William Clark & Sons Ltd Mill Complex (Excluding Old Mill), 6 The Green, Kilrea Road, Upperlands, Maghera, County Londonderry, BT46 5RY

William Clark & Sons Ltd Mill Complex (Excluding Old Mill), Upperlands

This is a large, sprawling textile factory complex made up of an architecturally varied accumulation of single- to four-storey structures, mainly dating from the late 19th and early 20th century, with most significantly added to and altered from the mid to later 20th century. The complex occupies a site associated with the production of cloth — weaving, dyeing and finishing of linen — since the 1730s, and contains a small, thatched, former beetling mill believed to date from 1742. The heritage importance of the site is enhanced by the surviving bleach green, mill dams, and water power infrastructure, as well as the group value of historically related buildings and structures throughout the village of Upperlands.

The complex is set on the north side of Upperlands — a village that essentially came into being because of the mill itself — with the Knockoneill River to the west, large mill dams to the north (the Green Dam) and east (the New Dam), and the former bleach green (the Hall Field or Hall Green) to the south. The complex is approached from the south, off the main Maghera to Kilrea road, via a long winding tree-lined drive that follows the line of the river, passing the original beetling mill to the southwest and a former office block and lapping room to the northeast, as well as the former bleach green. Near its end, the drive turns northwards, passing two houses built for mill employees, and terminates at a small car park beside a large, modern single-storey brick and corrugated metal clad factory and office building dating from 1980. The mass of buildings making up the heart of the factory lies to the north and east of this office block.

BUILDING B

Built as a weaving shed, Building B is the largest building in the complex by footprint and lies at the northwest corner of the site, next to a now disused secondary gateway opening off a road to the west. It is a sprawling, mainly rendered, almost entirely single-storey structure largely dating from 1910 to 1911, with significant post-1950 additions to the north. At its southeast corner it abuts a mainly four-storey block (Building E), while to the northeast a short projection links it to a large metal-clad shed. The roof, which could not be seen in its entirety, appears to be largely composed of north-lights, with a small curved roof section to the southwest corner and a gabled portion to the east. To the front there are two very long lean-to projections together spanning almost the entire width of this side of the building. Set between these lean-tos is a large flat-arched vehicle entrance, flanked by pedestrian entrances, two of which are positioned at the ends of each lean-to. There are further doorways of various sizes to the left and right, along with an unevenly spaced series of large, non-uniform windows with multi-pane metal frames, and several much smaller windows with timber sash frames close to the main vehicle entrance. The north and west elevations could not be seen. The long east elevation is finished in render to the south, with a small portion in rubble and brick further north, then concrete brick beyond that. A series of window openings runs along the entire east elevation; originally uniform in size, a number of openings roughly in the centre have been reduced. The larger windows are filled with metal frames similar to those on the front, while the smaller ones have timber frames. The roof, outside of the north-lights, is partly covered in slate, partly in corrugated asbestos, and partly in corrugated iron.

BUILDING E

Building E consists of a large double-pile four-storey block to the south with a large single-storey section to the north. The four-storey block, which abuts Building B to the northwest, was constructed in 1912 as a three-storey structure, with the uppermost level believed to have been added in 1940, and a two-storey loading bay extension to the west added in the mid to later 20th century. The earlier portion is constructed mainly in rubble, with the later top level in brick; however, the ground floor of the south and east elevations and most of the west elevation (altered to accommodate the loading bay) is now finished in render. The edges of the building's concrete floors are visible on the north, south, and east elevations. In typical mill fashion, each floor has a uniform row of window openings, almost all now filled with multi-pane metal frames similar to those on Building B. To the west of centre on the ground floor, a large flat-arched vehicle access cuts through the block. There are pedestrian doorways to the ground, first, and second floor levels of the south elevation, with the upper two reached via a metal stair, and further doorways to the east elevation. There is also a vehicle entrance to the south elevation and two large loading bay doors to the west. The double-pile roof appears to be largely, if not entirely, covered in slate.

