ROCK BAKERY

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Rock Mill is a five-storey former quayside flour mill of 1846 with a similarly-sized store added in the 1870s. It was converted to apartments in the 1980s.

The mill is five storeys high by 17 openings wide and of random rubble construction throughout. It exhibits two phases of construction with the nine ope long section at north erected first, as a mill. The southern part was erected as a store some 30 years later.
Both phases have pitched natural slate hipped roofs (probably re-slated) over advanced yellow-brick corbelled eaves. Fire-break gables project above the roof between opes 9/10 and 10/11 (as counted from N end). The earlier phase, at north, also has a slightly higher roofline and has a truncated hipped return.
The rainwater goods are ogee metal and half-round plastic gutters.
All doors and window are timber framed. The windows are one-over-one, top-opening, double-glazed casements with concrete cills.

Mill
As noted above, the northern half of the building is nine opes long. It has an original return at is north end which was truncated just beyond the W elevation of the main block when converted to apartments.
The shortened gable is finished with smooth render and stucco quoins. It has modern window openings to all floors and also a vented timber door to GF. The six opes at the right-hand end of this elevation are completely abutted by a modern accommodation block detailed as the stairwell on the E elevation.
The exposed part of this section of the W elevation is two opes wide, with a window and door to GF and two windows to each upper floor. All opes have segmental yellow brick heads and jambs, except for those to GF which have spayed split stones heads and smooth rendered reveals.
The N elevation of the mill has a single window opening to each floor, all with segmental yellow-brick heads and smooth-rendered jambs. There is also a second flat-headed window to the top floor, probably a modern insert.
The E elevation of the mill faces towards the Foyle. Its third ope from left is abutted by a modern brick stairwell embellished with yellow brick to its quoins and opes. The exposed original section has windows to all floors, left of centre. Those to GF have flat stone heads and jambs, whereas those to the upper floors have segmental yellow brick heads and jambs. The only exception is the left-hand GF opening which has a wide segmental yellow-brick doorway, probably a modern insert.

Store
The southern half of the building is eight opes long. The single-ope wide section at its north end is set back from both E and W elevations. This section is seven storeys high and rises above the eaves line. It was probably a stairwell originally, giving access to both sections of the former mill. Its E elevation has a wide segmental-headed yellow-brick doorway to GF. Each of the upper floors has a window opening with flat yellow-brick head and jamb. At FF is a single-pane window, but the opes above have all been infilled and rendered over. Its W elevation has been substantially altered and is now rendered smooth. There is a flat-headed doorway to GF, a circular brick window to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, and a segmental yellow-brick window to the top floor. Only this last ope is likely to be original.
The remaining seven bays of the store form a single entity which is largely identical on both E and W elevations. Its walls are of random rubble with yellow brick quoins. Running across both elevations is a moulded yellow-brick cill course to each floors. The actual cills are, however, of concrete, as are the corner pieces where the brick courses wrap around the quoins. Below each of the upper floors’ cill courses is a decorative platband comprising three rows of yellow brick underlined by a single course of purple engineering brick.
The one-ope wide middle section of both elevations is slightly advanced, with yellow brick quoins and pedimented gable, also trimmed with yellow brick. The GF opes to both elevations comprise wide segmental yellow-brick opes. That to E is infilled with two modern window inserts, whilst that at W gives access to a modern doorway into the building.
The south gable of the store is largely abutted by a modern five-storey stairwell detailed as the other modern additions. Its E gable extends beyond the line of the original mill. Only at its left-hand end is the original mill gable exposed. It has yellow-brick cill courses to all but the GF (continuations of those on the E and W elevations) and a pedimented gable, also trimmed in yellow brick. There are no external openings.

Materials:
Roof : Natural slate (replacement)
RWG: Cast metal / uPVC
Walling : Random rubble schist stone/ yellow brick dressings /smooth render, unpainted
Windows: Timber casment (replacement)

Setting:
Rock Mill is aligned N-S and set back parallel with the quayside with which it was formerly functionally associated. The latter is now a public amenity area and is separated from the former mill by a steel fence with semi-mature trees along it. South of the mill is a modern housing and retail development. The area between the mill and Strand Road has also been redeveloped for housing and a substantial extension has been added in the form of a return to the W elevation of the mill and connects to this new housing via a four-storey link 'bridge'; together the old and new surround a tarmaced courtyard/ car park. At the N end of the mill is a second tarmaced car park, beyond which is a cleared area of derelict ground on the site of Rock Bakery.

