IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
O'Donoghue Park, NEWRY, BT35 7AA

Bessbrook was designed as a model village established around linen mills owned by a Quaker entrepreneur John Grubb Richardson.

Bessbrook War Memorial is located in Charlemont Square in the middle of the village. The memorial, on which are the names of 86 men of the village who made the supreme sacrifice, takes the form of an obelisk. It is over 17 feet (5.75m) tall and is made from white marble and Newry granite and occupies a central site in the village. The massive base, check and chamber, with patent axed finish supports a richly molded base and deeply paneled die with the top of octagonal and four sides enhanced with graceful swags of carving. Supporting the die is a beautifully draped spire with central shield bearing in relief the dates 1914-18. 410 men from Bessbrook and district joining up. Many of these young men in the pride of their youth left that happy and peaceful country village and everything that was near and dear to them to answer the call of their King and Country in the time of danger, and of that 410 men, 86 never returned.

The Memorial bears the names of almost ninety men who lost their lives in World War I and fifteen men and women who were lost in WWII. The top name on the 1939-45 panel is that of Sister Beatrice Olivia Dowling 266662, of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service who was drowned when the SS Khedive Ismail was sunk by a Japanese submarine off the Maldives on 12 February 1944, age 24 and who has no known grave. She was the daughter of Sam and Sadie Dowling, of Belfast. http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/ships/Khedive_Ismail_SS/html/nurses_database_15.htm http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/ships/Khedive_Ismail_SS/html/history.htm One of those named on the 1914-18 Roll of Honour is Pt. Edmund Gray RIF, a stretcher bearer, killed in the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917 and who has no known grave. http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/familys-pride-for-ulster-war-hero-with-no-grave-edmund-gray-died-in-no-mans-land-rescuing-wounded-30330479.html

Bessbrook is named from Elizabeth or Bess Nicholson, wife of Joseph Nicholson whose family had carried on a linen business in the district from 1806 until 1845. The 'brook' is a stream which runs through the outskirts of the village. Bessbrook was founded by John Grubb Richardson in 1845 as a 'model village', with spacious streets and squares surrounding a large linen mill owned by the Quaker Richardson family. As a social experiment it is similar to the model of the better-known Bournville company town founded by the Cadbury family near Birmingham, England, however it predates this development by more than 30 years. It is likely that the precedent on which it was based was the industrial village at Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland, founded in 1825 by the Quaker Malcolmson family. Among the principles on which the village was based was a philosophy of "Three P's": there should be no public houses, no pawn shops, and consequently no need for police. It was John Grubb Richardson's belief that without a public house there would be no need for a pawn brokers or police station. To this day there are no public houses in the village, unlike almost every other village in Ireland. Nor are there any pawn shops, although nowadays there is a Police Service of Northern Ireland station.

Taken across College Square

The school dates from the 1840s

College Square, was named after the primary school - built in 1849 - which was, for its time, an upmarket school. The boys and girls were taught separately and the teachers resided on either side of the school premises.