The single-storey northern portion of Building E is largely rubble-built, with a slated gabled roof that rises to a continuous monitor — a raised ridge construction for ventilation. To the west gable there is a lean-to extension in render and brick, to which a smaller breeze block lean-to has been added. The east gable is partly rendered. The openings to the north and west have been blocked with breeze blocks, leaving only a single flat-arched vehicle entrance to the north, which does not appear to be original. To the east gable there are two pedestrian doorways and two windows with metal frames. A collection of pipes and ducts extends from the east gable to Building F to the east.

BUILDING C

To the north of Building E is a large block consisting of a single-storey portion to the west and a mainly two-storey section to the east. This building appears to stand on the site of the original pre-1831 bleach mill and probably incorporates some of its fabric, though evidence suggests it was considerably altered in the early 20th century and may even have been lowered in height. The single-storey western portion is constructed in rubble and brick, with a roof made up of a row of gables — some with monitors — partly slated and partly covered in corrugated iron. The southwest corner has either been extended or rebuilt, and is largely in concrete brick with a large area clad in corrugated iron. The corner itself is bevelled, and within the bevel is the main pedestrian entrance. To the south elevation there is a series of segmental-headed window openings with metal frames to the left, and a row of smaller, high-level flat-arched windows, also with metal frames, to the right. Between the two sets of windows is a flat-arched vehicle entrance. Only the far right of the north elevation could be seen, where there is a flat-arched vehicle doorway and a window with a timber frame. The rest of the north elevation is abutted by Building D, with the remainder backing onto the embankment of the Green Dam and therefore difficult to observe.

Roughly in the middle of the Building C complex is a gable-ended structure that is internally a single triple-height space housing a number of generators and other machinery. The two-storey eastern section appears to be largely early 20th century — sources suggest around 1900 — and consists mainly of a series of gabled bays finished in render, with a roof covered in corrugated asbestos. To the ground floor of the south elevation there are four pedestrian entrances of varying size, with an equally varied collection of three windows with metal frames. A large quantity of pipes and ducts extends from this section to Building E to the south. To the north there is a tall, octagonal brick-built chimney. To the east, Building C is abutted by Building G.

BUILDING D

Building D abuts the north side of the western section of Building C. It is a small rubble-built gabled structure of around the 1890s, with a similar but smaller projection — a former dwelling house — attached to its north side. That house section has a small brick lean-to to the west and a larger rendered lean-to to the north. The larger southern section has a large central vehicle entrance to its west elevation, clearly a recent insertion, with two windows to either side, all with timber sash frames of six panes over six. The roof of this section is slated. The smaller house portion to the north has several small windows, with the remains of timber sash frames, to both the west elevation and the north side of the brick lean-to, with the main entrance to the west side of that lean-to. The roof of this section, including the western lean-to, is also slated, while the lean-to to the north has a corrugated iron roof. There is a small dormer with a single-pitch roof to the main roof of the former house. The entire rear elevation of Building D could not be seen as it backs directly onto the embankment of the Green Dam.

BUILDING G

Building G is a long two-storey structure built around 1898 to 1900 that abuts the east side of Building C but is set at an angle to it. At its east end there is a small section set on the squint, which may be a slightly later addition; this end section abuts Building H to the east. The whole structure is rubble-built with brick dressings to many of the openings, and the part-hipped, part-gabled roof is slated. The south elevation has a row of windows to each floor, some with segmental heads, now mainly filled with metal frames, though some openings are devoid of frames entirely. The windows in the squint section at the east end are considerably larger than the rest. At ground floor level there are several flat-arched vehicle entrances, all of which appear to have been enlarged. A large tank and hopper apparatus is set in front of a large section of the south elevation. The north elevation backs onto the embankment of the Green Dam and could not be seen.

