3 LAKEVIEW

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-and-a-half-storey three-bay stone-built mid-Victorian semi-detached dwelling having painted lined render walling with granite dressings, projecting porch (added 1995), bay window and three half-dormers to front, built between 1861-66 to designs by an unknown architect. Rectangular plan form facing SE having a single storey back porch to rear. No. 3 is attached to the similar No.4 Lakeview (HB16/22/010D) to the SW and forms part of 'Lakeview' this being the collective name for two pairs of semi-detached dwellings, each pair with significant differences in detailing and all facing SE towards Bessbrook Lake, a former mill pond associated with Bessbrook Mill (HB16/22/039).

Pitched natural slate roof with roll top black clay ridge tiles, three attic half-dormers to front and rectangular section painted smooth cement render chimneys to gables, both with octagonal section buff clay pots; chimney to NE has six pots and chimney SW is shared with No. 4 and has nine pots. Flush eaves with dressed granite eaves course. Generally cast iron RWGs; ogee guttering discharging to circular section downpipes.

Typically painted lined cement render walling with raised granite quoins and painted stone window cills; square-headed opes with raised and stepped painted render surrounds and 2/2 sliding timber sash windows with horns.

Principal elevation
Front elevation is near symmetrical and faces SE. It consists of a two-and-a-half-storey three-bay block with three equally spaced half-dormers to roof and a GF canted bay window to SW with continuous cill course; projecting eaves to bay window has painted moulded timber corbels. A single storey hipped roof side entry porch with quoins to centre bay (added 1995) has a six panel painted timber door to NE wall of porch which opens onto paved area; 2/2 timber sash to SE wall and a 1/1 timber sash to SW wall. Similar 1/1 sash windows to each side of canted bay window. Attic level half-dormer windows are reduced height having plain painted timber bargeboards and plain painted render surrounds. FF windows have a continuous painted stone cill course.

Front elevation faces Bessbrook Lake and is fronted by a shared gravelled access road running from Prospect Place at the NE to the front elevation of No.4 at its SW end.

Southwest elevation
Building is attached on its SW to No. 4 Lakeview (HB16/22/010D).

Northwest elevation
Limited access to rear NW facing elevation but where visible consists of a symmetrical two-and-a-half-storey three-bay block with five skylights to attic level and a single storey single bay hipped roof back porch to centre projecting into enclosed rear yard.

Generally random-coursed rock-faced local Newry Granodiorite stone walling with stepped red brick dressings to jambs and square-headed gauged-brick window opes. Tall semi-circular headed window ope visible to centre of FF level, presumably to interior stairwell.

Elevation faces into an enclosed rear yard set to lawn and having access to Church Road to the NW; random-coursed rock-faced boundary walling to road with square-section stone-built pillars with red brick quoins and pyramidal granite capstones. Temporary galvanized metal fencing to gateway and a rectangular plan one-and-a-half-storey stone-built outbuilding to W corner of yard has red brick dressings.

Northeast elevation
Limited access to NE facing elevation but where visible consists of a two-and-a-half-storey gable block with chimney to apex, which faces into a shared alley leading to rear yard and towards gable of No. 2 Lakeview (HB16/22/010B). Alley is accessed from front elevation through a set of modern timber gates. Generally painted lined cement render finish and raised quoins to elevation. No visible opes.

Setting
No. 3 is attached to the similar No.4 Lakeview (HB16/22/010D) to the SW and forms part of 'Lakeview' this being the collective name for two pairs of separate semi-detached dwellings. The earlier No.1 (HB16/22/010A) and the later No. 2 (HB16/22/010B) are similar in style but are two-storey dwellings with some significant differences in detailing. Each house shares access from Prospect Place to the NE; a gravelled road leads SW from a set of painted metal vehicular gates composed of vertical irons with ball finials, hung on slim dressed granite pillars with pyramidal caps, and flanked by similar foot gates and railings with spearhead finials. Each dwelling faces SE towards their respective gardens, which are enclosed by stone walling at their SE extent and run down towards Bessbrook Lake, a former mill pond associated with Bessbrook Mill (HB16/22/039).

