Bessbrook is in Northern Ireland, in the United Kingdom — coordinates 54.1959°, -6.3943°.

Natural landmarks · Northern Ireland

Bessbrook

Bessbrook in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

Plan your visit

Typical visit: 1 h–2 h

Bessbrook is a place of interest in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom — drawn from open-data sources for visitor reference. See the linked Wikipedia article for the full description.

Photo gallery

From the Wikipedia article

Bessbrook is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It lies about three miles (5 km) northwest of Newry and near the Newry bypass on the main A1 Belfast-Dublin road and Belfast-Dublin railway line. Today the village of Bessbrook straddles the three townlands of Maghernahely, Clogharevan and Maytown. Bessbrook is near Newry railway station. It had a population of 2,892 at the 2021 census. The model village of Bessbrook, County Armagh is a visible memorial to the commercial endeavours of the Richardson family over a number of generations. During the late 20th century some of the worst violence of "the Troubles" took place near the village and it became a military zone with a large garrison. The small village became the busiest (military) heliport in Europe.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

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' along with the Richardson Spinning industry, with spacious streets and squares surrounding a large linen mill owned by the Quaker Richardson family. In the 18th and 19th centuries the linen industry was a significant contributor to the wealth of Quaker families in Ulster. The founder of Bessbrook, John G. Richardson, was a Quaker and was likely aware of other quakers such as the…

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.