BUILDING F

Building F is set to the south of Buildings C and G and to the east of Building E. Like most of the rest of the complex it is not a single unified structure but a grouping of disparate extensions added over roughly two decades to a formerly freestanding block. That original block is a large three-storey rubble brown room building of 1898 with a part-hipped, part-gabled slated roof. The additions consist of a large mainly two-storey rendered section of around 1900 to the east with a double-hipped roof, a large mainly brick two-storey lean-to to the west of perhaps around 1923, and a single-storey gabled brick section of 1920.

The north elevation of the original block is wholly exposed and has a uniform row of eight windows to each floor. The larger windows to the ground floor are now mainly filled with metal frames, with timber sash frames — six over six and six over three — to the smaller windows of the upper floors. Beneath six of the ground floor windows at the midpoint are large cruciform steel pattress plates. There is a pedestrian and a vehicle entrance to the ground floor. The south elevation is exposed only at first and second floor level, both floors having a row of windows similar to those on the equivalent floors to the north. There is a pedestrian doorway to the right on the first floor, reached via a metal stair. The block has two chimneystacks.

The large rendered addition to the west is mainly two-storey with a single-storey section to the north. The long west elevation has a uniform row of windows to both floors, each with a timber casement frame. There are some similar windows to the shorter south elevation, with a large centrally positioned vehicle doorway at ground floor level. The mainly single-storey north elevation has a uniform row of windows with multi-pane timber frames. The northwest corner of the addition is bevelled. The short west elevation is almost entirely covered by a large rendered lean-to, with a further smaller brick lean-to attached to the east side of it. Both lean-tos have corrugated asbestos roofs. The hipped roof of the main section of the addition is slated.

The large lean-to addition to the east is two-storeys in height but appears to contain only a single level. It is built in brick to the south and east and largely in rubble to the north. The southeast corner is bevelled, accounting for much of the south elevation. There is a pedestrian doorway to the left-hand side of the south elevation and a vehicle doorway to the east. On the bevel there is a large window with an eight-over-eight timber sash frame, with two similar windows to the east and a much smaller window to the north. The roof of this section is slated.

The large single-storey addition to the south is largely brick-built with a slated gabled roof topped with a monitor. At the southeast corner there is a large bevel rising to a tall parapet, and to the east there is a small brick lean-to. The south elevation has a row of uniform segmental-arched windows with metal frames, as well as a large pedestrian doorway. There are two further windows on the bevel and another larger window to the east. The small lean-to has a pedestrian doorway to the east and a smaller louvred opening to the south.

BUILDING H

Building H is a largely single-storey building on the east side of the complex. Like the others it is composed of structures of varying date and design. At its core is a large curved-roof block of around 1923, with an open loading-bay-like section to the west, large additions to the east (which could not be seen in their entirety) of around the 1930s and later, and a small one-and-a-half-storey house-like section, presumably originally a dwelling house, to the southwest of around the 1890s.

The main block is largely constructed in concrete brick with a felted roof with monitors. The west elevation has a row of large windows with metal frames and two large loading bay doors. The large open loading bay section spans much of this elevation and has a corrugated iron pitched roof supported on cast iron columns. The south elevation of the main block has several large windows with metal frames and a large pedestrian doorway. Part of the façade is clad in corrugated asbestos.

The now disused house section to the southeast has rubble walls with brick quoins and dressings, and a slated overhanging gabled roof. To the south there is a small gabled porch with an entrance to the west side and a window opening to the south. At upper floor level there is a window and a doorway — once a window — reached via a metal stair. The west elevation of the main section of the house has two flat-arched windows to the ground floor and two segmental-headed ones to the upper level, set within gabled half-dormers. The north elevation has a doorway and a small window at ground floor level, with two larger windows above. Most windows have timber sash frames of six over six with broad central panes. The rear east elevation is abutted by a corrugated iron structure that leans against the main curved-roof block. The chimneystacks have been removed.