Historical information

The first phase of Rock Mill dates from 1846 and was erected by Samuel Gilliland, a prominent local merchant (in the 1860s he was also a Town Commissioner and a Harbour Commissioner). His enterprise is described in an 1849 newspaper article thus: “The large mill, kiln and stores of Samuel Gilliland Esq, merchant. This mill, the machinery of which is worked by steam, contains six pairs of stones and is divided into three compartments, for the grinding of oatmeal, flour and Indian corn, all of which can be in process of manufacture at the same time”.
The 1858 Valuation describes the buildings as comprising a house, offices, and steam mill, with a rateable valuation of £115. The premises are captioned ‘Rock Mill (steam)’ on the 1853 OS map and as ‘Rock Four Mill’ on the 1873 town map. The buildings lay entirely within Pennyburn Townland, the area to the south being slob land at that time
Sometime between 1873 and 1877, the southern block was added; it lies just across the townland boundary, in Edenballymore. The entry in the 1877-83 Valuation book notes that it was a store measuring 30yds x 11?yds x 5 storeys. Samuel and George Knox Gilliland are given as its owners, although Samuel is crossed out in 1882 (presumably he died). It had a rateable valuation of £95, almost as much as the mill. Its dimensions in the 1892 valuation are given as 31?yds x 11?yds x 5storeys (i.e. very similar to before, indicating no major additions).
The year 1882 is also when Gilliland & Sons ordered their first roller milling plant from Henry Simon. Roller mills were a more effective and faster way of extracting white flour from the grain than the traditional millstones in use up to that time. Gillilands’ order was just three years after roller mills first appeared in Ireland (in Carlow), and only a year after Bernard Hughes adopted it at his Divis Street mill in Belfast.
By the turn of the century, Samuel’s two sons, George Knox and Robert were in charge of operations. The rateable value of the steam mill had risen to £159, but the store remained at £95. The mill and store are shown on the 1904 OS map, being captioned as “Rock Mills (flour)”.
By this time, the area to the north of the mill had also been redeveloped by the Gillilands as a bakery (captioned on the map). This enterprise traded as the Rock Bread & Biscuit Company.
There is no discernible change in the buildings’ footprint in the 1932 OS map.
In later years, the mill was taken over by the Belfast milling firm of Green & Co. After they ceased operations, the premises were acquired by SHAC (Student Housing Association Co-Operative) in the 1980s. The mill was converted into apartments for students at Magee College (part of the University of Ulster. SHAC have since been taken over by the Belfast-based Oaklee Housing Association for social housing.

References – Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/5/13/2. Second edition OS 1:10,560 map, Co Londonderry sheet 13 (1853).
2. PRONI Published Griffith Valuation for Templemore Parish, p.175 (1858).
3. Londonderry Standard, 5 July 1849 (quoted by Hume, 2002).
4. PRONI OS/8/18/1/3. OS 1:500 town map of Londonderry, sheet XX.3.5 (1873).
5. PRONI OS/10/5/13/15/1. OS 1:2500 town map of Londonderry, sheet XIII, 16 (1873).
6. PRONI OS/10/5/20/3/1. OS 1:2500 town map of Londonderry, sheet XX.3 (1873).
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11L. Valuation revision book, p.48 (1877-83).
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11T. Valuation revision book, p.106 (1885-91).
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/11ZA. Valuation revision book, p.97 (1892-97).
10. PRONI OS/10/5/14/6/1. First edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Londonderry sheet 14-06 (1904).
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2C. Valuation revision book, p.315 (1898-1910).
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/33/2D. Valuation revision book, p.516 (1898-1910).
13. PRONI OS/10/5/14/6/1. First edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Londonderry sheet 14-06 (1904).
14. PRONI OS/10/5/14/6/2. Second edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Londonderry sheet 14-06 (1932).

References – Secondary Sources:
1. W.S. Ferguson, A.J. Rowan & J.J. Tracey, Historic Buildings in and near the City of Derry, p.48 (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1970).
2. F.W. Hamond, Green’s Mills, Strand Road, Londonderry. Report for DOE Historic Monuments & Buildings Branch (22 July 1989).
3. B. Mitchell, The Making of Derry: an Economic History, p.127 (Derry: Genealogy Centre, 1992).
4. J. Hume, Derry Beyond the Walls, 1825-1850, p.117 (Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002).
5. A Bielenberg (ed), Irish Flour Milling: a History, 600-2000 (Dublin, Lilliput Press, 2003).
6. Libraries NI & Foyle Civic Trust, Glimpses of the Past: Biggar and McDonald Collection – Selected Images, p.5 (Derry, 2010).
7. D. Calley, City of Derry – An Historical Gazetteer of the Buildings of Londonderry, p.420 (Belfast: UAHS, 2013).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Five-storey former quayside flour mill built in 1846 for Samuel Gilliland, prominent local merchant and later Town Commissioner and Harbour Commissioner. Located on east side of Strand Road, now substantially extended and remodelled inside following conversion to apartments in the 1980s. Nonetheless it remains a good example of an industrial building from the Victorian era and its proportions and multi-floor plan form are also typical of large steam-powered flour mills and grain stores of this period.
Aligned parallel to the quayside with which it formerly functioned, its setting and the juxtaposition of the 5-storey store added in 1870 are of interest given the mill’s reliance on imported grain such as maize and bread-making wheat which would have been imported in bulk from North America.
Although Rock Mill originally contained millstones, it was innovatory in being one of the first in the north of Ireland to adopt roller milling technology. Whilst there were once a number of large steam-powered grain mills in Derry, Rock Mill is now one of the few survivals. It is also of local historical interest as a reminder of this industry.