Corn Mill, Coolkill Road, Tynan, Armagh, BT60 4RB

Corn Mill, Coolkill Road, Tynan, Armagh

This is a prominently sited, virtually intact corn mill of 1844, built by Sir James Stronge of Tynan Abbey. It is a rare surviving example of a medium-sized mill of this period and is of significant industrial heritage value, retaining much of its original machinery. The mill stands on the west side of Coolkill Road, approximately 1 kilometre north of Tynan, set in a slight hollow in flat, open countryside between the road and the Tynan River. The site is no longer in working use.

The principal structure is a four-storey building with a loft level, rectangular in plan, with walls of squared snecked rubble stonework, dressed quoins, and brick surrounds and radial-brick flat arch lintels to the openings; sills are cut stone. The gabled roof is covered partly in natural slate and partly in corrugated iron, with stone skews to the gables and a circular weather vane ventilator sitting centrally on the ridge. Parapet walls rise through the roof, dividing it into three sections. Rainwater goods are cast iron, with ogee guttering and round downpipes. A number of tie-rod ends are visible on the exterior walls.

The symmetrical eastern gable faces Coolkill Road and is the most architecturally considered elevation. The ground floor is largely blank, though a George V post box is set into the left side. At first and second floor levels there are two evenly spaced window openings with top-opening metal frames containing multiple panes. The principal decorative feature is a Diocletian-style window set within the upper gable: the tripartite frame is timber, with the central light glazed as a sash. A datestone of 1844 is centrally positioned between the second and third floor window openings. All other windows throughout the mill are flat-headed with the brick arch lintels and cut stone sills as described above. The western gable matches the eastern in arrangement, though the Diocletian opening and fourth floor window openings have been bricked up.

The south façade has regularly arranged fenestration following the same pattern, though some openings have been bricked up and the façade is heavily overgrown with ivy. The north façade is largely obscured at ground and first floor levels by the full-width later extension described below. The upper floors of the north side follow the same regular arrangement as the south, though again some openings are bricked up. A timber feature that was attached to the upper part of the north wall has fallen away and now rests on the corrugated-iron roof of the extension below.

Several extensions are attached to the main structure. To the west there is a now-dilapidated two-storey gabled projection housing the remains of a waterwheel; its pitched roof has collapsed and its gable is blank. To the north there is a single-storey corrugated-iron clad extension of early to mid 20th century date, probably of the 1920s, running the full width of that elevation; its ground floor has a number of wide openings and the upper level a series of flat-headed window openings, with the lean-to gable clad in timber where it meets the main mill. To the south there are two smaller single-storey corrugated-iron sheds: the smaller contains the remains of a steam engine; the larger is derelict and has largely collapsed.

The site is contained behind a low stone boundary wall with a stile to Coolkill Road, which adds to the interest of the setting. Vehicular access is through a field enclosure to the west, where a bridge spans the Tynan River giving access to a level area in front of the west façade; this area is secured by a cast-iron gate between overgrown square stone piers. The Tynan River and the tail-race flow past the western gable. The site is very overgrown at the time of survey and it was not clear whether any sluice gates remain in place.

Historical background

The datestone confirms the mill was built in 1844 by Sir James Stronge, replacing an earlier mill on the same site. The predecessor is shown on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map as "Tynan corn mill" and is recorded in the 1837 valuation as an old single-storey thatched structure measuring 42½ft by 24ft by 11ft high, with a slate-roofed corn kiln of 19ft by 18½ft by 18½ft and a thatched office of 17ft by 16ft by 8ft. To the south at that time stood a relatively newly-built slate-roofed flax mill measuring 35½ft by 20ft by 14½ft. The corn mill was then in the hands of a John Ferguson and had two pairs of stones for shelling, each 4ft 8in in diameter, and one stone for grinding of 5ft diameter, driven by a wheel of 14½ft with buckets of 3ft 10in. The machinery was described as old and there was water and employment for only six months of the year. The flax mill had eight stocks, four of which were in disuse, a good roller and a very old wheel of 15ft diameter with 4ft buckets, and it too seemed not often employed.

The present mill as built in 1844 appears on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1860, at which point the much smaller flax mill still stood to the south and the miller's house stood on the opposite side of the road. By 1864 the mill was run by a John McGrath and the mill and kiln together measured 93ft by 25ft by 36ft high, with an office over the wheel of 12ft by 25ft by 10ft, and the miller's house measuring 36ft by 20ft by 14ft. The waterwheel at that date measured 16ft in diameter, 5ft in breadth, 1ft in depth, with an 8ft fall. The millstones were described as French burrstones, the elevators and machinery were graded A, and the valuers described it as "a country mill, 3 pairs of stones, only 2 worked, time 6 months, 9 or 10 hours a day." John McGrath appears to have operated both the corn and flax mill until the 1890s. Subsequent recorded tenants include Peter Clow (1906), James Clow (1911), James Craig (1921), and Alex McDermott (1923). The property remains in the ownership of Mr McDermott's descendants. The full-length corrugated-iron lean-to extension to the north was added at some point between 1906 and 1952. The mill appears to have remained in operation until at least 1972.