SPAR SUPERMARKET

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey multi-bay village shop with shop front and painted lined render walling, built prior to 1862, to designs by an unknown architect. Rectangular plan form facing NE onto Prospect Place having a monopitched block projecting NE into rear yard. The Spar shop is attached to the similarly detailed No. 1 Lakeview (HB16/22/010A) on its SE side.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled black clay ridge tiles. Projecting eaves with paired decorative moulded timber corbels. Generally metal RWGs to front and uPVC to rear; half round guttering discharging to circular section downpipes.

Typically painted lined cement render walling with raised quoins and painted stone cills.

Principal elevation
Front elevation faces NE and consists of four equally spaced windows to FF and a decorative shop front to GF. There is a set of vehicular gates set back from NW gable which lead to an enclosed rear yard; modern corrugated gates hung on square-section stone pillars with pyramidal granite caps. FF windows are double hung 6/6 sliding timber sash with horns. Two windows to NW have painted iron bars fitted. Second window from SE has louvered vent to bottom sash.

Seven bay decorative shop front to GF is symmetrical having two separate entrances, one to SE and one to NW, both flanked by glazed shop windows and with the central bay now blocked with plywood; each section divided by panelled painted timber pilasters with moulded scroll brackets to top; painted stone cills and a moulded plinth. Continuous modern Perspex sign board to shop front, above pilaster brackets, displays 'SPAR'. Modern branding posters to windows.

Entrance to SE has two painted sheeted timber doors with square-headed fanlight (now blocked); entrance to NW has two painted sheeted timber doors both with a glazed top half; five part square-headed fanlight above. Modern painted metal security shutters fitted to NW entrance and flanking windows.

Northwest elevation
Northwest elevation faces onto Church Road and consists of a two storey gabled block having projecting verge, quoins and painted lined cement render walling. Two storey monopitched block attached to SW forming cat-slide roof. Square-section pillar of rear yard entrance abuts elevation at SW of gabled block; monopitched block is located within rear yard and has flush eaves and verge.

Southwest elevation
Rear elevation faces SW into a tarmaced yard enclosed by random-coursed rock-faced stone walling to NW and modern outbuildings to SW and SE. Section of pitched roof block to SE faces into rear yard of No.1 Lakeview having original stone walling with a blocked red brick ope visible at FF level and a single storey outbuilding attached to GF belonging to 1 Lakeview. Blocked FF ope has a stone corbel inserted.

Remainder of elevation has a rough cast cement render finish and an irregular pattern of fenestration; wide square-headed ope at GF is partially blocked and has later painted timber door (covered in sheet metal). There is a reduced height window, with iron bars, to FF in-line with the partially blocked door ope. Door has a window to SE (now infilled with modern block) and a window to NW; double hung 6/6 sliding timber sash, with horns and painted metal bars fitted. Windows have stone cills and monopitched block has a rectangular section chimney in rustic red brick and with a buff clay pot, to its SE elevation.

Southeast elevation
Building is attached on its SE to No. 1 Lakeview (HB16/22/010A).

Setting
The Spar shop is located within the Bessbrook Conservation Area to the South of Church Road being fronted by a tarmaced area of parking and attached to No.1 Lakeview to the SE.

Materials:

Roof: Natural slate
RWGs: Metal and uPVC
Walling: Painted lined cement render
Windows: Timber sash

Historical information

No. 2 Church Road, a two-storey four-bay early-19th century building located off Church Road, was constructed prior to 1862. According to a plaque located at the site, No. 2 Church Road is one of a small number of buildings in Bessbrook which are believed to pre-date the industrial development of the village, which had been undertaken by the Richardson family as early as the 1840s.

