Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Ruined Windmill
Ballyministragh, Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Windmill
- Date of construction
- 1820 - 1839
- Address
- Ruined Windmill, [off Comber Road], Ballyministragh, Killinchy, Co Down, BT23
- Townland
- Ballyministragh
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.49076, -5.70132
- Date of survey
- 07 July 1998
- HB reference
- HB24/17/049
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1794 "Sheet 55. (Cary's England, Wales, and Scotland)." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
Ruined stump of a former windmill c.3.4m in diameter (inc. Walls of c.0.6m thickness) and c.3.7m in height. The stump is constructed in random rubble and is roofless. There is a large irregular opening to the E ‘side’ which was probably originally the doorway.
The windmill is set on a rise to the W side of the Comber Road, less than 1.5 miles N of the hamlet of Balloo.
To the E of this former windmill (by the roadside), is a single storey rubble built gable building (now used as a blacksmith’s forge) which contains a loose date stone inscribed ‘Built by David Fitchey, Anno 1796’.
Historical information
This windmill is shown on the 1834 OS map and though it does not appear to be noted in the contemporary valuation records. At this stage the land around the mill (including the small building to the east now used as a forge) was then in the possession of a David Fitchey, whose name (or that of his father) appears on the date stone still contained within the forge. On the OS map of 1859 the windmill is marked flax mill, but, strangely, it not mentioned in the second valuation of c.1861. A David Fitchey [?the son of the above] held the land around the mill at the time of this valuation also.
References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co. Down 17.
2 PRONI VAL 1B/320 p.40 (79) 1st valuation Kilmood parish Ballyministragh Td., c.1835.
3 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1859-60, Co. Down 17.
4 PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s) valuation, Kilmood parish, Ballyministragh 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
Ruined stump of a windmill of pre 1834 origin and marked on the 1859-60 OS Map as a ‘flax mill’.
Nearby in the register
- Rose CottageHouseunder 1 mi
- Ruined WindmillWindmillunder 1 mi
- 80 Comber RoadHouseunder 1 mi
- Old VicarageHouseunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.