Dromore Mills, 64 Baranailt Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 9HN

Dromore Mills (Lower Mill Complex)

Dromore Mills is a water-powered corn mill complex situated approximately 5 kilometres west of Limavady town centre, reached via a laneway off the south-east side of Baranailt Road. The lower mill complex — the subject of this description — sits on the north side of a mill pond fed by the Bessbrook River, which also forms the eastern boundary of the entire site. The complex is surrounded by fields. In its present form it dates substantially from a rebuilding in the 1840s, with later additions and modifications spanning the later 19th century and the early 20th century. It has been in the ownership of the same family — the Gilfillans — for five generations since the 1840s. It is of considerable industrial archaeological interest as a rare intact example illustrating key developments in the harnessing of water power, and it retains group value with the Upper Mill complex (the cornmill and flaxmill) and the Mill House, which are listed separately.

The lower mill complex comprises two groups of buildings. The first, aligned east to west along the north side of the mill pond, consists of a two-storey block containing (from west to east) a store, kiln, corn mill, porch, and seed house, together with three outbuildings. The second group, along the west side of the pond, contains the mill owner's house and several outbuildings, described separately.

Corn Mill

The corn mill itself is a two-storey, single-bay building aligned east to west at the eastern end of the kiln, abutted to the east by Outbuilding 1. It was most probably built in its present form in the 1840s. It has a pitched natural slate roof, the ridge of which sits slightly lower than that of the kiln. The louvred vent with weathervane on the ridge is a modern replica of the vent originally on the kiln and is ornamental rather than functional. The walls are of random rubble with brick quoins. All openings have flat brick heads and brick jambs. The south elevation is partly cut into the earthen embankment retaining the north side of the pond. There are cast-metal diamond-lattice windows at ground-floor and first-floor level on the right. The first floor is accessed by a plain timber door at left, up a high concrete step. The west gable is formed by the brick party wall shared with the kiln. The north elevation is abutted to the right by a brick porch and to the left by a masonry seed house, with internal doorways giving access to both rooms from the mill. There is also a shuttered opening at first-floor level on the left, now hidden by the seed house. The east gable has a first-floor window, now infilled. Part of this wall was removed around 1900 to accommodate the turbine that replaced the original waterwheel; the turbine is fed via a concrete-and-brick box culvert from the pond, and the tailrace returning water to the river from the turbine pit is culverted.

Seed House

The seed house is a one-and-a-half-storey, single-bay building abutting the north side of the mill. It was the place where oat shells were collected after being blown in by a fan in the north-east corner of the mill. As an integral part of the mill's operation, it probably dates from the 1840s. The building has a replacement monopitched roof sloping to the north, no rainwater goods, and rubble masonry walls with quoins partly of brick. The west gable has a ground-floor door and a first-floor diamond-lattice window. The north elevation is heavily overgrown; neither it nor the east gable has any openings.

Porch

The porch is a small single-storey, single-bay structure abutting the north side of both the kiln and the mill, giving access to the latter. It was probably added in the late 19th century. It has a replacement monopitched roof sloping to the north, no rainwater goods, and brick walls. The only opening is a sliding timber door on the north elevation. A small waterwheel lying loose outside the porch is a relatively modern construction of no heritage interest.

Store and Kiln

The store and kiln are contained within a two-storey, two-bay building on the west side of the mill. Close inspection of the north and south elevations reveals brick quoins belonging to the kiln, indicating that the store is a later addition to the kiln's west gable, probably built in the later 19th century. Although it is the kiln that is primarily of interest, the store forms part of the same unit and is included accordingly. Both sections share a pitched corrugated metal roof without rainwater goods. Modern photovoltaic panels have been placed over the south pitch of this roof. There was originally a louvred vent over the kiln at the east end of the building; this has since been removed. The walls are of random rubble with brick quoins, and all openings have flat brick heads and brick jambs. The south elevation is partly cut into the pond embankment, and the kiln's south-west brick quoin is clearly evident in the wall. There are shuttered openings at ground-floor level on the left and at first-floor level on the right. There was originally a coal hole in front of the kiln serving the kiln's hearth; in more recent times this void has been roofed over with concrete to form a continuous ground surface above. The west gable is abutted at ground-floor level by a revetted earthen ramp giving access to a sliding timber door at first-floor level; the gable apex has a cast-metal diamond-lattice window. The north elevation is abutted at left by the brick porch, and the kiln's north-west brick quoin is evident in the wall between the kiln and the store. The store section has two doors and a small window on this elevation; the first floor is blank except for a small shuttered opening to the kiln at left. The east gable, which is abutted by the mill, is of brick rather than rubble masonry. The exposed section rising above the mill roof has no openings.

