Bessbrook

Described in the 19th century: “Bessbrook is a manufacturing village in the County Armagh, about two miles from the town of Newry. Nearly three thousand hands find employment in spinning, weaving, field labour, and in adjunct departments of trade. The factory— a very handsome structure—is built of punched granite. The village is composed of two streets and and an extensive square. The area in front of the houses in the square is neatly empaled with wood, aud is intended for a shrubbery and pleasure-ground. Mountcaulfield and a long street of houses in Derramore group under the generic name ; strangers know it as a whole by the name of Bessbrook. The factory and village’were Built by John Grubb Richardson, Esq., now sole proprietor of Ihe place. It may be fairly called a Quaker colony. Mr. Richardson has Imilt for their acco:nmodation a very commodious meeting-house, capable of holding six hundred. The entire place, for tidiness and good order, is not surpassed in the kingdom, as visitors frequently observe. The wave of prosperity which goes out from this place has swept comfort into the dwellings, once so squallid. along the mountain brow and in the various nooks, where poverty had her haunts. “