Clanrye Mills, 10 Canal Quay, Newry, Co Down, BT35 6JB

Clanrye Mills is a red brick mill complex in Venetian style, built in 1873 and situated at the corner of Canal Quay and New Street in Newry, directly alongside the canal that supplied it with raw materials. The complex was designed by James Watson of Newry and built by James O'Hare, also of Newry, at a cost of approximately £10,000. It is of significant interest for its unusual architectural style, restrained but carefully considered ornamental detailing, its canal-side setting, and its role in the commercial life of the town. The buildings are of industrial archaeological interest and lie within a conservation area.

The site comprises six distinct blocks, described in turn below.

BLOCK 1: MAIN FOUR- AND SIX-STOREY CORNER MILL

The dominant building on the site occupies the corner of Canal Quay and New Street. The principal section rises six storeys plus an attic and is five openings wide to the canal and six openings wide to New Street. Adjoining it to the north on the canal elevation is a four-storey section five openings wide (originally six storeys). Adjoining it on the New Street elevation is a four-storey section three openings wide.

The roof is of artificial slate, hipped to the corner, with the lower adjoining sections similarly slated and hipped; all are carried on steel trusses. Half-round metal gutters run throughout.

Both street elevations are of red brick on a chamfered granite base course, with a quarter-round profile turning the corner. A continuous sandstone hood mould follows the profile of the ground-floor openings. Moulded sandstone cill courses run at second- and fourth-floor levels, the latter doubling as a cornice on the four-storey sections. A course of blue brick runs beneath each cill at first-, third-, and fifth-floor levels. The six-storey section has a machicolated sandstone cornice around its street elevations, with a short continuation on the left gable, above which is a moulded sandstone eaves course. At the centre of each street elevation on this section is a pair of eaves dormers, each with sandstone-coped verges and a trefoil opening to the apex. All openings have semicircular heads and round-edged jambs. All window openings have granite cills and are currently blocked with painted metal sheeting. Ornate cast-iron tie-bar washers are inserted across the top of each storey on both sections of the canal elevation.

On the Canal Quay elevation, the six-storey section at left has five equally spaced window openings to each floor. The four-storey section at right has a wide semicircular-headed door opening at ground-floor left, containing a pair of metal-sheeted doors, with three windows to its right. A loading door sits at first-floor centre with two windows on either side. The remaining two upper floors each have five equally spaced windows in line with those below.

On the New Street elevation, the six-storey section at right has a wide semicircular-headed door opening at ground-floor centre, flanked on each side by a circular sandstone panel with a small hood mould over it. The left panel reads 'Clanrye Mills' and the right panel reads 'Erected 1873'; at the centre of both is the monogram 'SS', standing for Sinclair and Sinclair. The door opening contains a pair of metal-sheeted doors and is flanked on each side by a pair of windows. At first floor, directly above the door, are two windows, with loading doors at left and right. All upper floors have six equally spaced windows. The four-storey section to the left has two windows and a door at ground-floor level, with three equally spaced windows on each upper floor in line with those below. All exposed gables are smooth rendered, as is the rear of the block, which is abutted by more recent buildings and four tall circular metal grain silos.

BLOCK 2: FOUR-STOREY QUAYSIDE BUILDING

This building abuts the four-storey section of the main brick mill to the north on the quayside. It is four openings wide and appears to date from the earliest phase of the mill complex. It has a hipped corrugated-asbestos roof on metal trusses, with half-round metal gutters. The principal elevation faces east to the quay and has smooth-rendered walls, probably over random rubble. Metal tie-rod washers are present at all floor levels.

At ground-floor left is a large double-leaf metal-sheeted door in a flat-headed opening, with three window openings to its right; the rightmost window is infilled, and the other two are blocked with sheeting, as are all upper-floor openings. All openings have segmental heads, granite cills, and metal security grilles. A loading door at first-floor centre, now infilled, is flanked by two windows on each side. The two upper floors each have five windows in line with those below. Below the cill of the second window from the left on the second floor is a granite plaque with capital letters reading "Sinclair and Son 1867 Steam Mills". The left gable abuts Block 1 and the right gable abuts Block 3; the exposed section of the right gable is smooth rendered. The rear wall is abutted to eaves level by a two-storey smooth-rendered building with a corrugated-asbestos monopitch roof.

