Windmill stump

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Former windmill tower with attached single storey gabled section, all now converted to a dwelling house. The tower is situated on a slight rise to the W of Main Street on the S edge of the small village of Killinchy.
The tower measures c.10m in height by c.9m in diameter and is battered with rendered and painted walls. It is three storey with a flat roof and window openings (with modern frames) to each floor. To the W ‘side’ on the ground floor is a doorway with modern glazed door. Attached to the NE side is a long single storey section with a gabled roof, which now has modern doors and windows also, as well as plain rendered walls and asbestos free slates to the roof.

Historical information

This mill is marked on James Williamson’s map of 1810 and the OS Map of 1834 were it is noted as a ‘corn windmill’. The valuation records of c.1835 state that the mill was at that stage in the possession of Thomas Potter of Ard View house, just to the south. The records also state, however, that the mill had been idle for four years. By 1859/60 the single storey section to the north east had been added, and that the Potter family had leased the property to a Hugh McGilton. Interestingly, a (probably related) McGilton also possessed Ballycopeland Windmill near Millisle at this time also.
The mill was converted to a dwelling house in c.1983.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.616 James Williamson’s maps of Co. Down 1810.
2 PRONI OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 17.
3 PRONI VAL 1B/335 p.56 1st valuation Killinchy parish, Killinchy td, c.1835.
4 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p. 91.
5 PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 17.
6 PRONI 2nd valuation, Killinchy parish, Killinchy td., c.1861.

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green 'The industrial archaeology of Co. Down' (HMSO 1963), p.55.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Former windmill tower of pre 1810 origin with attached single storey section (added c.1835-55) now totally converted to a dwelling house with none of the former machinery remaining.