Old Manor Mill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The Old Manor Mill is a largely ‘T’ shaped two storey complex originally dating from c.1816 and now used as a general merchant’s store. The complex is situated on the W side of a relatively recently constructed roundabout.

The complex was originally rubble built with gabled roofs and a rubble walled ‘courtyard’ to the S, but is recent times portions of the structure have been altered and many new buildings added to the complex. As well as this the whole site is littered with modern equipment such as grain silos, and many sacks of grain, animal feed etc.

The main building is to the N (the mill building). In the centre of its front (S) facade is a full height gabled projection with a window opening (with steel frame) to the first floor, a ‘store’ opening below this (which appears to have been recently inserted) and a doorway at ground floor level. There is a small roundel recess to the gable apex with words ‘Old Manor Mill 1622’. There is another ‘window’ opening on the first floor to the left of the gabled projection, now boarded. This entire facade is now finished in rough cast render, but much of the ground floor level to the left is obscured by sacks, equipment etc.

Now attached to the right hand side of the front facade is a long rectangular two level store which looks as though it is of twentieth century construction and has a series of window openings with modern frames and various pedestrian and (sliding) store doors to its W facade. The roof is corrugated iron. This section is built into the original E ‘courtyard’ wall, a wall whose exterior (E) face has been patched and partly rendered as a result of the modern building. The evidence of small openings on this wall (now blocked) suggests there may have been an earlier structure on the site of the modern one.

To the rear of the main two storey building to the N is a large lean to like projection which now appears to be clad (or constructed) in corrugated iron, but is largely obscured due to sacks of grain.

To the E of the mill building (and set at a right angle) is another two storey gabled building (the former kiln house).. There is an upper level corrugated iron clad link (probably for linking machinery) stretching between the E gable of the mill building to this. Due to the preponderance of large grain silos and masses of other equipment and sacks of grain, much of this building is obscured. It appears to be mainly unrendered, though many of the original openings on the E facade are blocked and a new large opening inserted on the ground floor, whilst parts of the S gabled are patched in brick. Attached to the entire W facade of the building is a fairly recently constructed large corrugated iron store.

At the NE corner of the complex is a free standing square chimney, built is rubble with a brick top. The chimney is bound with wrought iron angles and cross bars.

Now built into the S ‘courtyard’ wall of the complex is a single storey lean to like store section. As a result of this the exterior of the S wall has been patched and heightened in brick and breeze block and presents an extremely unattractive picture. On the W of side of the wall is the entrance to the complex with modern metal gates.

Much of the original buildings have survived (as have some sections of internal machinery), but all have been altered and adapted in recent years to suit the needs of a modern merchant’s store. As well as this large modern structures have been added to the site, as well as grain silos, all of which have succeeded in obscuring much of the original structures and giving the entire complex an untidy appearance.

Historical information

The roundel on the main building within this former corn mill implies that it dates from 1622, but although the original manor mill was situated on this general site, the present buildings were constructed in 1816 by the Marquis of Londonderry. The plan of the complex is shown much as today on the OS Maps of 1833/4 and 1858-60 (minus the recently constructed portions). The mill is noted in the OS Memoirs (c.1832-4) as belonging to John Lanktree and that it had a ‘wheel of 17 feet, breadth 8 feet, breast wheel [and] a fall of water [of] 5 feet’. The valuation records of the same period state that Lanktree paid £100 per annum for the mill and ten acres of land, as well as a flax scutching mill. This scutch mill stood just to the south of this site (on the opposite side of Mill Street), but now appears to have been demolished.
The mill appears to have been converted to steam power after c.1860 and, during the twentieth century, electricity. The machinery appears to have remained in use until the mid 1960s.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.654/M35/21 Londonderry Papers- Map of Newtownards town parks also showing the site of the new mill (1816).
2 PRONI VAL 1B/322 p.66 1st valuation, parish of Newtownards, Corporation North, 1833.
3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Edition 1833/4 Co. Down 6.
4 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p. 104.
5 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Revision 1858-60 Co. Down 6.
6 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’), parish of Newtownards, Corporation North, 1863.

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green 'The industrial Archaeology of Co. Down' (HMSO 1963), p.43.
2 Trevor McCavery 'Newtown, a history of Newtownards' (Dundonald 1994), pp.57, 79.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Rubble built former mill complex of 1816 comprising of a two storey mill and two storey kiln house (now used as stores), and a free standing chimney of c.1860s. During recent times much of this complex has been adapted for use as a general merchant’s store and in the process the original buildings have been altered and crude modern structures added to the site. Some of the milling machinery has survived but much of it appears to be twentieth century.