BUILDING I

Building I lies to the southeast of Building F and to the west of Building H, set at an angle to the former. It consists of three single-storey curved-roof structures of varying size dating from 1920 to around 1926, and one flat-roofed structure of perhaps the 1930s. Two of the curved-roof structures, along with the flat-roofed one, are set side by side on a roughly northwest to southeast axis, while the other curved-roof structure is set across the northwest end of these on a northeast to southwest axis. The façades are finished in a mixture of render and corrugated iron cladding, with the roofs covered either in corrugated iron or felt. There are large vehicle entrances to the southeast and northwest sides. The flat-roofed portion is to the southwest and is a somewhat more formally designed block, with a uniform row of windows and several pedestrian doorways to its southwest elevation, as well as a vaguely Art Deco parapet.

HOUSES J, K, AND L

Scattered throughout the complex are four houses either currently occupied or occupied until fairly recent years. Two are freestanding and the others are semi-detached. The two-storey semi-detached block, Building J, is situated to the south of Building E and north of the large 1980 coating plant and office building. It has a plain, utilitarian appearance and dates from around 1890. The walls are finished in roughcast, the gabled roof is slated with four brick chimneystacks, and there are decorative bargeboards to the east-facing gable end. The house to the east has had a large single-storey flat-roofed extension added to its south side and is now entered from that extension. The entrance to the western house is on the south elevation. The windows are flat-arched, most filled with two-over-two timber sash frames, though some have been enlarged and filled with either timber or metal casement frames.

House K dates from 1920, lies to the east of the 1980 coating plant and office block, and is surrounded by a small enclosed garden. It is two-storey with a plain appearance, roughcast finished walls, and a slated gabled roof with two rendered chimneystacks. The front south elevation is symmetrical, with a central doorway and four windows to the ground floor and five more to the first floor. To the rear north elevation there is an off-centre doorway along with three windows to the ground floor and three similar windows to the upper floor. All windows are flat-arched and filled with one-over-one timber sash frames.

House L was built around 1889 and lies on the south side of the complex, on the east side of the main drive. It is one-and-a-half storeys and has a slightly more picturesque appearance than the other three houses, though a large single-storey flat-roofed extension has been added to the front west side. The walls are finished in roughcast, the overhanging gabled roof is slated, and the two chimneystacks are rendered. The entrance is now to the south side of the extension. The windows are a mixture of flat and segmental-arched, with those to the first floor, on both front and rear elevations, set within gabled half-dormers.

BUILDING M

Building M lies some distance to the south of the main complex, on the south side of the former bleach green, off the east side of the main drive. It consists of a single-storey Art Deco style office block of 1929 to the west, with a large mainly three-storey former lapping room and office building to the east, built in 1908 but possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier 19th-century structure or structures.

The single-storey office block has a rendered façade and an asbestos-covered gabled roof with large rooflights. The long front west elevation is symmetrical and is topped with a shaped parapet containing a moulded panel with the company name, with a clock face above. The central doorway is flanked by rows of large, probably flat-arched windows, each opening separated by a pilaster with a decorative moulding. The windows are currently boarded up. The north and south elevations are plainer in appearance and their windows are also boarded up. There are square cast iron downspouts with square hoppers, two of which — flanking the entrance — bear the date of construction: 1929.

The large lapping room section to the rear of the office block appears to be largely, if not wholly, finished in render with a part-gabled, part-flat roof. The north elevation is topped with a small central gable but is otherwise now featureless, as all the openings — of which there appear to have been many — have been blocked up with only their sills and outlines remaining. The other elevations are largely obscured from view. To the north of the building, sections of rail belonging to a short, now disused railway track remain in place.

