Miller’s Mill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached five-bay four-storey stone and brick former mill, built c.1840, now disused. L-shape on plan, with the five-bay elevation facing west and two-bay projection to east. Situated to the south of Berryhill Road (B49)on the west bank of the Glenmornan river with a large iron mill-wheel to the south gable and an elevated iron mill-race running to the west. A later multi-storey concrete structure is positioned to the south. The site is still in use as a store with modern sheeted steel structures mainly to the west.

Pitched corrugated asbestos catslide roof with asbestos ridge and asbestos guttering on iron drive-through brackets to a raised concrete brick eaves course. Cast-iron downpipes and hoppers.

Coursed rubblestone walling with lime mortar, a former redbrick eaves course and squared stone quoins to all corners.

Camber-headed window openings formed in flush redbrick with redbrick reveals, no sills and concrete block infilled openings.

Principal west elevation is five bays wide with the central bay having previously been widened with some concrete lintels evident.

Gabled north elevation facing the Berryhill Road is blank with traces of a former lower building, now demolished. A single former opening to first, second and attic levels, formed in redbrick, now infilled with concrete block.

East elevation is five storeys high and fronts onto the Glenmornan river with three bays to the right and two bays to a full-height projection to the left. The projection has a round-arched opening to the north cheek at basement level formed in voussoired stone, through which the mill-wheel is visible.

Roof: Pitched corrugated asbestos
Walling: Coursed random rubble
Windows: Camber-headed, brick dressings, infilled with concrete blocks
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Map evidence gives a date for the mill of c.1840. An increase in value in the 1870s may relate to additional outbuildings.

The building is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1855, captioned ‘flour mill’. The third edition of 1905 captions the building ‘Corn Mill’ and shows additional outbuildings.

Griffith’s Valuation of 1857 records David Smith as the occupier of the ‘flourmill’, which is ‘furnished with [elevations] and all the requisites of a first class mill’, and gives measurements for the building, it is valued at £60. It is noted that the mill is ‘…supplied with 4P stones, 4.10 diameter squared, of which 3P are constantly at work for 13 hours a day all year around, but the average work of the remaining pair of stones is but 6 hours a day for the same period’.

Valuation Revisions records the mill as being leased from the Marquis of Abercorn. In 1875 the ‘flourmill’ is deleted and added instead is ‘cornmill, kiln and stores’, the valuation is increased from £60 to £80. The occupier of the cornmill is entered in 1875 as James Miller, and the valuation decreases to £70 in 1888.

According to Deeson, ‘In 1802 there were 124 small grist mills in Tyrone, they were often badly constructed and poorly maintained…capable only of producing a coarse meal (called graden) and were incapable of handling the Indian corn which was first imported at the time of the famine.[however]…the corn trade in Ireland was given a definite uplift by Fosters Corn Law, passed in 1784. Bounties on the export of corn were granted… [and] during the Napoleonic wars, Britain was blockaded from the continent and was glad to take Irish meal and oats, flour and wheat, which greatly benefited development in the North of Ireland. In 1812 there were only 2 flourmills in Tyrone, at Dungannon and Strabane. (2002)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/5/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/5/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1855)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/5/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. PRONI VAL/2A/6/5 -Griffith’s Valuation Map (1858)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/43A -Griffith’s Valuation (1857)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/5A-G -Valuation Revisions (1860-1864)

Secondary Sources

1. Deeson, T. et al, “The Stones that Ground the Corn: The Story of an Irish Country Grain Mill 1850-2000.” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2002.
2. Complied by William E Hoggs.The Millers and the Mills of Ireland-a database list (1700-1900). Millbrook Printing, 2005.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This formidable industrial heritage structure, now blocked up and disused, has good proportions and detailing and forms a dramatic vertical landmark in Artigarvan. Set on the west bank of the Glenmornan river with its original mill-wheel, reputed to be one of the largest in Ireland, the stone structure provides a monumental link to the milling heritage of the town and indeed the whole of N Ireland.