BLOCK 3: TWO-STOREY QUAYSIDE FAÇADE

This block survives only as a façade wall to the canal. It is two storeys high and nine openings wide, with cement-rendered walls and banded rustication to the ground floor. A projecting string course runs between ground and first floor, below which is a painted sign reading 'Sands Millers Grain [… Me]rchants'. A moulded eaves cornice sits above a rendered blocking course. All openings have been infilled and window cills removed. At ground floor there is a semicircular-headed pedestrian opening at the left end and an almost-flat vehicle entrance at the right, along with six semicircular-arched window openings. At first floor, the sixth opening from the left is a loading door; the remaining eight openings are segmental-headed windows. The left gable abuts Block 2. The right gable abuts a large modern single-storey store with a pitched profiled-metal roof and concrete block walls; the exposed section of the gable is smooth rendered. The rear of the façade is abutted at the right by a modern double-pile single-storey shed with curved corrugated-metal roofs, raised to the east in profiled metal to accommodate internal meal bins. At the back left it is abutted by a two-storey shed with a modern flat profiled-metal roof.

BLOCK 4: OFFICE BLOCK ON NEW STREET

A modern two-storey brick building with an artificial slate roof and a two-storey rear return. In the courtyard behind is a large drive-on weighing machine. To the left is the site entrance, comprising a pair of steel gates over which a concrete beam is painted 'Robert Sands Ltd'.

BLOCK 5: STABLE BLOCK ON NEW STREET

A two-storey block with its gable facing the street; the left half of the building appears to have been demolished. It has a natural slate monopitch roof falling to the yard, with semicircular metal gutters. The walls are of random rubble granite brought to courses, with stepped red brick jambs and flat brick heads to openings; windows have granite cills. The east façade, facing the yard, is five openings wide, with painted tongue-and-groove doors in the second and fourth openings from the left, and modern one-over-two top-opening windows to the remaining openings. The first floor has similar windows to all openings except the fourth from the left, which contains a tongue-and-groove loading door. The north gable is of brick. The building is abutted by a one-storey extension, probably of the same period, with a monopitch natural slate roof, brick-trimmed random rubble walls, and a door and window to the yard. The south gable, facing the street, is smooth rendered with a tongue-and-groove door at first-floor level. The rear elevation was originally an internal party wall and is of partly plastered random rubble.

BLOCK 6: BELFAST TRUSS BUILDING

A single-storey, double-pile building with felted Belfast truss roofs to each pile. The walls are of random rubble, except to the yard, where they are of concrete block — originally open — with metal sliding doors. There are five trusses to each pile, each estimated at 10 to 11 metres in span. The diagonals to the trusses are not parallel, indicating an early design.

HISTORY

A datestone records that the first mill on this site was established by William and Abraham Sinclair in 1867, on the site of an earlier salt works. At that time milling took place in two buildings at the corner of the quay and New Street: one contained six pairs of millstones (three for wheat and three for maize), and the other had two French burr stones for flour along with flour-dressing equipment. All machinery was powered exclusively by a 30-horsepower steam engine associated with a boiler house and a chimney 32 metres high. The quayside four-storey block to the north was described at that time as a store and kiln.

In December 1872 the mills were destroyed by fire. The following month, concrete foundations were laid for the new six-storey mill with its four-storey section along New Street — the building largely surviving today. Valuation records note that the new mill contained six pairs of burr stones and six pairs of double stones on Mr Cullen's patent, in which both the runner stone and the bed stone rotate, all driven by a 30-horsepower triple-cylinder steam engine. All machinery was supplied by the Newry Foundry Company. The complex is cited on the 1873 Ordnance Survey map as 'Canal Quay Steam Mills (corn and flour)'. In 1874, the four-storey store and kiln was converted into a maize mill containing five pairs of stones and a 16-horsepower steam engine.

The site appears to have been vacated by the Sinclair family around 1886. Robert Sands first appears in the 1892–93 valuation records, at which point the corner flour mill was converted to corn milling, probably for animal feed. The two-storey quayside block at the north end of the site first appears in the 1906 valuation records as offices, stores, and stabling. The building with the Belfast truss roofs is thought to date from around the turn of the 20th century.

The office block was destroyed in a malicious fire in the early 1970s and a new office block opened along New Street in 1973. A further fire gutted the main mill in 1985, after which it was completely reconstructed internally. The top two floors of a section along the quay were removed on safety grounds at the same time, as was the corner cupola and the chimney.