Former mill complex, Drumlough School Road, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5DR

Former Mill Complex

This large mill complex at Drumlough, erected in 1944 as part of the wartime expansion of flax production, comprises a flax scutching mill, engine house, saw mill, store, and miscellaneous related buildings. It is of technical and historical interest, particularly for the survival of a Gardner engine and as a reflection of the Second World War boom in flax growing.

The scutching mill is a substantial single-storey, single-bay building aligned north-west to south-east, parallel with the road. Its pitched roof is corrugated asbestos with glazed skylights to both pitches and no rainwater goods. The original red brick walls, laid in English garden bond, were raised in concrete blockwork (nine courses) following a fire. The road-facing south-west elevation is seven openings wide. Openings at positions 5, 7, and 9 have double tongue-and-groove sheeted doors; the remaining openings contain 3 by 6 metal-framed windows, of which the two on the left are boarded over. All openings have reinforced concrete heads and rendered brick cills to the windows. Inset into the concrete blockwork at the left end is a finely dressed rectangular granite plaque inscribed "DAVID CROMIE & SONS / SAW, FLAX & CORNMILLS / DRUMLOUGH". The left north-west gable has a large entrance opening with a steel sliding door rail to the top, though the door is now gone. The apex of this gable bears a date stone reading 1944. The rear north-east elevation is abutted towards its left end by the engine shed, with a small metal-sheeted door to the right of this shed and a larger metal sliding door (now sheeted over) further right. The right gable is blank except for an infilled opening at the left and is abutted by the saw mill.

The engine shed is a single-storey structure with a corrugated metal monopitched roof and skylight, and walls of concrete blockwork. Its left side is blank. Externally, it is abutted by four galvanised water cylinders on low concrete piers (formerly five) and by an exhaust pipe and silencer from the Gardner engine housed within. The rear north-east elevation has two windows. A two-storey concrete blockwork shed with pitched corrugated asbestos roof abuts the engine shed to the right. Three concrete piers in front of this structure formerly supported cooling cylinders from a Blackstone engine. The right side of the engine shed has two windows, now sheeted over. The left side of the two-storey structure is blank, while its rear elevation contains an entrance door to the engine room at the right and two top-hung windows to the first floor. The right side of this structure projects slightly to the left and is fitted with a 3 by 3 metal casement to the ground floor, a tongue-and-groove loading door to the first floor, and a small 1 by 1 metal casement to the ground floor on the remaining portion.

The saw mill is aligned at right angles to the mill's right gable. It is timber-framed throughout, with walls and a curved roof of corrugated metal, the latter supported on triangular rather than curved wooden trusses. Large sliding doors open from the south-west gable onto the road. The interior has an earth floor. At the rear of the saw mill stands a single-storey, single-bay concrete blockwork store with a pitched corrugated metal roof and various windows and doors.

Several concrete blockwork sheds to the north-west of the scutching mill are also associated with the complex. One formerly housed an engine of unknown purpose, with its mounting block still surviving. Another was used as a smithy.

The Cromie family also operated extensive mills at Tullyquilly.