Waterworks

The water turbine housed in the east gable of the mill is fed from the large mill pond. Water is diverted into the pond from the Bessbrook River by means of a sloping masonry weir and a short headrace, which is also supplied by the tailrace from the Upper Mill. Below the weir, the river passes under a small arched masonry bridge carrying a farm track, and is eventually joined by the culverted tailrace from the turbine. The close juxtaposition of the mill complex with its weir, headrace, and pond greatly enhances the setting of the complex and aids understanding of how it functioned under water power. The operating waterwheel on site is not original to this mill.

Outbuildings

Three rubble masonry outbuildings stand at the eastern end of the mill. One of these may have been the steam-powered flax mill recorded in the vicinity during the 1860s and 1870s. Outbuilding 1 is a double-height single-storey building with a modern monopitched corrugated metal roof, replacing what was originally a pitched natural slate roof. At the western end of its ground floor is the box culvert that fed the turbine; the turbine itself has been partly dismantled and relocated to the north-west corner of this building. Outbuilding 2 is a two-storey building with a felted timber bowstring truss roof, replacing an original corrugated iron roof; the first floor is now missing. According to the current owner, this building formerly contained a threshing machine driven by the turbine. A second-hand breast-shot waterwheel has been installed on the south elevation of this building to power a generator inside, which supplies electricity to the owner's nearby house. Outbuilding 3 is a single-storey roofless shell to which there is access.

Setting

The block running along the west side of the pond comprises a two-storey, six-bay mill house with a pitched natural slate roof (described separately). The north gable of the house is abutted by a slightly lower two-storey building with a pitched corrugated asbestos roof, rubble stone walls, and two-over-two sliding sash windows. Running east at the north-east end of this block is a single-storey outbuilding with a replacement timber truss roof sheeted in corrugated iron and rubble masonry walls. On the south gable of the house is a lower two-storey building, the first floor of which has been rebuilt as a conservatory. At the south end of the entire block is a single-storey farm outbuilding with a pitched corrugated asbestos roof and rubble masonry walls. Two sets of single-piece conglomerate millstones are displayed around the house; they were found by the owner during repair works to the mill's tailrace.

Materials (mill, kiln, and store): Roofs of natural slate and corrugated iron. No rainwater goods. Walls of random rubble. Replacement timber doors. Iron diamond-lattice windows and timber shutters.

Historical Development

Documentary evidence traces a corn mill on this site to the early 19th century. A small corn mill is shown on the 1830 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, and both the mill and an associated grain-drying kiln are recorded as belonging to a Mr Morrison in the 1831 Valuation, with a rateable valuation of only £2 12s 0d, suggesting a modest enterprise. The 1835 Ordnance Survey Memoir describes the mill as belonging to Robert Morrison and records it as a single-geared corn mill — that is, with one step of gearing — powered by the Bessbrook River. The water had a six-foot fall and drove a breast-shot wheel measuring 12 feet in diameter by 2 feet wide. The cog wheel at the inner end of the waterwheel axle was 6 feet in diameter and had cast-iron teeth fixed to its wooden rim; this drove a lantern wheel which in turn powered a single pair of millstones, 4 feet 10 inches in diameter, capable of grinding one and a half barrels per hour. The mill was idle in summer due to insufficient water. Morrison also owned a nearby flax mill on the same premises.

In 1838, Morrison advertised his land, corn mill, kiln, dwelling house, and his half-share of the adjacent flax mill. The property was seemingly purchased by John Gilfillan, who in 1843 was imprisoned for having illicit malt in his dwelling and on his mill premises. John Gilfillan was the first of five generations of that family to own the mill, and the first of three to operate it. By the time of the 1848–52 Ordnance Survey map, a corn mill and kiln are explicitly shown, along with the seed house on the north side of the mill and an enlarged pond. The overall block is significantly larger than that shown on the 1830 map, indicating that Gilfillan had rebuilt and enlarged the mill he had acquired.