The development of industry in the area dates from 1761 when the first woollen mill and bleach green were opened by a Mr. John Pollock. The site was simply known as ‘The Green’ but was renamed Bessbrook after Pollock’s wife Elizabeth (Bess) and the nearby Camlough River (Brook). The first edition Ordnance Survey map records that few buildings had been erected at Bessbrook by the 1830s. The only significant structures to be depicted upon that map were Mount Caulfield House (the residence of the Nicholson family – see HB16/22/024) and a number of thread manufactories and bleach mills. The village of Bessbrook was effectively founded in 1845 when John Grubb Richardson (1813-1891), a linen merchant from Lambeg, purchased one of the derelict mills at the site and began to build housing for his factory workers in the immediate vicinity. Richardson, in his own words, ‘had a great aversion to be responsible for a factory population in a large town, so on looking around, fixed upon a place near Newry … with water power and a thick population around, and in a country district where flax was cultivated in considerable quantities’ (Harrison, p. 50).

Bessbrook was established as a ‘model village’ in a number of phases beginning with the laying out of Fountain Street in the 1840s. The architect of the majority of the housing in Bessbrook is not known, however Richardson’s layout of the village was influenced by the work of William Penn, an American Quaker who had been responsible for the planning and development of Philadelphia in the late-17th century. Richardson was also a member of the Religious Society of Friends and, according to Harrison, possessed a ‘typical Quaker mix of pragmatic and altruistic expectation to provide jobs and good working conditions for his employees.’ By providing his workers with good standards of living Richardson hoped to ensure good relationships between employers and those they employed. He therefore established the village as a social experiment where his workers could both live and work in contentment. Harrison states that Richardson’s philanthropic spirit led him to bring the poor, the unqualified and beggars from the surrounding countryside to work and live at Bessbrook, hoping that he could encourage them to improve themselves and excise old habits. Bessbrook is often referred to as a village without the ‘Three P’s’ due to Richardson’s stipulation that there would be no ‘Public House’ or ‘Pawn Shop’ in the settlement and therefore no need for ‘Police’ to be stationed there. In exchange for keeping the village free of alcohol Richardson provided recreational and educational facilities at the Institute (HB16/22/009), a number of well-stocked shops (located at nos 1-5 Charlemont Square East) and also had milk, tea and cocoa distributed to his mill workers. The strategy was effective as the majority of the population voted to preserve the ordinance in the 1870s and, to this day, there remains no public house at Bessbrook. Police were not stationed at the village until the turn of the 20th century (Harrison; Brett, p. 243).

In 1863 Richardson became the sole owner of the Bessbrook Spinning Company following the purchase of his brother’s shares in the company. The local linen industry experienced a boom during the American Civil War (1861-65) as access to American cotton was cut off. Richardson took advantage of this opportunity by greatly enlarging his factory at Bessbrook whilst also increasing the size of his workforce. Lord Charlemont sold the remainder of the Camlough Estate to Richardson in 1865 and so by the mid-1860s Richardson was the main employer and the principal landowner at Bessbrook. Richardson had Charlemont Square laid out between 1862 and 1866 to accommodate the influx of new workers to the factory; between 1861 and 1871 the population of Bessbrook rose from 637 to 2,215 with the number of houses rising from 73 to 296 (Harrison, pp 100-101).

No. 2 Church Road is purported to predate the establishment of Richardson’s model village at Bessbrook. The building may date from the early-19th century as a building (possessing the general dimensions of the current structure) was depicted on the site on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1834-35). It is difficult to determine whether the structure recorded on this map is No. 2 Church Road as the building was not recorded in the contemporary Townland Valuations (c. 1834). The current building was first recorded with certainty on the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1861) which depicted No. 2 Church Road (and the adjoining No. 1 Lakeview) along its current layout. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1862) set the total rateable value of the building at £33 and noted that it was occupied by the Bessbrook Co-operative Co. (a Mr. Thomas Pearson was recorded as manager) with the upper floor of the building utilised as a Meeting House for the Society of Friends.

