6a Cunningburn Road, Cunningburn, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2AR

A picturesque grouping of dwellings situated in a hollow roughly 1 mile north-west of the Mount Stewart estate near Newtownards, many of which are recently converted former structures associated with corn milling and flax scutching. All buildings have largely preserved their original exteriors, though their interiors have been altered sympathetically to retain the original character of the structures.

Number 6a is mainly two storey and is attached at the rear at a right angle to the south-west end of the former scutching mill. Originally a flax store, it is rubble built and unrendered. Its front south-west façade has a central timber and glazed door with a single casement window to the left and right. The first floor has three evenly spaced similar but smaller windows. The south-east gable has two casement windows to the ground floor and a larger similar window to the centre of the first floor. The north-west gable has a glazed door to the ground floor right, with a casement window to the left. The left side of this gable merges with a single storey gabled section, which is the south-west end of the single storey former scutch mill section beyond the archway opening of House No. 4. The north-west face of this section has a French door, whilst the south-east front face has a casement window. The roof of the two storey section is gabled, pitched and covered in Bangor blue slates, as is the single storey section roof. Three Velux windows are set into the south-west face of the two storey section roof. The roof also has two small rubble built chimney stacks. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The earliest documented information concerning this grouping comes from a map dated 1777 from the Londonderry Papers at PRONI, showing that the lands of Cunningburn were then part of the estate of Alexander Stewart, owner of the Mount Stewart estate and father of the future Marquis of Londonderry. The map shows the thatched cottage, the corn mill and what appears to be a kiln house. The corn mill had been built by Alexander Stewart in 1776 under the supervision of miller W. Harris, as the date stone records. Some distance to the north was a flax mill, both powered by the Cunning Burn. A subsequent map from 1829 and the first Ordnance Survey Map of 1834 show the same buildings as the 1777 map. By the 1830s, possession had passed to John Cooper, and records note the corn mill had a wheel 12 feet in diameter and 2.5 feet in breadth, with a fall of water of 5 feet. Contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded that there was insufficient water in summer and it was frequently cut off before reaching the mills, likely prompting the building of a windmill to the north-west as auxiliary wind power.

The revised Ordnance Survey Map of circa 1858-60 shows a house had been built on the opposite side of the lane from the thatched cottage, and another building existed south-east of the kiln house, later remembered locally as a shop. Notably, the flax scutching mill and store with associated engine house and tall chimney to the rear of the corn mill had not been built by this time, dating this entire section to after circa 1858, probably the 1860s when linen production increased due to the downturn in cotton production resulting from the American Civil War. The flax mill ceased production in 1894 and the corn mill circa 1932. During the Second World War, the flow of water to the mill pond, directly behind the thatched cottage, was halted. Subsequently much of the grouping served as animal housing and gradually fell into neglect. Much of the complex was purchased in the late 1980s and converted into dwelling houses.

The thatched cottage is probably the oldest building on the entire site, likely predating the mill building of 1776. The former corn mill of 1776 is undoubtedly the most noteworthy building in the whole group. All buildings in the grouping are of vernacular character and possess industrial archaeological interest.