Flax mill chimney

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Chimney stack set on a slope off a lane to the S of the Unicarval Road, c.1 mile N of Comber. The chimney is octagonal in plan and built in brick, measuring c.1.8m in diameter by c.18.5m in height. Stone coping at top of stack. At the base is a small arched opening around which some bricks have fallen away. Almost nothing remains of the former flax mill to the immediate E of the chimney, bar an odd low section of overgrown rubble walling. To the immediate NE are the (mainly timber) remains of what appears to have been a (?grain) silo.

Historical information

A flax mill is marked on this site on the OS Maps of 1833/4 and 1858-60, but this chimney probably dates from the later nineteenth century, possibly c.1890. The townland of Unicarval was the property of the Cumming family from 1673 to 1849, after which it was sold to George Allen, who held this flax mill at least until the later 1860s, at which time it was worked ‘but four months’ in the year.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.2064/1-29 Documents concerning the Cumming property at Unicarval, 1673-1849.
2 PRONI VAL 1B 317 p.5 1st valuation, Parish of Dundonald, townland of Unicarval, 1833. [The valuation records state that the flax mill was then owned by John Cummin[g].]
3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st ed. 1833/4, Co. Down sheet 5.
4 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down sheet 5
5 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation, Parish of Dundonald, townland of Unicarval, 1863.

Secondary sources
1. Peter Car 'A most unpretending of places- a history of Dundonald' (Dundonald 1987), pp.99, 157.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Tall brick chimney (possibly c.1890) formerly belonging to a now demolished flax mill.