BUILDING N

Just a few yards further down the slope from Building A, Building N is a two-storey gabled structure whose southern half dates from around 1910 and whose northern section was added around the 1960s to 1970s. The older portion has rubble walls with brick quoins and dressings, and a slated double-pile roof. To the south elevation there is a tall single-storey lean-to extension in roughcast and corrugated iron cladding. There are uniform rows of window openings to each elevation, most boarded up apart from those to the first floor of the east elevation, which are louvred. There is a pedestrian doorway to both the east and south elevations, with another to the west side of the lean-to. The 1960s to 1970s section to the north has a flat roof and walls constructed in concrete brick, with its openings also boarded up.

SETTING

To the north of the complex is the Green Dam, a large mill pond. The slightly larger New Dam, created in 1897, lies to the east. Both dams are no longer in operational use but are still maintained. To the immediate southwest of the New Dam is the former bleach green, known as the Hall Field, a large meadow with House L at its northwest corner and Building M to the south.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

According to Wallace Clark's 1982 history of Upperlands, Linen on the Green (Universities Press, Belfast), the origins of the firm of William Clark and Sons can be traced to the late 1730s, when a bleacher from Maghera named Jackson Clark acquired a lease of land in the townland of Tirgarvil and shortly afterwards built a beetling mill. This building, later known as the Middle House, is believed to be the small thatched structure still standing today on the southwest side of the drive to the main part of the present factory (Building A). To the north of the mill, a large field — the Hall Field — was used as a bleach green, and just to its south, on the site of Building M, Jackson's eldest son Alex built a new family home shortly after his father's death in 1756. The name Upperlands is said to have been coined by Jackson Clark as a reference to the slightly higher position of his meadows relative to the mill — his upper lands, as it were.

The extent of other buildings added to the site in the later 18th century is not certain. Evidence concerning early 19th-century development includes a letter of 1821 from Alex Clark, grandson of the first Alex, to the Mercers' Company, in which he mentioned expending £2,000 on the concern. A report from the same year notes that Mr Clark was erecting very substantial premises measuring 76 feet by 24 feet, with the ground floor fitted with washers, boilers and other machinery applicable to his business, and the upper storey containing roomy store lofts. His intentions also included repairing an old mill at a cost of about £500, which when finished would provide two capital beetling houses on the estate, along with a commodious dwelling house, offices and stabling, with his existing house to be converted into a warehouse for finished linens. The dwelling house was not in the end built, but according to Wallace Clark's history, Alex proceeded with the rest, building a new beetling mill on the south side of the main road — subsequently known as the Road Engines — and either building anew or extending an existing bleach house close to the green.

The 1831 Ordnance Survey map provides the first accurate plan of the complex. The Road Engines, built in 1824 at a cost of £1,000, then consisted of two slated buildings measuring 63 feet by 25 by 21 feet, and 19 by 14 by just over 6 feet, with a 19½-foot water wheel. The Middle House, described by the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as the oldest mill in the county, was made up of two very old thatched structures with a wheel of 16 feet 5 inches. The Clark dwelling house was a long single-storey building with an L-shaped return and a collection of single- and two-storey part-slated, part-thatched outbuildings. Valuers considered it to be of considerable age, though one Memoir writer of 1836 noted it had been built about 23 years previously. To the northwest of the house were the bleaching buildings, with the 1831 valuers recording four bleaching-related buildings and one office. As one Memoir entry notes, the works at Upperlands were not extensive even by 1830s standards, with the whole collection outside the dwelling house rated at a modest £17 17s 0d.

This situation did not change a great deal during the following decades. Alex Clark is believed to have extended the larger of the Middle House buildings in 1839, extended the Road Engines in 1854, and erected a lapping room on the south side of the green. The 1856 revised Ordnance Survey map shows a layout remarkably similar to 1831, though the higher rateable values — £23 for the bleach mill structures, £8 for the Middle House and £18 for the Road Engines — indicate some expansion. By 1856 the running of the mills had passed to William Clark and his younger brother John, their father Alex having effectively retired. William later took over John's share of the concern, establishing the firm of William Clark and Sons.

