Part of complex of Road Engines Beetling Mill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This two-storey, single-bay building is aligned approximately E-W along the N side of a block known as the ‘Road Engines’ on account of the fact that it originally contained beetling engines and was beside the main road.

Pitched natural slate roof, the E end of which is slightly higher and steeper than the rest. Two felted rectangular ridge ventilators. Plastic rainwater goods. Walls are of rubble masonry with no evidence of any construction breaks.

The E gable retains vestiges of render. At GF is a shaft support bracket (now infilled) for the internal power transmission shaft along the N wall. At FF are three windows openings, all with flat roughly-dressed stone heads. One opening is now infilled and the other two have vestiges of 3x4-paned timber windows, both of which have been infilled internally with concrete blockwork. To the right of these windows the wall continues to form part of the side of a porch on the N elevation.

The N elevation is cut into the slope, but the ground set back to expose most of the GF except at the E end where there is a porch at FF level which gives access to the interior. This porch has a pitched natural slate roof, cement-rendered walls, and a double-leaf sheeted timber door on its N gable. At GF level on the rest of this elevation are three doorways and one window, all with segmental stone heads, but now all infilled. At FF level are ten openings, all infilled. All but one have slated timber louvres; they are non-functional and have been added to enhance the building’s appearance from the road.

The W gable is abutted to GF by a small single-storey lean-to. It originally contained a small coal-fired boiler to heat the FF drying loft and now houses a modern oil-fired boiler, the slender rendered flue of which rises up the gable of the main building. The exposed section of wall above contains a modern 6-over-6 sliding sash window. The lean-to has a monopitched corrugated-metal roof, no rainwater goods, rubble masonry walls, infilled openings to its W elevation, and a doorway on each gable.

The S elevation has various openings, but there are no wall breaks. At GF are two timber sheeted doors – one at left (now an emergency exit from the café), and one in the middle (the main entrance to the building). Between the doorways are two 6-over-3 sliding sash windows. To the right of the middle door are two infilled window openings, then two sash windows detailed as at left. Three of the window openings have segmental stone relieving arches over; these arches may originally have been the heads of taller windows. At FF are, from left to right: three louvred openings, a 4x8 timber window, another louvred opening, an 8-over-8 sliding sash window, and three infilled openings.

Setting

This building is part of a larger block, at the S end of which is a double-pile, two-storey rubble masonry building containing beetling engines which are owned and operated by Messrs Clark, owners of an extensive textile finishing enterprise on the opposite side of the road. A two-storey corrugated-metal link connects the two sections.

The Clady River runs to the W and S of the block and would have powered the beetling engines originally. The river still powers a modern turbine in a small purpose-built building to the S of the block. This generates hydro-electricity for the Community Development Group.

Immediately NE of the building under review is a derelict single-storey dwelling with a ruinous two-storey building behind. The latter overlooks open ground leading down to the river.

Historical information

This building is one of several in a block known as the ‘Road Engines’ and formerly belonged to William Clark & Sons, who own and still operate an extensive linen finishing works on the opposite side of the main road. The block’s name derives from the fact that it contains beetling engines for the finishing of linen and because it is location beside the main road; it was thus distinguished from beetling engines elsewhere on Messrs Clarks’ extensive premises. The particular building under review within this block has recently been acquired by Upperlands Community Development Ltd and converted into a café and exhibition space.

A bleachworks was established at Upperlands by Jackson Clark in the 1730s, to which a beetling mill was added in 1740. Over succeeding generations, the firm expanded and by the early 1830s the enterprise had expanded southwards from its nucleus on the north side of the road.

An uncaptioned building is shown at this location on the 1831-32 OS six-inch map, with a race running through it from N to S. In all likelihood it was a water-powered beetling mill. The Ordnance Survey Memoir notes two beetling engines on the premises – one was driven by a 16ft x 5ft waterwheel and the other by a 19ft x 4ft wheel. Being further downriver, this mill was probably powered by the second wheel.

The building shown on the 1831-32 map is, however, smaller and at a slightly different orientation to building shown at precisely this location on the 1853 map and which is explicitly cited as having this function on the 1853 map. The building’s 1853 footprint is also shown on the OS 25-inch map of 1905. This building is recorded in the 1904 Valuation Notebook as measuring 78ft long by 22ft wide by 20ft high. These dimensions correspond with the building under review and suggest that it was erected sometime between 1832 and 1853 on the site of a previous mill.

By 1905, additional beetling engines had been added to this block, in the form of a double-pile, two-storey building just south of the one under review. These engines were powered by a water turbine and steam engine. Unfortunately neither the valuation books nor other records relating to Messrs Clark give particulars regarding the number of beetling engines in this building. The field evidence suggests, however, that there were at least nine at one time.

There are no further changes to the building’s footprint on the OS maps except for the addition of a porch at the W end of its N elevation sometime between 1905 and 1926. When precisely it stopped working and was gutted of its machinery is unknown. One of the engines is now on display in a small heritage centre elsewhere on Clarks’ premises. The engines in the adjoining double-pile building are still commercially operated by Messrs Clark from time to time.

References – Primary Sources:
1. PRONI VAL/1B/534B. First Valuation book (1831).
2. PRONI OS/6/5/32/1. OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 32 (1831-32).
3. Ordnance Survey Memoir for Maghera Parish, 1830s (reprinted by the Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, Belfast).
4. PRONI OS/6/5/32/2. OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 32 (1853).
5. PRONI VAL/2B/5/37D. Second Valuation book (1856).
6. PRONI VAL/12A/5/72. Valuation notebook (1904).
7. PRONI OS/10/5/32/12/1. OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 32-12 (1905).
8. PRONI VAL/12B/34/27A-E. Valuation revision books (1860-1923).
9. PRONI VAL/12B/34/30A. Valuation revision books (1923-29).
10. PRONI OS/10/5/32/12/2. OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 32-12 (1926).
11. PRONI VAL/3B/6/10. Valuation revision book (1935).
12. PRONI VAL/3C/6/16. Valuation revision books (1936-57).
13. PRONI VAL/4B/5/29. Valuation revision books (1956-72),
14. PRONI OS/11/65/2/1. OS 25-inch IG map sheet 65-02 (1971).

References – Secondary Sources:
1. Gribbon, H.D., The History of Water Power in Ulster (Newtown Abbot: David & Charles, 1969).
2. McCutcheon, W.A., The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).
3. Clark, W., Linen on the Green: An Irish Mill Village, 1730-1982 (Belfast: Universities Press, 1983).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A single-bay, two-storey former beetling mill of mid-19th century date, all machinery has been removed and, at the time of writing, it has been converted to a café and exhibition space. This building is not of special architectural or historic interest. There is now little indication of its former use as a beetling mill and no visible indication that it was originally water powered.