Summary
Long rectangular stone built cottage range in ruins and formerly mill labourers residence and workshop.
Identification Images (0)
Monument Types
- (Former Type) WORKERS COTTAGE (Late 18th C to Late 20th C - 1800 AD to 1970 AD)
Description
A long rectangular range of single-storey vernacular cottages located to the rear north side of the ruined beetling mill 131001. The cottage range represents three residences, with a workshop between and these were most likely occupied by workers at the mill. A small rectangular outbuilding also stands to the north of the west end of the ruined range, and has been restored and re-roofed for use as a store room.
The cottage range, presently unroofed and in a ruined state, originally consisted of a row of 5 bays making up three single storey houses one bay deep and with a larger bay, likely to have been a workshop located between bays 2 and 4. The cottages were built sometime between the production of the Crow Map in 1770 and the 1st Ordnance Survey of this part of Co. Antrim in 1832. They were most likely built to accomodate an increase in the overall workforce when a second mill was built on the site between 1770 and 1832.
In 1836-37 the property changed hands and the previous Flax and Corn Mills ceased their operation and were replaced by a Paper Mill. The property as a whole underwent considerable change in a short period of time. The effect on the cottages was that an extention appears to have been added to the northwest end to increase the size of that house. Given the date it is likely this may have been to provide an improved standard of accomodation for the new manager of the Paper Mill in 1836-37. A stand alone small rectangular building of one room plan was also added during that period and this was roofed, slated and repaired in recent years on the northeast corner of the cottage range.
It is clear that the cottages fell into ruin sometime after they were abandoned as residences. Hazel Patterson, of the Patterson family who owned the site prior to the Trust acquisition recalled that the last occupants of the cottages were, Hugh Ingram, whom she mentions was “shell shocked and house bound” and his brother Jim Ingram who “hired himself out to local farmers”. A photograph taken in 1962 shows the range with the Bays at either end still intact and roofed.
Designations
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Other Statuses and References
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Associated Events
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Associated Finds
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