Ballywee Corn Mill, 78A Hollybank Road, Doagh, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, BT39 0DP

Ballywee Corn Mill is a good example of an early 19th-century water-powered corn mill that has survived with its essential mill machinery and fittings intact, if not entirely in working order. The main block appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832, placing its construction in the period 1820 to 1839, with a rear return added later at an uncertain date. It is almost certainly the mill referred to in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1838, which recorded: "There is a corn mill in the townland of Ballywee, the property of Jackson Beard. Water wheel is 16 feet in diameter by 2 feet broad at the buckets; breast wheel, single geared, fall of water 12 feet; slated, in good repair." The mill was powered by water abstracted from the Four Mile Burn, diverted into a mill pond to the north and then along a head-race to the wheel. By the time of the 1857 Ordnance Survey map, a flax mill had appeared to the north of the pond, also the property of Jackson Beard; the Ordnance Survey Memoirs note that both mills were idle in summer for want of water. A detached house immediately to the south, shown on the 1832 map and later doubled in size, was associated with the corn mill. The building has since been converted to a house, but the western end of the main block has been preserved with its original machinery and fittings intact. Despite the loss of some original elements, the survival of two original interior rooms complete with their interior and exterior machinery contributes greatly to its architectural and historic importance. The building is a masonry structure built in the vernacular tradition, retaining the essence of its original character if not an entirely unchanged appearance, and it enjoys a comparatively unspoiled and pleasant setting alongside a river and bridge.

The building is a two-storey, gabled, slated stone structure of rectangular plan with a central two-storey rear return, and a stone enclosure at the west end containing an iron-framed overshot wheel. The main entrance to the former mill faces south, while the main entrance to the house now faces north and is at first-floor level due to the slope of the site.

The south elevation is two storeys. The gabled roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses with a tiled ridge, a modern circular metal flue pipe to the ridge, and two modern flush rooflights. The walling is of basalt rubble and fieldstones with a projecting eaves course and no rainwater goods. The elevation is asymmetrical, with five windows to the first floor and seven to the ground floor — five to the right of a doorway and two to the left. The windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, six over six with horns, painted white, with exposed sash boxes painted red, set in plain recesses with red-painted timber lintels and thin projecting concrete cills. The first-floor window at the extreme left incorporates two ventilator grilles at the base of the lower sash. The entrance is a wide rectangular ledged timber door in a recessed wooden frame with a red-painted timber lintel, a granite doorstep, and an iron latch; there is a wide segmental relieving arch over the doorway. The first floor retains traces of previous rectangular openings, now blocked up, and three iron tie bars.

Projecting at ground-floor level from the left-hand extremity is a walled enclosure containing the mill wheel. The east-facing side of the enclosure is of basalt rubble roughly pointed, containing a rectangular opening abutting the main building; this opening incorporates a segmental red brick arch and red brick dressings, partly cement rendered. The south wall of the enclosure is of basalt rubble, partly unpointed and partly rough rendered, with a crudely rendered frieze. The west gable is of similar walling with flush verges to the roof and one window at first-floor level set in a segmental arch — an arched timber fixed light of sixteen panes with a projecting concrete cill. Below the window, an iron spoke with cog wheels projects from the wall at a level corresponding to the top of the mill wheel. The west face of the enclosure is of basalt rubble, partly unpointed and partly with reticulated pointing, and incorporates a flat-arched central doorway now walled up. The north face of the enclosure is of undressed basalt rubble.

The north elevation of the main building, to the right of the rear return, is a two-storey blank wall of basalt rubble with a projecting eaves course, metal gutter and downpipe, and a slated roof as described above. The wall incorporates traces of two segmental arches with former openings now walled up.

The west elevation of the rear return is two storeys with a slated roof including two modern flush rooflights. The wall is of basalt rubble with a red brick eaves course and metal gutters and downpipe. There are three windows to the first floor — timber sashes, six over six with horns, in brick surrounds with timber lintels similar to those described on the south elevation; the central one is taller and breaks through the eaves course, set in a gabled dormer with a rubble gable and slated roof. Two windows at ground floor are similar except that the one to the left is smaller, sashed three over three. To the right of the windows is a doorway in similar surrounds containing a modern eight-pane glazed timber door with an ironwork handle. The north gable of the rear return is a blank wall of basalt rubble with slightly overhanging verges; at the apex is a red brick chimney with a projecting plain brick cornice and one red pot.

The east elevation of the rear return is single storey with a slated roof. The wall is similar to the west side, with a central projecting gabled porch in red brick containing large rectangular double doors of ledged timber with a brick head on a steel lintel. There are metal gutters and downpipes. One window to each side of the porch comprises rectangular timber sliding sashes, three over three with horns, in red brick block surrounds with brick flat arches to the head.

The north elevation of the main block, to the left of the rear return, is one storey due to the slope of the site. The roof is slated as elsewhere, with two modern flush rooflights, metal gutter and downpipe, and a wall of basalt rubble with a red brick eaves cornice. There are two windows to the left of a door — now the main entrance to the house — consisting of rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, two over two with horns and exposed sash boxes, in surrounds similar to those on the south elevation except with red brick block dressings to the jambs. The doorway contains a rectangular ledged timber half-door with a small glazed panel, set in similar brick dressings to the windows.

The east gable of the main block is a blank wall of basalt rubble — a new construction in which the line of the original gable was moved back from the road, as part of works carried out around 1993. There is a concrete base to the new gable where the ground slopes toward the south corner; the date 1993 is incised in a stone in the middle of the wall. The verges of the roof are cement rendered, and two small ventilator grilles are affixed to circular holes near the top of the gable.

Inside, much of the building has been refitted for domestic use, but the western end of the main block has been preserved with its original machinery and fittings retained intact. The original elements still in position are the water wheel, the layshaft transmission system, three pairs of mill stones, and a small corn crusher. The listing specifically extends to the original fittings, machinery, and stairway in the west wing, as well as the exterior wheel and its walled enclosure. The head-race has been dismantled and the mill pond filled in and grassed over in recent years.

The setting is rural, within a small hamlet. The front boundary is formed by a basalt rubble wall with rough stone copings; the main gateway comprises a pair of ironwork gates set between circular stone piers with rounded caps. This wall abuts a gabled stone building at the southern extremity — the former house for the mill, now derelict. The south boundary is a new wall of concrete blockwork, not yet rendered, with basalt stone copings on a slate course; circular piers of similar unfinished concrete blockwork with domical rubble stone caps carry a pair of original flat-iron gates. This wall abuts the former mill house at the eastern end and an old basalt rubble bridge at the western end. The western boundary is formed by the adjacent river. The grounds contain undulating grassy areas to the riverbank and the main front, with a rocky area to the rear. To the north, just beyond the site boundary, the former mill pond — now in the grounds of an adjoining house — has been filled in and forms a lawn. Further north, also beyond the site, the original water course for the mill runs alongside the road in a concrete conduit, with a stone-revetted stream beyond.

The building was first surveyed in 1973, at which time the wheel and machinery were still operational and the exterior wall finish was render. It was listed in 1974. By 1979, severe flooding had damaged the mill pond and the mill was no longer able to function. By 1986, the grain floor of the kiln at the east end had collapsed. After lying vacant for some years, a repair scheme was started around 1993 by the present owners, during which the existing east gable was demolished and rebuilt in a set-back position, an existing entrance or gateway to the south of that gable was closed, a new gateway was created to the north of it, and the adjacent stone boundary wall was lowered.