The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861 and the subsequent curtailment of cotton shipments created greatly increased demand for linen, and the 1864 valuation reflects expansion at Upperlands, with the rateable value of the combined beetling and bleaching mills rising from £49 to £70. Nevertheless, the physical expansion of the premises remained incremental, and apart from the appearance of further workers' dwellings, little appears to have changed during the following three decades.

In the 1890s the linen industry experienced another periodic boom. Steam power was finally introduced to Upperlands in 1891. Six years later, a major expansion of the works began with the construction of a new two-storey beetling mill — the Jubilee Mill — on newly-acquired land further south of the Road Engines. As soon as this was completed in August 1897, work started on the New Dam to the north of the Hall Field. The following year, a three-storey brown room (Building F) was erected a few yards to the southeast of the existing bleach mill, replacing a much smaller building which had stood close to the old house on the opposite side of the green. In the same year another new structure housing a new boiler and engines was added, and the old water wheel from the bleach mill was finally removed. A further new building, likely Building G, was added in 1904 to house more stenter frames for fixing cloth at a uniform width. In 1900 a railway siding running from the main Northern Counties line to the south was laid, leading directly to the front of the brown room. The rateable value of the works rose from £77 2s 0d in 1896 to £400 in 1902.

By 1905, much of the west side of Building F was in place, along with Building D to the north of the original bleach mill, the western end of Building E, and the small dwelling house at the southern corner of Building H. The works now employed 220 people, some of whom occupied Boyne Row, a terrace of eight houses built by Clarks to the south of the works in 1898 and extended to 22 houses ten years later. Other employees lived in smaller groupings such as Posy Row, Puddle Row and Reilly's Row. Unlike other mill villages such as Millford and Bessbrook in County Armagh or Sion Mills in County Tyrone, Upperlands did not develop to any formal plan.

In 1908 the firm installed hydro-electric power and erected a new three-storey lapping room and offices to the rear of Building M. Two years later, after difficulties in obtaining enough cloth to fulfil orders of 2,000 pieces a week, a weaving factory was added — the very large single-storey north-light-roofed structure of Building B at the northwest corner of the site beside the river. Building E was added the following year along with part of the west end of Building F and an extension to the lapping room at Building M.

Despite the civil unrest and economic uncertainty of the early 1920s, expansion continued. In 1920 the large brick extension to the south side of the brown room appeared, along with the northwest section of Building I, which appears to have been one of the first structures at Upperlands to use Belfast Truss roof construction. Another Belfast Truss structure followed in 1923 with a new dye house to the south of the works, now demolished. A further Belfast Truss frame house was added to the northeast corner prior to 1926 as Building H. House K was erected around the same time, as were further extensions to the lapping room and office ensemble at the south end of the green. In March 1929 a large section of the latter was gutted by fire, resulting in the construction of a new single-storey replacement in the then fashionable Art Deco style later that year.

By the mid-1930s the complex had largely taken the form it retains today, though the extra storey to Building E is believed to have been added in 1940 and the weaving factory was extended northwards around 1948 to 1949. By around 1950 William Clark and Sons employed 600 people, with 244 in weaving, 97 in beetling or as millwrights, 98 in the lapping room, 42 office workers, and 20 looking after the waterways and roads throughout the 70 acres the works then covered. The workforce peaked at around 700 in around 1952.

Changes in technology and fashion subsequently led the firm to diversify into bonded and fused textiles, laminated, needled and non-woven fabrics — mainly used in garment interlining — as well as textile wall coverings. In 1980 a new coating plant, a large single-storey single-span structure, was erected on the south side of the complex. Though production has continued to the present day, the workforce has dwindled to a fraction of its 1950s peak. Most of the mid-20th-century complex has survived, albeit in a considerably altered condition in many cases, with several structures — including the large lapping room and office block — no longer in use or only partially used as stores. The original thatched beetling mill has survived and now houses a small museum.