Charley's Bleachworks, Seymour Hill Industrial Estate, Dunmurry, Belfast, Co Antrim, BT17 9PW

Charley's Bleachworks, Dunmurry, Belfast

This is a former bleachworks of considerable historical and architectural importance, comprising two main mill buildings situated along the northern boundary of Seymour Hill Industrial Estate, just above the left bank of the River Lagan. The earlier building dates from around 1760, with a later addition constructed around 1788, and together they represent one of the few surviving remnants of 18th-century bleaching in the Lagan Valley — once the heartland of the industrialisation of Ulster's linen industry. Both buildings are now partly used as stores. The complex has group value with the nearby Seymour House, the former home of the Charley family who owned the mill, a relationship characteristic of many 18th- and early 19th-century industrial premises.

Building 1: The 18th-Century Three-Storey Mill

This building is aligned north–south at the southern end of the block and is the earlier of the two structures. Its walls are of random sandstone and basalt rubble with stepped sandstone block quoins. The two upper floors incorporate substantial areas of brick between the window openings, and there is a projecting brick eaves course above. All openings have segmental brick heads with stone jambs. The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate, with four modern skylights to the west pitch. Rainwater goods are replacement half-round fibre-cement gutters and downpipes.

The principal, east-facing elevation is particularly notable for its imposing symmetrical composition. It has ten symmetrically arranged window openings to its upper two floors. At ground floor level, a gabled section projects from the centre containing a window, flanked by three windows to each side, none with cills. The first-floor windows retain their original segmental brick heads, but the frames have been replaced with two-over-two-paned top-opening timber casements, and the cills are of concrete. The second-floor openings sit directly above those on the first floor; alternate openings have been bricked up, and the remaining ones are covered with transparent corrugated plastic sheeting, none retaining cills. At the centre of the eaves on this elevation is a small brick gable with a dentillated brick verge — its apex formerly contained a clock, which has long since gone. There is also an advanced rubble base course along this side.

The south elevation has no openings and is now covered in ivy. The west elevation has ten regularly spaced window openings to the two upper floors. At ground floor level there is a doorway and four windows, all infilled. Centrally positioned between the ground and first floors is an infilled rectangular opening which was originally the headrace intake to the internal waterwheel. The first- and second-floor windows on this elevation are detailed in the same manner as those on the east. The north gable is abutted by the later addition, with a raised verge separating the two rooflines. No original doors survive.

Building 2: The Later Two-Storey-over-Basement Addition

This section is of L-shaped plan, returning to the west at the northern end of the block, and rises to the same height as the 18th-century building. It was most likely added in the 1870s, probably during the peak of the linen industry brought about by the American Civil War and the resulting scarcity of cotton for Lancashire mills. The walls are of rock-faced quarried random rubble basalt with machined brick quoins and a dentillated projecting brick eaves course. The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate, with two brick chimneys towards the north-west end, one of which runs along the north eaves. Rainwater goods are half-round plastic gutters and fibre-cement downpipes.

A distinctive feature of this building is that all the openings on every elevation are set within recessed panels that rise through the full height of the building. These recesses are embellished with brick quoins and segmental brick heads, and the individual openings also have segmental brick heads.

The east elevation has five vertical recessed panels; the basement is exposed here and contains no openings. The end panels have single windows and the middle three have paired windows, all with shared sandstone cills, now covered with transparent corrugated plastic sheeting.

The north elevation is cut into the slope so that only the upper two floors are visible at the right-hand end. It has five vertical recesses: three contain single windows to each of the upper floors, one has paired windows, and one has triple windows. These are two-over-two timber sliding sashes with sandstone cills — shared in the case of the multiple windows — and Perspex security sheeting has been fitted to the front.

The west gable is canted and has a recess to each cant. Two ground-floor openings — a window and a doorway — are infilled, but the right-hand cant has a pair of steel-sheeted doors with a segmental-headed overlight. The upper floors of each cant have two-over-two sashes.

The south elevation has three recessed panels with window openings at ground and first floor; all are infilled except two first-floor openings which retain their two-over-two sashes.

The west elevation, to the left of the 18th-century building, has two recessed panels at the left with infilled ground-floor openings. The top-left opening is covered with plastic sheeting, and a roller shutter with a concrete head has been inserted into the top-right opening. To the right on this elevation is a wide, brick-trimmed, segmental-headed doorway with beaded tongue-and-groove folding doors, above which is a brick-infilled window.

In the corner formed by the south and west elevations, a square tower rises above the eaves line, capped with a pyramidal natural slate roof. Its walls, eaves, and brick dressings are detailed in the same manner as the main building. The exposed west and south elevations of the tower each have semicircular-headed, brick-trimmed recesses with a semicircular window opening at the top, now sheeted over. The lower openings have all been altered by the insertion of later timber casement windows with shared concrete heads and cills. Abutting the ground floor of the west side of this tower is a single-storey porch which served as the principal entrance to this building. It has a flat concrete roof with a dwarf blocking course around the perimeter, and its walls are of brick rendered with cement. The left cheek contains a two-leaf two-panelled timber door, and the south cheek has an infilled window.

Setting

To the south-east of the block is a one- and two-storey range of brick and basalt buildings dating from the 18th century to the mid-20th century, all extensively altered for modern industrial uses. Immediately to the west are two large concrete and steel furniture stores of recent construction.

Historical Background

The bleachworks was already in existence by the 1760s: a map of 1768 depicts it as belonging to a Mr Johnson. A more detailed map of 1788 shows two buildings forming the nucleus of the present site, one of which may be Building 1. In 1822, the works were purchased from Robert Allen Johnston by William Charley, who already owned Mossvale Bleachworks a short distance across the River Lagan in County Down. His brother John was taken into partnership in 1824, establishing the firm of J & W Charley and Company. The Charleys invested over £4,000 in refurbishing the site. By 1835, the first Valuation records a three-storey bleach mill, two two-storey boiling houses, and a one-storey souring house on the site, with the nearby Seymour Hill House also occupied by William Charley. By 1837 the site was reputedly one of the finest in County Antrim, processing upwards of 25,000 pieces of linen annually, using two waterwheels and machinery largely of cast iron.

William Charley retired in 1836 and was succeeded in the partnership by his son John. John died in 1843 and his uncle in 1844, whereupon the firm passed to William's son, also named William. Writing in 1888, Bassett described the younger William as "one of the best Irish authorities on the cultivation and manufacture of flax", and noted that he had spent some £20,000 on machinery, buildings, and workers' houses at Mossvale and Kilmakee.

Although the 1858 Ordnance Survey six-inch map shows a site plan broadly similar to that of 1832–33, the second Valuation of 1861 records significant technical advances: two steam engines of 4 horsepower and 12 horsepower supplementing the two waterwheels (each 16 feet in diameter), alongside a calender for ironing cloth, a stenter for stretching it, eight beetling engines each 10 feet 6 inches long, 10 feet of washers, six rinsers, and two mangles. Comparison of the 1858 and 1901 Ordnance Survey maps reveals substantial enlargement of the premises in the later 19th century, apparently in at least two phases: the first involving an enlargement of the south-east block, and the second — probably in the 1870s — being the addition of Building 2 to the north end of Building 1. William Charley died in 1890 and was succeeded by his sons Edward, Arthur, and Harold Charley. In 1914 a 15-horsepower Gordon turbine was installed, probably at the lower block rather than the one under review. The premises eventually became part of the Barbour linen thread empire and ceased operations around 1964. The complex was subsequently subdivided into small industrial units, and new industrial sheds were erected to the north-east of the block.