Corn Mill, 62 Church Road ('Mill Bridge'), Ballynahinch, Co. Down, BT24 8LP

Corn Mill, Kiln House, Former Scutch Mill and Chimney, 62 Church Road, Ballynahinch

This working corn mill and kiln complex was built in 1816–17 by local landowner David Ker of Montalto House, and remains commercially operational today — an exceptional rarity. The listed extent covers the mill building, kiln house, and the tall brick chimney. The complex occupies a site to the north-east of Church Road, roughly half a mile south-east of Ballynahinch town centre.

Origins and Historical Background

The 1816–17 buildings replaced an earlier mill shown on Byers's map of around 1790, which may itself have dated from the first half of the 18th century, based on a 1749 legal writ concerning the grinding of corn at "Ballynahinch Mill." By 1837 the corn mill was described as a slated building in good repair, working on average five months a year, and powered by a breast wheel of 17½ feet by 5 feet with a cog wheel of 8 feet, double-geared with metal machinery. At that time it was operated by Samuel Magilton, a member of a noted County Down milling family. An adjoining flax scutching mill, built in 1820 and also described as a slated building in good order with a breast wheel and double-geared metal machinery, stood alongside it.

By the second (Griffith's) valuation of around 1863, the entire milling complex had passed to a John Martin. The flax mill was noted as "unfinished" at that point, probably indicating it was then being converted to steam power — which would explain the presence of the brick chimney. By 1886 the flax mill, and possibly the corn mill too, was in the possession of a J. Macaulay. Around 1920 the whole grouping was acquired by the current owner's father, by which stage the scutch mill appears to have already ceased working. In around the 1940s much of the original corn milling machinery was removed and replaced with apparatus for rolling corn for cattle feed. In the early 1960s a diesel engine was installed, though the water wheel continued in use alongside it, and the roof of the mill was replaced around 1962. The mill continues to operate on a commercial basis as a roller mill.

The Mill Building

The main mill building is three storeys tall in random rubble fieldstone with a hipped roof, the uppermost storey being quite low. The roof was completely rebuilt in the 1960s and appears to be mainly covered in natural slate, with two vents to the ridge.

The south-west façade is the principal elevation. To the left of the ground floor is a large elliptical arch with timber-sheeted doors; the voussoirs, keystone, and the stone panel above the arch are now painted, and the panel reads "Built in 1816, D Ker." Immediately to the right of this arch, an external drive mechanism has been clad in corrugated iron, sections of which have fallen away. This cladding has partly obscured a small ground-floor window with a sash frame containing six Georgian panes to the top and two vertical panes to the bottom. The brick dressings to this window have been painted, and the sill is granite. To the first floor, centrally and to the left, are two windows matching the ground-floor pattern, except that the left-hand one also has Georgian panes to the bottom section. To the uppermost level are two fixed-light windows positioned directly in line with those below.

To the south-west of the main mill building, a large lean-to section has been added. Because of the slope of the ground, this lean-to appears single-storey when viewed from the south-west and two storeys when viewed from the north-west. It is mainly rubble-built, but brick has been used to raise the roof slightly. Its south-west face has a high-level timber-sheeted door reached by stone steps. Its narrower north-west face has a small corrugated iron lean-to with a metal window to its north-west face and a timber-sheeted door to the north-east face, giving access to the engine room.

The south-west façade of the main mill building merges to the left (north-west) with a two-storey link section that connects to the kiln building. This link is clearly a mid-20th-century construction, with its front face in brick and render. It has a large flat-arched doorway and an irregular chute opening at ground-floor level, and a metal-framed casement window to the first floor. The rear section of this link is concrete block at ground-floor level and corrugated iron at first-floor level, with a corrugated iron roof.

The south-east façade of the mill building is flanked on either side by the faces of the front and rear lean-tos. The main façade has the large iron water wheel — an 18-foot breast-shot wheel — at its lower level. At first floor there is a central window, broadly similar to those on the front façade but with two panes over two. The uppermost level has another centrally located window matching those on the front. The south-east face of the front lean-to has a small four-pane window at very low level and a slightly larger window above. The south-east face of the rear lean-to has two window openings without frames; this lean-to appears badly dilapidated and is partly smothered in vegetation. The rear façade of the main mill building is difficult to see due to encroaching vegetation. There is an unframed window to the right at first-floor level, but the entire left-hand side of the façade (where the rear lean-to must be) is completely obscured by a tree, and the lower sections of the whole rear elevation are hidden behind vegetation.

The Kiln House

The kiln house lies to the north-west of the mill. It is of similar rubble construction and broadly similar height to the mill, but slightly shorter, and its roof ends in a gable to the north-west rather than a hip. It has undergone more extensive alterations than the mill building.

The south-east façade of the kiln house has, at ground-floor level, a pedestrian doorway with timber-sheeted double doors. Above the doorway, and slightly to the left, is a first-floor window with a two-pane sash-like frame. To the right of this is a small roundel recess with brick dressings, beneath which is a painted stone inscribed "Built 1817." To the right of the doorway, the façade is abutted by the link section connecting to the mill.

To the left of the doorway, stone steps rise to the entrance of a very large L-shaped lean-to section that almost completely covers the entire south-west façade of the kiln house. This section may be partly 19th century in origin, but it is now rough-cast rendered with a corrugated asbestos roof. Its openings to the south-east side — which is both one and two storeys owing to the sloping ground — are mainly modern-looking and include a large flat-arched doorway with a sliding door, two metal-framed windows, and a timber-sheeted pedestrian door. To the left on the south-west façade there is a broad pedestrian door with double timber-sheeted doors.

To the north-west gable of the kiln house there is a single-storey lean-to in breeze block. To the south-west this is largely open apart from two large timber-sheeted doors. To the north-east the roof level of this lean-to drops and the façade is rendered; this section appears to be built in brick and may be slightly earlier than the rest of the lean-to. The short north-east face of the lean-to has a broad metal-framed window.

The north-east façade of the kiln house is completely covered by a single-storey lean-to section which, though it may not be original, still appears to be mid-19th-century and looks as though it may once have been a stable. Its north-east face has three doors and two windows, and there is a rendered chimney stack in the centre of the roof. The façade of this section has been harled at some point, but large sections of the harl have broken away.

The kiln house roof is mainly covered in asbestos slates, though there is some natural slate to the rear and to part of the rear lean-to roof. There are several small rooflights to the kiln house roof.

The Former Scutch Mill

To the south of the mill and kiln house is a single-storey gabled building, built as a scutch mill in 1820. Like the main buildings it is mainly rubble-built, but its window openings have been enlarged and now have modern frames. The roof is corrugated iron, and parts of the gables are clad in timber. To the north-west, a portion of this building spans over the mill race; this section is somewhat untidy in appearance and seems to have been much altered, or possibly completely rebuilt, in the mid-20th century, and is largely built in corrugated iron. The scutch mill's water wheel is now gone and the building appears to have lost all its machinery.

To the north of the former scutch mill stands a tall, free-standing, square chimney stack in brick. To the north-east of the scutch mill is a small single-storey house built around the 1930s.