Former Mill and Wheel

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey former mill building with wheel, built c. 1800 and now converted into a house. Rectangular on plan, facing south; two-storey addition to rear. Located on the east side of Burnside Road.

Pitched natural slate roof, blue/black angles clay ridge tiles; basalt rubble chimney to west gable; half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. Walling is coursed basalt rubble. Windows have camber-arched brick heads; those to first floor are replacement square-headed tri-partite timber and aluminium casements; those to ground floor are replacement 3/3 or 6/6 sashes. Sills are leaded.

South elevation is six windows wide to first floor. All but one window (that to right of centre) has a corresponding opening to ground floor: timber French doors to each side and left of centre, sash windows to remainder.

West gable is blank.

North elevation is abutted at left by a two-storey extension of sympathetic but modern appearance. Exposed right section has three windows to first floor (as south). Ground floor has a former door opening to right, infilled with a multi-pane timber window with slate hung apron; sash window to its left.

East gable is blank. Adjacent is a large breastshot waterwheel (restored). Spokes and floatboards are of timber construction with cast-iron perimeter wheels; there is a smaller diameter grooved wheel affixed to its west face. Foundry mark is illegible.

The addition is L-shaped with pitched natural slate roof catsliding over projecting single storey section. Walling is painted brick. Windows are detailed as main block with square-headed openings. Principal entrance is located to west elevation, consisting of an elliptical-headed ten-panel Georgian door with fanlight; camber-headed window over.

Setting

The former mill is set on a secluded site surrounded by mature trees. The Rathmore Burn tributary flows directly to west, with tree-lined access lane and mill race set parallel and sluice gate at northern end. There is an ivy-covered chimney to north, surrounded by trees, and the remains of a coursed rubble stone outbuilding (roofless), to the north side of the access lane.

Historical information

A small building appears on the site on the first edition OS map, with two further buildings marked to north. The second edition map of 1857 has the southernmost building marked as ‘Bleach Mill’, and the 1925 map as ‘Beetling Mill’. The Townland Valuation records a house in the ownership of Mr Thomas Marshall: ‘House, offices & return’ valued at £5.19s.10d. In 1859, Griffiths Valuation records Robert Dill as the occupier of the ‘Beetling Mill, offices & land’, including caretaker’s house; Wm. J.C Allen is the immediate lessor, and the value of £5 is assigned to the buildings, £13.0s.0d. to the working parts. The valuer’s note reads: “6 engines work on an average about 22 hours a day for 8 months in the year”. Underneath, the valuer notes that the mill is not working at the time of valuation.

McCutcheon includes photographs of the mill (converted to a dwelling house), and the breastshot water wheel, in his 1980 publication, ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’. (pl.113-5)

Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/50/1 – 1st Edition OS map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/50/2 – 2nd Edition OS map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/50/4 – 4th Edition OS map (1925)
4. PRONI VAL/1A/1/50 – Townland Valuation Map (1837)
5. PRONI VAL/1B/129B - Townland Valuation Fieldbook (1837)
6. PRONI VAL/2A/50B - Griffiths Valuation Map (1859)
7. PRONI VAL/2B/1/52 - Griffiths Valuation Fieldbook (1859)

Secondary Sources:
1. McCutcheon, W.A; The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland; HMSO, 1980

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A former two storey mill dating from the early nineteenth century and now converted to a house. The conversion has been sympathetically carried out, and external configuration has been retained. The survival of the mill is much enhanced by the presence of the restored breast shot wheel, which remains in its original position and is a good example of its type. The group is of local interest as a remnant of the intensive early industrial activity which was concentrated in this area of Co. Antrim.