Summary
Site of 18th/19th century Corn Mill in use until 1837 when replaced by a paper mill.
Identification Images (0)
Monument Types
- CORN MILL (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
Description
The site of Patterson’s Spade Mill has a long history of use connected with water power. The property first appears to have functioned as a corn mill and a flax mill site. The evidence for the corm mill is derived almost exclusively from a Valuators Return for 1836 covering the Townland of Carnanee, in which the mill is located.
The First Valuation map of this area (PRONI VAL/1/A/1/51) was produced during the early 1830s and shows five buildings on the site, arranged around an access road running northeast from the main Antrim Road to join the Carnanee Road. The buildings were marked as ‘2’ within the townland and listed as belonging to James Parker. The buildings complex consisted of a flax and a corn mill and house valued together at £8, 3s a year. The mills separated were valued at corn mill £3 a year and flax mill £2, 10s a year. Other structures on the site which are listed included a kiln and a flax houses. Both Corn mill and flax mill operated until 1837 when the site was converted to a paper mill.
From the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map sheet of 1832 the layout of the corn mill can be discerned as being a large rectangular building orientated northwest to southeast and located adjacent to the access road. A semi-oval mill pond is shown immediately to the northeast which was fed by a mill race running in from the east. Two rectangular buildings located to the northwest across the access road are probably the miller’s house and the flax house, while a smaller rectangular building, marked further away to the northeast was probably the kiln, which would have been set away from the main buildings due to the fire risk. The flax mill itself was a small square structure orientated north-south and shown on the extreme east of the complex.
In 1837 when the paper mill replaced the corn mill and flax mill on the site, it appears that the flax mill was destroyed but the corn mill may have been incorporated into the paper mill and it is therefore possible that remnants or evidence for the corn mill structure could still be extant within the metal finishing shop (NTSMR 131002).
The mill race for the corn mill extended across the east side of the corn mill on a flume and fed a waterwheel 10ft by 4ft in size which was positioned on the south side of the mill building which measured 32.6 ft in length by 20ft width and 12.6ft in height and contained 1 pair of millstones.
Designations
None Recorded
Other Statuses and References
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Associated Events
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Associated Finds
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