1930 to designs by an unknown architect. The building is constructed in L-plan form facing northwest, with a two-storey rear return.

The building is part of a terrace of seven similar houses set back from Main Street, Bessbrook, by a wide tarmac public footpath. The walls are built of random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and stone cills. The door and window openings are square-headed with gauged-brick surrounds. The ground-floor window and door heads to the front are slightly deeper than the others along the terrace. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with angled black clay ridge tiles. Two rectangular-section red brick chimneys with terracotta clay pots rise to the northeast; the southwest chimney has no visible pots. The eaves are flush with separate red and buff brick eaves courses and an alternating red and buff brick corbel course above. Rainwater goods are generally uPVC with half-round guttering discharging to circular section downpipes.

The principal northwest-facing elevation is flush with the rest of the terrace and is nearly symmetrical with regular fenestration. Two first-floor windows sit above corresponding ground-floor openings. All windows are top-opening timber casements with horns, reduced-height top panes and vertical glazing bars. The panelled painted timber door has two glazed sections to its upper half and opens onto the public footpath, with brass furniture and a square-headed fanlight above.

The northeast elevation is attached to No. 6 Maytown Terrace. The southeast-facing rear elevation has limited visibility but shows a top-opening timber casement window at first-floor level overlooking a single-storey monopitched extension. The rear yard has a corrugated Perspex roof and a painted sheeted timber door in the boundary wall. The two-storey pitched-roof rear return projects from the southwest end, with a paired timber casement window with slim concrete cill at ground-floor level. The rear elevation, rear return and boundary walling have a smooth cement render finish with top-opening timber casement windows with vertical glazing bars.

The southwest elevation forms the end of Maytown Terrace and has a rough-cast cement render finish with smooth render quoins. The two-storey front block has a rectangular-section red brick chimney to the roof apex and two top-opening timber casement windows with stone cills at first-floor level. The rear return has a similar window at first-floor level, with no openings to ground-floor level. Painted timber fascia boards finish the natural slate roof to the rear return.

Rear facades throughout the terrace are generally much altered, with most dwellings having lost their original stone rear yard boundary walls. Rear boundaries are now defined by a local access route and an area of rough grazing to the southeast.