Windmill stump

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ruined stump of a pre 1805 windmill, set in a field near the SE coast of the Ards Peninsula in Kearney Townland, near the convergence of the Ballyblack and Newcastle Roads, c.3 miles SE of Portaferry.

The stump is in random rubble and measures roughly c.6.5m x 7.5m. It has two ground level flat arch entrances and two small first floor openings. Nothing remains of the interior except a few odd timbers and various recesses in the (0.75m thick) walls indicating that this mill had at least three levels.

Historical information

This windmill is shown on James Williamson's map map of 1810. In the 1836 valuation it is recorded as being a corn mill with one pair of stones and thirty year old machinery, which suggests that the mill itself was built prior to c.1805. At this point the mill was in the possession of a Widow Hasty (or Hastings), but by 1861 had been acquired by a Hugh McMullan .

In 1977 the 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society' reported that ‘within memory’ the mill had been in use and had been worked by three sisters Mary, Sarah and Hessie McMullan (undoubtedly relatives of the aforementioned Hugh), but in a more thoroughly researched article by Fred Hammond in the 1989 edition of the same journal, it is said to have been operative only up to the period 1867-71.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.616 James Williamson’s ‘Maps of the County of Down’
2 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
3 PRONI VAL/1B/38 First valuation, Parish of Ballytrustan, 1836
4 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1991), p. 15
5 PRONI OS/6/3/32/2 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st rev., 1860, Down sheet 32
6 PRONI Second valuation, Parish of Ballytrustan, 1861 (in print)
7 PRONI OS/6/3/32/3 Ordnance Survey maps, 2nd ed., 1899-1900, Down sheet 32

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green, 'The Industrial Archaeology of County Down' (Belfas HMSO, 1963), p.57
2 Dr. F. Duff, "Windmills around Portaferry and District" in 'Journal of Upper Ards Historical Society, No.1' (1977), p. 14
3 Fred Hammond, "Flax mills of the Upper Ards 1800-1900: Part 1" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No.13'
(1989), pp.25-28

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ruined stump of a pre 1805 windmill.