Materials;

Roof: Natural slate
RWGs: Cast iron
Walling: Newry Granodiorite with some painted lined cement render
Windows: Timber sash

Historical information

No. 3 Lakeview, a two-and-a-half-storey three-bay mid-Victorian dwelling, was constructed between 1861 and 1866. The building was constructed at the same time as the adjoining nos 1 and 4 Lakeview (No. 2 was not added to the row until c. 1875) and formed part of the expansion and industrial development of Bessbrook, 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).

Whereas the majority of housing constructed in the village during this period was built for Richardson’s factory workers, the four houses along Lakeview were occupied by members of Bessbrook’s professional classes as several of the recorded occupants were employed as linen merchants, doctors or as senior managers in Richardson’s mill. The architects of the row is not known with certainty. Brett suggests that John Hardy, a civil engineer who was appointed company architect in 1881, may have carried out some work in Bessbrook in the 1860s, although his role may have been limited to the expansion of the mill buildings (Brett, p. 243).

No. 3 Lakeview was constructed between 1861 and 1866 as the building was not recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1861) or contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1862). No. 3 Lakeview was first recorded in the Annual Revisions in 1866 (along with the adjoining No. 4). The valuer set the total rateable value of the house at £16 and noted that the site was initially leased to a Mr. Francis Davis by the Bessbrook Spinning Co. Davis continued to reside at the address until c. 1877 when the property passed to Samuel Lamb, a Managing Director at Richardson’s mill. Lamb vacated the house by 1898 when Thomas Haydock, a local flax buyer, occupied the site. The 1901 Census of Ireland described No. 3 Lakeview as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of nine rooms. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1906) depicted the building along its current layout and suggests that the outbuilding to rear is original. The next prominent occupant of the house was the Rev. Moses Douglas, a minister who occupied the site in c. 1908 and preached at the neighbouring Methodist Church on Church Road. Moses Douglas retired by at least 1911 and continued to reside at No. 3 Lakeview until his death in 1913 (PRONI Wills). The site’s occupants continued to change with frequency until the 1930s when Samuel Hood, factory manager at Richardson’s mill, took possession of the house. The value of No. 3 Lakeview was increased to £33 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). Following Hood’s death in 1945, the house passed to his widow Henrietta who remained at the address until c. 1960. In that year a Mr. Alexander Quinn was recorded as the occupant of No. 3 Lakeview and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the house stood at £42.

No. 3 Lakeview 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). The NIEA HB Records note that No. 3 Lakeview underwent an extensive renovation in 1995 which included the reslating of its roof in natural slate, the installation of cast iron rainwater goods, the replacement of all window frames and the construction of its entrance porch (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/2/B/2/37D – Griffith’s Valuation (1862)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/6A-6J – Annual Revisions (1866-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/5A – Annual Revisions (1924-29)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/12 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/20 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
10. George Bassett: The Book of County Armagh (1888)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
12. PRONI Wills Catalogue (26 Nov 1913)
13. Census of Ireland (1901: 1911)
14. First Survey Record – HB16/22/010
15. NIEA HB Record – HB16/22/010C

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
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
U. Historic Associations
X. Local Interest
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

Two-and-a-half-storey three-bay stone-built Victorian semi-detached dwelling with painted lined render walling, built between 1861-66 to designs by an unknown architect. Rectangular plan form facing SE towards Bessbrook Lake No. 3 has a modest projecting side-entry front porch (added 1995), three half-dormers and a bay window also to front, as well as a single storey porch to enclosed rear yard. The building has well designed proportions and detailing, retaining its external character. The houses are of significant historical and social interest as part of the early planned mill village of Bessbrook, 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'. As part of a terrace of 4 no. houses, the building forms an important group with the former shop and Quaker meeting house (HB16/22/007), in the centre of the village. No. 3 is similar in style to the attached No.4 Lakeview and is of significant interest as an example of a middling size house, typically built for Mill Managers and the professional classes in the village.