Mill House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Very long, plain, rectangular two storey gabled house of probable eighteenth century origin, but lengthened in later years and extended at the rear. The property is set on the north east side of the Portaferry Road, roughly half a mile south east of Greyabbey.

The front facade is finished in lined render and now partly covered in creeping plants. The rear is finished in roughcast. The roofs of the main house and the return are pitched with Bangor blue slates. There are four brick chimneys to the NW side of the roof of the main house and one to the gable of the return. Mixture of cast iron and PVC rw goods.

The front SW elevation is asymmetrical. To the left of centre is a flat roofed porch with timber panelled front door to its NW face and a fixed light window with Georgian panes to the SW.

To the left of the porch on the ground floor are three sash windows, with Georgian, panes with two to the immediate right of the porch and a further similar window much further to the right. To the first floor are ten windows similar to the ground floor only smaller. There is a distinct space between the sixth and seventh first floor windows, a gap which is also repeated on the ground floor. Also, from the seventh window onwards on the first floor the level of the window openings is marginally higher than those further to the left (NW). All of this suggests that the section to the left (with the first six first floor windows) is the original dwelling house and that the section to the right (SE) was a store. This suggestion is also supported by the chimney arrangement, with the four chimney stacks all to the NW and none to the SE.

Attached to the NW gable is a small single storey store with a corrugated asbestos roof, which is intersected by a high rubble wall, with a further row of stores attached on the other side of the wall.

The SE gable has a canted oriel window to the first floor with window frames much as before.

The rear has a slightly complex arrangement. To the far left (SE) is a flight of stone steps which ascend to a timber and glazed door at first floor level. This door gives access to the SE section of the house which, as stated above, was probably once a store but is now largely taken up with a self contained flat. Near the base of the stone steps is a fixed light six pane window.

To the right of the steps is a large sliding timber sheeted double door with a timber and glazed rear door and small sash window to the right of this. Directly above these to the first floor are two sash windows (as front)with two smaller windows, with six panes in that to the left and four in that to the right.

To the right of all of this is a full height gabled return which has a single storey lean to kitchen extension attached to its SE facade, which itself has a large modern window and plain timber sheeted door to its SE face. To the upper level of the return are two gabled half dormers each with a sash window, shaped barges and finial. The gable of the return is blank. The NW facade of the return has a tripartite sash window, with Georgian panes, to the first floor. To the right of this (where the return intersects with the main house) is a small lean to with a small window opening. Above the lean to (to the first floor of the main house) is a sash window, much as front but much narrower. To the far right on the first floor of the main house are two small sash windows.

Historical information

The water mill, from which this house takes its name, originally stood a short distance to the SE, and was powered by a mill race which flowed directly passed the rear of the house itself. The dwelling is shown (much as today) on the OS map of 1834 along with the mill, which is also noted in the OS Memoirs.

The near by Ballybryan windmill, which was built as an auxiliary to the water mill, is shown on Taylor and Skinner’s map of 1777, indicating that the water mill, and presumably the house, were present in the 1770s also. The current owner of the Mill House stated that she believed it to be of seventeenth century origin, a statement which may well contain an element of truth, but, as yet, cannot be verified. Whatever the age of the building, it seems probable that the original dwelling section was that to the NW, with the portion to the SE (which may originally have been single storey) serving as a store, presumably for corn and flour.

In the later nineteenth century, presumably after the mill had been abandoned, the dwelling appears to have served as a local police barracks, with a cell at the rear.

References- Primary sources
1 'Taylor’s & Skinner’s Maps of the Roads of Ireland' (Dublin, 1777), map 10
2 PRONI OS/6/3/12/1 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1834, Co. Down 12
3 PRONI VAL/1B/33 1st valuation, Greyabbey, c.1834-38
4 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.67-72 [c.1834]
5 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
6 PRONI OS/6/3/12/2 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Revision, c.1860 Co. Down 12
7 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green 'The Industrial Archaeology of County Down' (HMSO, 1963), p.54

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Long two storey house of probable 18th century origin, but lengthened over the years, and extended at the rear. The section to the SE (which originally served as a store and may have been single storey) is now a self-contained flat, whilst the house itself may have had its layout altered at various times.