150 Woodburn Road, Carrickfergus, Co.Antrim, BT38 9AB

The remains of a bleaching mill complex dating from the early nineteenth century, comprising a multi-bay two storey manager's house and associated mill buildings of traditional brick and rubble stone construction. Although historic maps show that the main part of the mill has not survived, the complex retains much historic fabric intact. It represents rural industry in the Carrickfergus area. Prominently located by the roadside in an unspoiled rural setting, the mill and associated house form an attractive group.

The manager's house is a detached multi-bay two-storey rendered building built around 1820, set on an L-plan facing south with a four-bay two-storey wing to the east and an entrance portico with glazed lean-to room above. The house has a hipped artificial slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, several rendered and redbrick chimneystack with terracotta pots. Timber bargeboards appear to the two east-facing gables, and overhanging eaves are finished with cast-iron rainwater goods. The walling is painted ruled-and-lined rendered with a plat-band above ground floor level. Square-headed window openings have painted stone sills and timber casement windows. The east range features camber-headed window openings with painted stone sills and horizontally-glazed two-over-two timber sash windows. A rectangular-plan bay to the south elevation has square-headed window openings and timber casement windows. Some uPVC windows are fitted to the rear north elevation. A single-storey gabled entrance porch to the east elevation of the east wing has a natural slate roof, roll-moulded ridge tiles, timber bargeboard, a two-over-two timber sash window and a square-headed door opening to the north with vertically-sheeted timber door.

Adjacent to the east wing of the house is a three-bay two-storey redbrick former mill building. A further two-bay three-storey whitewashed former mill building is located further to the east fronting onto Woodburn Road. Both buildings are connected by a tall rubblestone boundary wall running along the road. The redbrick building has a pitched artificial slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods. The redbrick walling is laid in English garden wall bond with some whitewash remaining. Camber-headed window openings are formed in rubbered brick with stone sills and horizontally-glazed timber sash windows.

The east mill building has a pyramidal natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods to redbrick eaves, surmounted by an iron weather vane. Lean-to natural slate roofs extend to the north and east, with a further lean-to natural slate roof to the tall boundary wall. The walling is whitewashed rough-cast lime rendered, with three iron rings at lintel-level to all four elevations. Square-headed window openings have timber louvers to the upper floor, vertically-sheeted doors to the first and ground floors and timber casement windows to the ground floor. The redbrick mill building to the northeast rises out of a rubblestone wall running along the Woodburn river, which forms the boundary to the complex to the north. The wall encloses a yard and continues to Woodburn Road meeting the east mill complex. The site occupies an elevated position with landscaped grounds to the south; a bitumac drive exits the site to the east with a pair of pebbledash rendered piers and low pebbledash rendered wall enclosing the easternmost corner of the site.

Historic maps of 1832 and 1857 show a bleaching mill on the site. Griffith's Valuation records it as being leased by Henry Bragg from Stewart Dunne, and lists the property as a muslin bleach green, manager's house and land. Valuation Revisions record that by 1869 the mill buildings were nearly demolished. The 1884-1894 revisions record a house and land, valued at £1 5 shillings. The complex was purchased by the Belfast Water Commissioners in 1869 and they retained ownership until selling to the current owner in 1992. At the turn of the century a man called Reilly, an employee of the Belfast Water Commissioners, resided in the property until the 1920s. Offices were added in 1910, and the property valuation was revised from £1 5 shillings to £7 in 1913. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902 does not show the extensive mill building parallel to the main house. Only part of the mill therefore remains on the site today.