The 1856 Second Valuation records John Gilfillan as owner of the corn mill, house, offices, and flax mill, with a total valuation of £4 15s 0d. The corn mill was now powered by a 12-foot diameter by 3-foot wide undershot waterwheel with 36 buckets, turning at six revolutions per minute under a 6-foot head of water; the millstones rotated at 96 rpm, giving a gear ratio of 16:1. The mill could work for nine months of the year at an average of four hours a day. There were now two pairs of millstones, though only one could be operated at a time due to insufficient water. This upgrade from a single pair of stones represents a change from a relatively primitive one-step configuration — pit wheel and lantern — to a more sophisticated two-step layout: pitwheel, wallower, great spurwheel, and double stone nut and spindle. This technical improvement, when water supply allowed, would have enabled both shelling and grinding to be carried out simultaneously rather than sequentially, and was almost certainly the work of John Gilfillan during the 1840s.

The 1874 Valuation revision records a new steam-powered flax mill with six scutching stocks somewhere in the vicinity of the corn mill. Flax Mill Returns indicate its existence from 1867, though it disappears from the records after 1876. Its exact location is unknown, but it was probably housed in one of the outbuildings abutting the east side of the mill. John Gilfillan died in 1881 and the mill passed to his son James, recorded in the valuation revision books from 1882. Shortly afterwards, James emigrated to Australia and the mill was taken over by his brother John Moore Gilfillan (John Gilfillan 2), whose name appears in the valuations from 1883.

Around 1900, John Gilfillan 2 replaced the corn mill's waterwheel with a turbine made by Kennedy and Son of Coleraine, installing a similar turbine in the Upper Mill complex at the same time. The field evidence suggests he also installed the present two sets of millstones with their associated shafts and gears at the same time, and probably installed a threshing machine also powered by the turbine. Despite this considerable upgrade, Gilfillan described himself in the 1901 Census as a farmer aged 46, not a miller, suggesting he was grinding corn for his own use and for neighbours rather than operating as a full-time merchant miller. The corn mill is explicitly shown on the 1905 Ordnance Survey map, which also shows the store at the west end of the kiln and three outbuildings to the east side of the mill.

By the time of the 1911 Census, the mill had passed to John Gilfillan 2's third son, 28-year-old John Gilfillan Junior (John Gilfillan 3, the present owner's grandfather). The 1923–24 Ordnance Survey map shows the mill continuing in use with no change to the block's footprint since 1905. The Valuation revision notebook of January 1934 describes the corn mill as a slated two-storey random rubble building measuring 24 feet square by 18 feet high, adjoined to the west by a two-storey kiln measuring 18 feet by 24 feet by 20 feet high. Along its north side were two lean-to structures: a rubble masonry seed house measuring 21 feet by 14 feet by 14 feet high with a corrugated metal roof, and a brick porch measuring 16 feet by 7 feet by 9 feet high, also with a corrugated metal roof. The mill was working for four months per year with low output. Although described as a very old structure, it contained a modern metal crusher driven by a 12 horsepower turbine — this is the Bamford mill on the ground floor, installed by John Gilfillan 3. The turbine, described in 1934 as 50 years old, is undoubtedly the one installed around 1900 by John Gilfillan 2. This entry implies that the millstones had by this point been abandoned in favour of the grain crusher, which produced kibbled and rolled oats for animal feed rather than oatmeal for human consumption, driven by the same turbine that had previously powered the stones. No changes to ownership or rateable value are recorded between 1936 and 1954. According to the current owner, John Gilfillan 3 continued to operate the mill into the 1960s, finally ceasing due to lack of demand as rural electrification allowed farmers to install their own grinding machinery.

In more recent years the present owner has re-decked the kiln head with timber sheeting (around 2000), added photovoltaic panels to the roof of the store and kiln (around 2014), and reroofed the porch and seed house abutting the mill (around 2015). Outbuilding 2, which housed the threshing machine, was reroofed around 2010. A second-hand waterwheel was installed to drive a generator supplying electricity to the owner's house.

In summary, the available evidence points to the following sequence of development. In the early 19th century there was a small corn mill and kiln with one pair of millstones powered by a waterwheel. In the mid-19th century, John Gilfillan enlarged the mill and pond, added the seed house, and replaced the single pair of stones with two new pairs, all driven by a waterwheel. In the later 19th century, outbuildings were added at the east end of the corn mill, one of which may have been a steam-powered flax mill; the brick porch was probably also added at this time. Around 1900, John Gilfillan 2 replaced the waterwheel with a turbine and replaced the two sets of stones with the present ones, probably also installing a threshing machine driven off the turbine. In the earlier 20th century, John Gilfillan 3 abandoned the millstones in favour of a Bamford animal-feed unit driven by the turbine.