Patterson's Spade Mill

Summary

20th century Spade Mill Complex

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Description

The Spade Mill complex is approached along a short drive between open fields opposite Templepatrick Presbyterian Church, just off the A6 from the Templepatrick roundabout to the Newtownabbey junction of the M2 motorway. There is a fairly modern concrete bridge access across the Ballymartin River into the mill courtyard, which is gravelled, and the mill house faces the visitor on the left. Behind the house is the impressive rubble stone wall of the former beetling mill, and to the right of this is the spade mill buildings, at first sight a mixture of roughcast walls and some raw concrete block, partly roofed in tin and partly in felt, the main building obscured by later sheds. The land rises behind the buildings, and the head race of the mill is situated between it and what is now the motorway. Although the motorway is very close to the rear of the mill, it is really only from the mill race itself that one is much aware of it. The buildings can also be seen from the motorway.

The spade mill consists of four main areas. The main building, the metal working shop, is of rubble-stone construction approximately 22.5m by 7.5m and 4m high, with a hipped roof supported on substantial collared trusses and covered in felt. Its random rubble walling is decked with sarking and sheeted in bituminous felt laid vertically (horizontal is more usual) and held in place by narrow laths. The machinery is in good working order, much of it set on concrete plinths. To the east is a lean-to building also of rubble stone but roofed in tin, approximately 15m by 6m and 2.5m high. To the north of this is a small area 8m by 6m which is similarly roofed but has walls of block and corrugated asbestos; part of the roof here is raised to accomodate shafts coming through from the machinery shop. These were both finishing shops, where spade shafts were shaped and fitted to the handles. There is also an entrance area 12m by 10m which is largely open on the house side, and has a very shallow tin roof. The turbine is situated to the north of this area between it and the beetling mill ruin.

The mill buildings contain an impressive array of machines connected with the manufacturing process and powered by mixture of hand, water and electricity. The main item of machinery within the metal working shop is the large tilt hammer and the furnace. In addition there are various items such as workbenches and trolleys; although they facilitate production, they are of secondary rather than primary importance and are largely located in the finishing sheds adjoining the working shop. The workshop also contains various assorted hand tools which could have been used anywhere on site. Scattered around the various work rooms are spades, shovels, loys and forks in various states of fabrication. The main entrance to the mill complex, a roofed over area, is laid out with interpretation panels and various finished spades, machinery and tools.

When the last of five generations of Pattersons operating their spade-mill at Templepatrick died in 1990, a long tradition seemed likely to disappear, but the National Trust acquired the property and commissioned Hearth to carry out its restoration. It is not by any stretch of the imagination a piece of fine architecture, but it is nonetheless a fascinating relic of rural industrial archaeology, and following the Trust's intervention spades are still made there today.

The property started life as a Corn Mill and Fax Mill during the earlier part of the 19th century, then a paper mill for remainder of the century and then in early 20th Century c.1901-1913 was remoddeld and used as a linen beetling mill before the Pattersons finally took it over in 1919 and began producing spades.

Works undertaken by the Trust following taking over the site included repairing the buildings in 1993-94 and the water turbine was also brought back into operation, given that it powers some thirty other machines through a system of belts and drives which between them facilitate the many complex stages of hand-made spades.

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