The Annual Revisions notes that the Society of Friends vacated the building by 1866 and that No. 2 Church Road continued to be occupied by the Bessbrook Co-op Co. until c. 1913. In that year the valued recorded that the building was occupied as a private dwelling by a Mr. Albert Roulston. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Bessbrook (1906) depicted No. 2 Church Road along its current layout suggesting that few major structural alterations have been made to the building since the turn of the 20th century. The value of No. 2 Church Road was increased to £45 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which noted that the building was occupied by a Mr. Wilbur Ferguson who operated a shop and stores from the premises.
Throughout the 20th century the mill at Bessbrook continued to expand gaining the Bessbrook Spinning Co. international fame. During the Second World War the mill workers were tasked with supplying cloth for army uniforms. The Bessbrook Spinning Co. continued to retain ownership of most property in Bessbrook until the 1960s when the majority of its holdings in the village began to be sold off to private individuals and firms. The sale of property at Bessbrook was necessitated by the post-war downturn in the local textile market which foreshadowed the closure of the mill in 1972 (the building was subsequently occupied by the British Army – see HB16/22/039). No. 2 Church Road continued to be occupied by the Ferguson family until the 1970s but the shop and stores were purchased outright by a Mr. George Preston in c. 1970. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the site stood at £68.

No. 2 Church Road was listed in 1981 and was included in the Bessbrook Conservation Area which was designated in 1983 in recognition of Bessbrook’s ‘historical significance as a planned mill village and its distinct form and character.’ The Conservation Area Guide notes that the carefully planned development of Bessbrook, 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 Bourneville (developed by the Cadbury family in 1895) ‘which have directly influenced town and country planning all over the world’ (Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide). Field inspection of the site, carried out as part of the Second Survey, finds that No. 2 Church Road continues to be utilised as a local shop (currently occupied by Spar Supermarkets). The building is historically significant within the village as one of the few surviving structures (along with Mount Caulfield House – HB16/22/024) that may predate the industrial development of Bessbrook (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/2/26/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1834-35)
2. PRONI OS/6/2/26/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1861)
3. PRONI OS/6/2/26/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1906)
4. PRONI OS/8/31/3 – Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1906)
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/2/26 – Townland Valuation Map (c. 1834)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/244A-B – Townland Valuations (c. 1834)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/37D – Griffith’s Valuation (1862)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/6A-6J – Annual Revisions (1866-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/5A – Annual Revisions (1924-29)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/12 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/20 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
12. George Bassett: The Book of County Armagh (1888)
13. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
14. Census of Ireland (1901: 1911)
15. First Survey Record – HB16/22/007
16. NIEA HB Record – HB16/22/007

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Bessbrook: A record of industry in a Northern Ireland village community and of a social experiment, 1845-1945’ Belfast: Nicholson & Bass Ltd., 1945.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Buildings of County Armagh’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1999.
3. Harrison, R., ‘The Richardson’s of Bessbrook: Ulster Quakers in the linen industry (1845-1921)’ Dublin: Original Writing Ltd., 2008.
4. ‘Bessbrook Conservation Area Guide’ Belfast: Department of the Environment (N. I.), 1983.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Ulster Biography - http://www. ulsterbiography.co.uk/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

T. Historic Importance
R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Two-storey multi-bay village shop with glazed shop front and painted lined render walling, built prior to 1862 to designs by an unknown architect. The building has well designed proportions, modest detailing and retains its external character and some internal character to the upper floor, despite the addditon of a modern shop at ground level. Located in the centre of Bessbrook village, attached to the similarly detailed Nos. 1-4 Lakeview (HB16/22/010A-D) and near Charlemont Square (HB16/22/001-4) the shop has significant group value. The significance of Bessbrook is well recognised; both as a model village based on Quaker ideological beliefs and also with its connection to general industry and trade surrounding Bessbrook Mill (HB16/22/39). Internationally significant as part of an early planned mill village begun in the 1840s by the prominent linen merchant John Grubb Richardson (1813-1891) from Lambeg and contemporary to the other English model villages of Port Sunlight (1888) and Bourneville (1895), which latterly went on to contribute to 'town and country planning all over the world'.The building pre-dates the industrial development of Bessbrook by Richardson; originally a village co-op the building still functions as a village shop. It was used briefly during 19th century for worship by some of the village’s religious denominations prior to the building of their respective churches and is of significant social interest.