The Farm Yard

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Accessed via a covered alleyway, the farmyard is located to the south of Fountain Street, within the village of Bessbrook. The layout of the yard enclosure predates the first edition OS maps of the 1830s and are some of the earliest surviving buildings in Bessbrook having been constructed before the advent of the ‘model village’.

Central building, to south of farmyard comprises of a rectilinear seven bay, two storey block with natural slate roof finish, hipped at both ends and having PVC rainwater goods throughout. Exposed random rubble stone to walls with majority of window openings defined with brick surrounds and having fine aluminium horizontal louvred screens to openings, concealing window arrangement behind. Second bay from left hand side has projecting vertically sheeted door with sliding mechanism to right and with exposed concrete block infill to external wall above. Third bay from right has projecting, solid infill, concrete staircase with vertical aluminium railings giving access to sliding door entry at upper level. Physically not possible to record side or rear elevations. No access gained to interior.

Building to west with four bays and additional, projecting bay to left with hipped natural, (replaced) slate roof. Pair of centrally position brick chimneys at ridge level. PVC goods throughout. Walls with pebble dash finish. Windows, top hung, PVC with entrance door and screen a modern painted timber replacement. Extensive ivy growth spreading from right.

Building fronting onto farmyard to east consisting of a six bay, one and a half storey, masonry painted dwelling with hipped roof, behind low parapet wall to south gable and having two centrally positioned tall brick chimneys, below which are located two dormer gabled window at first floor level. PVC fascia, including decorative fascia to dormers and rainwater goods throughout. All windows top hung PVC with transoms concealed within glazing installation. Flat roof extension to right of central bay with contemporary galvanized railings around roof perimeter.

Setting:
Symmetrically arranged to the south, east and west perimeter of the original farmyard with the north side defined by high blank wall, rear elevation of property fronting onto Fountain Street. Access to the courtyard via underpass from Fountain St. Surface of farmyard gravel/loose stone

Roofing: Natural slate,
Walling: Exposed rubble stone, roughcast render.
Windows: PVC
RWG: PVC

Historical information

The former farm yard at Bessbrook, which is first shown on a map of 1826 (although not all has survived), was likely originally constructed by Joseph Nicholson & Sons after 1802 and sold with the rest of the Bessbrook estate to John Grubb Richardson, founder of a ‘model village’ at Bessbrook, in 1845. By the late 1860s a 300 acre dairy business had been established by Richardson, with the farmyard at its centre, having associated dairy and byre buildings, stabling for the horses used for both farm and haulage purposes at the spinning works, and accommodation for a land steward (farm manager). The provision of milk to the villagers was partially motivated by Richardson’s Quaker ideals, which called for temperance among his workers and outlawed public houses. The buildings within the farmyard are some of the earliest surviving buildings in Bessbrook having been constructed before the advent of the ‘model village’.

The settlement now known as Bessbrook was initially the location of a bleach green and linen business established in 1761 by John Pollock, who had acquired the property from James, 4th Viscount Charlemont and is thought to have named the settlement ‘Bessbrook’ after his wife, Elizabeth. Joseph Nicholson & Sons subsequently leased the property from William Pollock in 1802 and during their short tenure added a spinning mill, a scutch mill, a hackling house and sundry other buildings, likely including the current farmyard. John Grubb Richardson, a prominent Quaker and head of a linen bleaching and warehousing firm, who had family connections to the Nicholsons, took over Bessbrook in 1845, leasing it, in his turn, from the Earl of Charlemont, with the intention of establishing a model village along the lines of a William Penn settlement. Richardson had been influenced by a visit to the US in 1841 and was motivated by industrial ambitions but also social concerns for the welfare of his workers. Having sold an inherited estate in Co Tyrone, in 1863 Richardson became the sole owner of the entire business, works and village of Bessbrook. Bessbrook Spinning Company subsequently became incorporated as a Limited Liability Company in 1878 and ownership of Bessbrook village and mills then passed to the firm with Richardson as its Chairman.

The farm yard is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834-5 as two parallel structures opposite each other and approximately at right angles to the street. A third smaller structure (now gone) is located alongside the street. The area to the south of the farmyard is captioned ‘Bess Brook’ and a ‘Thread Manufactory’, ‘Bleach Mill’ and ‘Mill Pond’ are also shown. After taking over Bessbrook, J G Richardson rebuilt and expanded the spinning mill, which employed 5,000 people at its height, and began to make additions and improvements to the farmyard during the 1860s. By the second edition OS map of 1861, changes to the farmyard had commenced and the yard was now enclosed on all four sides, with two smaller central stores/sheds (q, h on the plan, now gone). It appears that the dairy (b on the plan, but now rebuilt or remodelled) and the stables (k on the plan, surviving) had been added by this time.

