Mill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

1. Flour mill

A ruinous five and a half storey shell of a former flour mill cut into N-facing left bank of Clanrye River. Formerly with a pitched natural slate roof, now gone. Walls of random granite rubble, partly rendered and now heavily overgrown with ivy. All windows and doors are now without frames.

N elevation faces to river. Two windows to each floor, all in line. Shallow segmental arch, now infilled, at base of wall near centre may possibly once have been tailrace from internal waterwheel. E gable has a door at G/F centre and to F/F. Window to third floor and to attic. S elevation has four windows to S/F. Its left end is abutted by a kiln (see below). W gable is abutted by a small one-storey lean-to entrance porch, also roofless.

Formerly powered by a waterwheel, the headrace of which is still evident at SE.

2. Kiln

Standing to same eaves height as mill (but only four floors internally) and of similar construction. However, wall breaks suggest that it is a later addition. It projects beyond the W gable of the main block. Openings to top two floors, all with segmental brick heads. The top floor is abutted to S by a monopitched random rubble building fronting the lane access to the complex.

3. House

Just beyond the W gable of the kiln is a derelict single-storey/ two-bay dwelling (probably once the miller’s house). Pitched natural slate roof with chimney on W gable. Random rubble walls. Principal elevation faces N. Entrance on left of right bay. Single windows to each bay on front and rear walls. Gables blank.

Historical information

Shown on the 1834 OS 6” map as a flour mill. It was probably built in the first decade of the 19th C. First valuation notes it belonging to Samuel Parsons, who also owned two nearby mills (cf. HB 16/10/019). It is described as a corn and flour mill measuring 50ft x 26ft x 42 ft, with a 26ft x 9ft x 7ft return and kiln measuring 27ft x 27ft x 42ft; miller’s house also noted (27ft x 15ft x 6ft6in). According to the 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoir, it was driven by a 16ft dia x 6ft wide breast-shot waterwheel. The fact that the kiln seems to be a later addition probably reflects its diversification from wheat milling (for flour) into oatmeal milling (and the need to thoroughly dry the grain).

Noted in the Second valuation (c.1861) as belonging to Isaac Parsons and containing three pairs of stones (one grinder and two shellers), for oats and maize (Indian corn). By 1871, only one set of stones was still in use, most of the building being defunct and in bad repair. Samuel Cooper acquired the premises around 1874 and shortly afterwards the mill had resumed full operation. It was gutted by fire around 1885 and is shown as a ruin on the 1902-03 OS map.

Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS map, 1st edition (1834), Co Down sheet 47.
2. PRONI First valuation book (c.1835), VAL 1B/ 389, p.248.
3. Ordnance Survey Memoir (1836), Newry parish.
4. PRONI Second valuation (c.1861), VAL 2B/3/69A, p.62.
5. PRONI Valuation revisions VAL 12B/22/7A-F.
6. PRONI OS map, 3rd edition (1902-03), Co Down sheet 47.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a landmark on the Newry - Hilltown Road, but all the buildings are now derelict, with no internal features and no machinery.