Ulster Architectural Heritage shocked and appalled by Bessbrook Mill planning approval
Comments come in wake approval for speculative property development at the Mill
Ulster Architectural Heritage have stated they are shocked and appalled at the recommendation by Newry Mourne and Down council officers to approve an application for speculative property development on the Bessbrook mill site.
The planning submission background papers explain in detail the significance of the Mill and Village in its importance locally, nationally and internationally.
The worldwide reputation for the quality of its linen and its technical and manufacturing innovation and expertise. And, not least, its founder’s Quaker principles which prioritised workers’ health and welfare many decades before state systems were introduced.
Bessbrook’s John Grubb Richardson’s Quaker ideals led the way for philanthropic industrialists like the Cadburys, and Titus Salt. The UNESCO New Lanark and Salt’s Mills should have been a ‘go to’ for NM&D Council as examples of how to maximise industrial heritage value for the benefit of all.
However, the Council and the Historic Environment Division of the Department of Communities have simply disregarded the enormous potential of this unique industrial and social heritage asset, in favour of implanting a characterless generic property development which would be best suited to some bland urban suburb.
This is recommended for approval on the deeply flawed premise that this is the only way that the mill’s heritage can be ‘saved’ when, in fact this destroys the potential for sustainable economic heritage led economic and social benefit to both the council area and the community.
Bessbrook has suffered too with ugly skyline development above the mill and inappropriate approvals in the village, together with a total failure by council and department to ensure the mill was maintained by owners since 2007, when the Ministry of Defence left.
Now it is time to step back and consider other options before it is too late. One obvious choice would to be to seek inclusion on the UNESCO list of potential World Heritage Sites on the basis of a Trans National (UK/Ireland) Quaker settlement bid.
The success of the Gracehill project in Co Antrim has been universally applauded and a Bessbrook plan would be of a much greater scale with its industrial heritage weight.
It is also hard to understand why a council with a Nationalist majority of councillors have failed to view Bessbrook as shared history. The pre-partition Mill and Village are as much part of important Irish history as British, and the Quaker movement is across all borders.