Saw Mill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A conglomerate single-storey building of gabled blocks built of stone, with some rendered walling, and yellow brick dressings of 19th century appearance to openings on the south front. Slated roof. Lean-to additions in timber boarding to north side. Originally a flax mill, later a saw mill and now semi-derelict in condition, apparently not in use, and architecturally undistinguished.

Setting: the building is situated in a very rural area, and stands on a low lying site next to a bend in the road a short distance downstream from a derelict corn mill.

Historical information

Built c 1820s, according to OS Memoirs in 1835, when it was described as “thatched and of stone and lime, in very bad repair, single geared, 3 scutches and 3 wooden rollers. The machinery is propelled by a wooden breast wheel 13 feet in diameter by 2 feet buckets ... The house measures 24 by 18 feet outside.” Appears on OS map of 1832, marked as ‘Flax Mill’; appears in enlarged form by OS Map of 1930, still marked as ‘Flax Mill’.

References - Primary Sources

1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 40.
2. OS Map 1930, Co Antrim 40.
3. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 10: Parishes of County Antrim III (Belfast, 1991), pp 110 and 112.

Secondary Sources

1. IHR 6961

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a building of limited historical interest which is both architecturally undistinguished and now in a state of partial dereliction.