The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation lists the site as an ‘office [outbuilding] and farmyard’, occupied by John G Richardson and leased from the Earl of Charlemont, with the farmyard and associated buildings valued at £18. Also listed in Griffith’s Valuation were two dwelling houses (current numbers 71 and 69 Fountain Street), valued at £13.10s and £10, respectively, which were leased by John G Richardson to employees of the company and their families. The farmyard also formerly featured a shop at the NW corner (now gone), opening onto Fountain Street (later occupied from 1904 until at least 1930 by Robert Moorehead, cobbler).
The occupant of the present number 71 (d,e,f,g on the plan) was, at the time of Griffith’s Valuation, Jane Dawson (William and Albert Dawson were managers of the mill in the 1850s and Jane may have been a widow of one of these men), while Peter Davis, land steward from Penketh in Lancashire was the occupier of number 69 (l on the plan).

Following his inheritance in 1863 and a boom in the linen trade due to restrictions on the supply of cotton caused by the American Civil War, Richardson began a building programme in the village and improvements to the farmyard were also made. In 1867, a ‘steward’s house’ is listed on the site and it appears that additions and improvements were made to the two houses in the farmyard at this time. The land steward appears to have lived initially in number 69 and, in later years, whoever held that role, lived in number 71. New outbuildings were also added to the farmyard, resulting in a rise in valuation to £52 – these included a two-storey byre (a on the plan, now rebuilt or remodelled) and a range of buildings along Derrymore Road, including bull and cattle sheds (r, s t u, v, w on the plan) which have not survived (demolished between 1956 and 1971). In developing the dairy farm, Richardson was likely partially motivated by a desire to provide more employment opportunities for men, as the spinning and weaving mills were largely female workplaces. However, another main motivation was likely his desire to encourage temperance, which was said to have developed after he had seen, in the early years at Bessbrook, the damage that alcohol did to his employees and his business. The settlement was policed to prevent alcohol being brought in, public houses were outlawed and sellers of alcohol encouraged to leave. Richardson provided milk from the company farm to his workers in the frequently hot rooms of the spinning mill, as well as selling the milk to villagers.

Between the 2nd edition OS map of 1861 and the large-scale town plan of 1895 both dwelling houses were extended to the rear, front and rear porches also being added to number 71. The occupier of number 71 in the late 1860s was William J Wonfor, (an employee of Bessbrook Spinning Co for thirty-five years and a prominent member of the social life of the village and in unionist political circles). Following William Wonfor, John Thorp was resident from 1884 and was succeeded by H Burt, land steward (1889) and Arthur R Alderton, land steward (1898/9), who was a graduate of a dairy school in England and had previously run a 500 acre dairy farm for the ‘London trade’.

In 1876, the farmyard was described in some detail by a visitor in the pages of the Wishaw Press and Lanarkshire Advertiser (23rd September 1876). On Fountain Street were two large buildings ‘with a large gateway between them, this is a byre on the one side of the gateway which will hold 60 cows and above the byre is a large hall; all are lighted by large windows. The other side are stables and coach-houses [this building later became a dairy]; hall above in the same way. Then inside the gateway is the land-steward’s house with garden behind and facing that are more stables, thus forming a large square.’

Alderton was followed by John Wiseman (1901). Thirty-year-old John Wiseman is listed in the 1901 census as the land steward. He was from Kildare and his wife was from Glasgow – Wiseman appears to have moved around the country, his four young daughters having been born in Wicklow, Monaghan and Tyrone. The steward’s house is recorded in the building return as 1st class, with eight windows to the front elevation and eight rooms internally. The 19 outbuildings associated with the house included four stables and four cow houses. Subsequent occupiers were John Brown (1903) and Walter Anderson (1910). At the time of the 1911 census, William Hosie from Scotland was the land steward and lived in the house with his wife. Subsequent occupiers were: Robert B Marshall (1914), William Ellie (1917), Matthew Hale (1922), Francis Spencer (1923), John Burns (1924), James Burns (1926), Ben Revels (1927) and James Nixon (1928).

