Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/01/125

Address :
Bishop’s Mill Abbacy Road Ballywallon Portaferry Co Down BT22 1PG

Townland:
Ballywallon

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Mill

Former Use
Mill

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
187/12

IG Ref:
J5900 5604

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Small two storey random rubble gabled water mill, set in a complex of larger and smaller outbuildings of varying dates and states of originality. The mill is set to the S of Abbacy Road c.3 miles N of Portaferry. The ‘front’ elevation of the mill is north east facing and looks out to the Abbacy Road. It has a large double door opening to the right and two small, offset sash to the right (one to ground and one to first floor). The mill race, with remains of wheel, are on the NW gable. Apart from the collapsed wheel the elevation is otherwise blank. To the south, and set at a right angle to the mill, is a larger modern looking two storey gabled store. This store, referred to (erroneously) as a former ‘scutch’ mill by the present owner, is joined to the mill itself by a recently constructed passageway attached to the mill’s south east corner. This larger store may be nineteenth century, but has had a bay added to the south east elevation in more recent times and its roof raised. The south gable of the mill is only partly visible, being sandwiched between the edge of the larger attached store and another modern looking store to the south west, and has an upper level doorway reached via a long flight of stone steps. The north west elevation of the mill has an attached single storey gabled building, of a similar age and construction as the mill (but now partly roofed in corrugated iron), which runs parallel with the mill race. This building was originally a flax scutching mill. The mill itself is painted, with a pitched roof with Tullycavey slates and stone parapets.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

This corn mill originally dates from the 18th century. During the 1798 Rebellion the mill was burnt, but rebuilt soon afterwards. The 1838 valuation tells us that the complex at that stage consisted of a series of single storey buildings including a 'flax miller's house', flax mill, corn mill, and corn kiln, with the corn mill driven by pairs of stones and supplied with water the 'greater part of the year'. At this time both mills were worked by one John Allen. The small flax scutching mill, which stood to the rear of the corn mill, was in operation until 1855, after which it became a store. The corn mill was ‘rebuilt’ in 1896 after becoming derelict. The extent of this 'rebuilding' is uncertain, but the fact that the mill itself is now two storey (as opposed to single storey in 1838) suggests that major work was carried at some point after this. In 1963 E.R.R. Green noted that the mill was still in use, as did the writers of the 1969 UAHS Survey, but work had ceased by spring of the following year. The complex of buildings surrounding the mill have been much altered in relatively recent times and, like the mill itself, now serve as stores. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI OS/6/3/24/1 Ordnance Survey maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 24 2 PRONI VAL 1B/36 First valuation, Parish of Ardquin, c.1838 3 PRONI OS/6/3/24/2 Ordnance Survey maps, 1st rev., 1860, Down sheet 24 4 PRONI Second valuation, 1861 [In print] 5 PRONI OS/6/3/24/3 Ordnance Survey maps, 2nd ed., 1899-1900, Down sheet 24 Secondary sources 1 E.R.R. Green, 'The Industrial Archaeology of County Down' (HMSO Belfast, 1963), pp.46-7 2 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford' (Belfast UAHS 1969), p.20 3 Fred Hammond, "Flax mills of the Upper Ards 1800-1900: Part II" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No.14' (1990), pp.19-22

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Mid to later 19th century, rubble-built, two storey water mill, surrounded by a complex of of sheds and stores much altered in relatively recent times. The mill still retains much of its machinery. The complex also contains a small, single storey former flax mill.

General Comments

Date of Survey

13 August 1997