Mill Buildings

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two former mill buildings at the western corner of the Roe bleach green in Largy. One single storey the other double. Both built of stone with red brick repairs and trims to openings. Both with corrugated metal roofs. Both align north west to south east.

The smaller building is to the north east and is closest to the River Roe 50 metres away. Its north east elevation has three circular brick lined window openings typical of many barns in the area. The south east gable has a door near the east corner beside a stone gate post built into the wall. There is a circular brick lined window to the south west and a single high level door opening near the centre line of the gable. There are no openings on the south west elevation. The north west gable is a mirror image of the south east - without a high level opening.

The second building adjacent to the former millrace from Moore’s Weir to Dogleap has had its gable apex rebuilt at some time in the past, for the gables above the eaves line are built of brick. The south east gable has a single door sized opening at first floor level with a wooden lintel supporting a blocked up brick arch above. At ground level to the east side a horizontally proportioned opening has an open brick arch. The south east side has one door sized opening at high level and part of the wall has been rebuilt in brick. On the north west gable a single door sized opening is near the north corner. The trace of a flue can be made out on the brick work. The north east elevation is the most dramatic, a large gaping hole in the wall 2½ metres wide rises from ruinous stone walls at ground level through more deliberately squared brick at first floor to the eaves. Two thirds of the upper floor has been rebuilt in brick. There is a small square opening under the eaves at the north west end.

Historical information

Buildings appear to be indicated on 1831 Ordnance Survey Map along with a third much longer building aligning north east to south west. They are undoubtedly associated with the nearby bleach green established in 1766 by Lesley Alexander of Newtown Limavady. This closed in 1831 perhaps explaining why they are not marked as mill buildings on the Ordnance Survey Map. The buildings are not indicated as mills on any Ordnance Survey Maps and are not recorded in the Industrial Archaeology record. However the large scale 1907 map clearly shows a millrace diverted to pass close by the smaller building. The third building is demolished on this map to allow another millrace. It is likely that they formed part of the ‘linen manufactury established at Largy by Richardson and Smith of Lisburn in 1832 and operated until at least the 1840s. They were probably subsequently altered for use as farm buildings.

References:

OSS 1831
Electricity from the Red River NIE p.8.
The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 25 p.82.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two buildings of little architectural value, though located in a picturesque relationship at the edge of the flat former bleach green and the wooded rise above the millrace. They are of interest because of their connection with the wider complicated history of the mills of the Roe Valley Country Park.