The occupier of the other house (number 69), Peter Davies or Davis, was land steward from at least the mid-1860s until c1880. It appears that Davies was allowed to remain in the house after his retirement, since we know that he was resident until his death in 1900, and that subsequent land stewards, therefore, occupied the house at number 71. Peter Davies was followed by Patrick Hargrave (1903), Frederick Hargrave (1904) and Henry Doal (likely a misrendering of Herbert Dowell) (1909). Englishman Herbert Dowell, engineer at the Bessbrook Spinning Mill, lived at number 69 at the time of the 1911 census with his Monaghan housekeeper. His house was also recorded as first class, with five windows to the front elevation and 12 rooms internally. Dowell appears to have left Bessbrook following his marriage in 1913 and the house was then occupied by Thomas Gray (1913).

The Ulster Echo ran two lengthy articles about the farming operations at Bessbrook in the 1890s, when H Burt and then Arthur Alderton were land stewards. At this time, the company had a ‘home farm’ supporting 52 dairy cows at Bessbrook and a further farm of 80 acres at Craigmore for raising heifers and lambs. Milking took place in the farmyard twice a day at 6 am and 3 pm, three women and three men being employed to carry it out. The dairy had ‘all the newest and most approved appliances’ and a refrigerator for the milk and butter was put in c1898. The dairy was run by a Miss Wright, a ‘dairy expert’. In total the farms had 90 head of cows, 50 stock ewes, a dozen pigs and ten horses, four of which were employed on the farms and the other six at the mill. The cows’ pasture was supplemented with hay, cabbages and turnips/swedes, but the Ulster Echo reported that there was, nevertheless, ‘not the slightest perceptible turnipy taste’ in the Bessbrook milk or butter and that the Bessbrook dairies and other ‘smartly-managed’ concerns should provide a model for dairies around Ireland.

The 1933 General Revaluation gives a plan and dimensions for all the buildings comprising the farmyard and also details of the accommodation in the dwelling houses. The land steward’s house at number 71 was occupied by H A Bailie, land steward and then Peter Hardie Campbell. It was noted that the ‘back door opens into farmyard’. Accommodation comprised, two receptions, a kitchen , scullery and two pantries on the ground floor with three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. The steward’s house also contained a self-contained flat on the first floor, accessed through the farmyard with a hallway and one reception, a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom occupied by Annie McCutcheon.

Number 69 was occupied by Thomas Gray and consisted of two receptions, a kitchen, scullery, store and pantry with four bedrooms, a boxroom and a bathroom and W C upstairs. This house was formerly aligned with an attached stable and in the years after 1933, part of the stable became incorporated into the dwelling house.

The buildings of the farmyard have undergone several phases of remodelling since they were constructed in the early years of the 19th century, namely, following the development of the farm as part of the model village in the 1860s and again after Bessbrook Spinning Company finished operations in the 1960s, with the loss of some of the buildings in the yard (namely part of the stable, m on the plan) and the rebuilding/remodelling of the dairy (b on the plan), both of which occurred between 1971 and 1989 (large-scale maps). The byre (a on the plan) has also been remodelled into a shop, most likely also during the 1970s/80s.

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/6/2/26/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1956)
5. Newry Telegraph, 14th August 1856
6. Newry Telegraph, 2nd April 1857
7. Newry Telegraph, 29th July 1869
8. Ulster Echo, 27th November 1894
9. Ulster Echo, 15th January 1898
10. Newry Telegraph, 13th August 1898
11. Newry Reporter, 9th January 1890
12. Frontier Sentinel, 20th November 1920
13. PRONI Will Calendars, Peter Davies, died 16th November 1900
14. Census of Ireland 1901 and 1911
15. Newry Reporter, 19th August 1913
16. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/22A-F – Annual Revisions (1866-1929)
17. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/15 – First General Revaluation NI (1936-1957)
18. PRONI VAL/3/D/2/6/AA/4 – Valuer’s Binder (1933-1957)
19. Large scale Ordnance Survey maps 1895, 1896, 1906, 1956, 1971, 1989, 1992 (www.centremapslive.co.uk)

Secondary Sources:

20. Harrison, R. S. (2008) The Richardsons of Bessbrook: Ulster Quakers in the Linen Industry (1845-1921) Dublin: Original Writing
21. Bessbrook: The Model Village 1845-1995 (Anniversary Publication)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

The buildings of the farmyard have undergone several phases of remodelling since they were constructed in the early years of the 19th century, namely, following the development of the farm as part of the model village in the 1860s and again after Bessbrook Spinning Company finished operations in the 1960s, with the loss of some of the buildings in the yard and the rebuilding/remodelling of the dairy, both of which occurred between 1971 and 1989 (large-scale maps). The byre has also been remodelled into a shop, most likely also during the 1970s/80s. Thus, although parts of the historic footprint of the farmyard layout remain intact, the buildings have insufficient remaining historic fabric to meet the legislative test for listing