Mary Brook House, 11 Raleagh Road, Drumnaconagher, Crossgar, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 9JG

Mary Brook House is an extensive and largely complete small-scale 'Georgian vernacular' rural milling complex, dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries. It comprises a water-powered two-storey corn mill and flax mill, a single-storey stable block (all probably mid to late 18th century), a two-storey miller's house built in 1837, and subsidiary structures including a small cottage and storehouse dating from around the 1840s. The complex is picturesquely set at the end of a lane to the west of Raleagh Road, roughly two and a half miles east of Ballynahinch, with the Ballynahinch River immediately to the west and a mill pond to the south. The grouping was abandoned in the 1950s and lay largely derelict until the early 1970s, when it was acquired by Mr Lewis-Crosby, a senior figure within the National Trust, who restored the buildings and brought the corn mill back into use. The corn mill continued operating until the late 1990s and was not in use at the time of the listing assessment in October 2000. The complex was acquired by its present owner in 1998. The preservation and character of the group is considered to be of national interest, and the scarcity of such an intact complex is also noted.

The whole grouping has a uniform, semi-vernacular appearance, with harled and whitewashed facades, slated roofs, Georgian-paned sash windows, and timber-sheeted doors. This character is complemented by an abundance of traditional wrought iron farm gates, stone walling, and simple gate pillars.

THE MILLER'S HOUSE

The miller's house forms the architectural focus of the group and is of interest in its own right for its style, proportion, development as a building, the quality of its interior, and its setting. It occupies the south-east corner of the complex. The principal two-storey hipped-roof portion is now linked, in a somewhat organic fashion, to a series of what appear to have been outbuildings, part of which may have belonged to an older dwelling possibly dating from the 1720s. To the rear of the house are large two-storey and single-storey wings, a section of which appears to have originally been a barn.

The front facade of the main hipped-roof portion faces roughly east and is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is a panelled timber door with a large elliptical fanlight with radial tracery and sidelights with interwoven tracery. To the left of the doorway is a sash window with Georgian panes (six-over-six), with three more sash windows of the same type to the first floor. All windows throughout the house are sash with similar Georgian panes. The south facade of the main portion is blank, but is abutted at its far left edge by the blank east wall of a single-storey extension. The north facade has one window to each floor, matching those on the front.

To the left of the south elevation extends a largely two-storey gabled section that was originally separate from the house and probably served as an outbuilding of some kind, possibly a barn. To the right, this section becomes single-storey and is linked to the main house by means of a single-storey flat-roofed section set slightly further back, abutting only the right-hand side of the former outbuilding. The south facade of the former outbuilding has four windows to the ground floor and a timber-sheeted door. The first, second, and fourth windows from the left match those on the front of the main house. The third window is smaller and has a nine-pane frame that appears to be fixed. The doorway is immediately to the right of this third window and consists of a timber-sheeted door with a simple open porch of country-garden character, with a gabled slated roof, lattice-work sides, and shaped bargeboards. The fourth window falls within the single-storey section. To the first floor of the former outbuilding are two windows, matching those on the front, set within gabled half-dormers with shaped bargeboards. The short south facade of the flat-roofed extension and link to the right has a large window with arched lights; the frame for this window was apparently salvaged from a Victorian shop front. The east-facing gable of the single-storey portion of the outbuilding section has a small, high-level, six-pane window.

The north facade of the outbuilding section faces into a small informal courtyard. This facade has two windows to the first floor matching those on the front. The second of these windows was undoubtedly originally a loft door, as it is taller and sits beneath a gabled hood that may once have carried a pulley wheel. To the ground floor is a small nine-pane window. The west-facing gable of the outbuilding section has one window to each floor, matching those on the front.

The remainder of the north elevation, to the right of the north facade of the main house, has a complex appearance. It largely consists of a long two-storey gabled return in two distinct sections: the right-hand section projects further to the north and is abutted at ground-floor level by a long single-storey gabled section. Part of this return may belong to an older dwelling possibly dating from the 1720s. The north facade of the left-hand portion of the return has a timber-sheeted door to the left at ground-floor level, and to its right a window matching those on the front but smaller. To the first floor are two similar but smaller windows. To the first floor of the projecting right-hand section are three windows matching those on the front. The north facade of the single-storey section has three windows, again matching those on the front but smaller. To the left of these windows the facade is abutted by a round gate pillar. At ground-floor level on the east-facing exposed portion of the gable between the two sections of the return there is a window matching those on the front. To the east-facing gable of the single-storey section there is a timber-sheeted door.

The south facade of the return faces into the rear courtyard. To the ground floor are four sash windows matching those on the front; to the first floor are five similar but slightly smaller windows. To the west-facing gable of the return there are two windows to each floor, as before.

To the west side of the rear courtyard is the single-storey flat-roofed extension and link. Virtually the entire east face of this is glazed, comprising two sets of three-light salvaged Victorian shop windows — matching those described on the south elevation — with a modern glazed double door between them. Within this extension, the original ground-floor window to the rear of the main house has been left intact, as has the door opening to the north, which gives access to the return. To the exposed upper right-hand section of the rear west facade of the main house, visible above and beyond the extension, there is a further window matching those on the front.

The entire facade of the house is harled and whitewashed. All sections of the roof except the flat-roofed extension are slated. The extension has a dentilled eaves course. The main section of the house has two central chimney stacks; the return has two more; the single-storey section to the north has one. There is a further small stack to the north-west corner of the return, and to the south-west corner of the main house rises a slim chimney breast. All stacks are finished to match the facades and have stone coping, with octagonal pots to the main stacks. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The corn mill (excluding a smaller projection to the north), the flax mill, and the stable are all shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and recorded in the valuation returns of 1836. All of these buildings were graded B+ to B- by the valuers, suggesting that most were believed to be at least twenty years old at that point. At this stage the miller's residence consisted of a long single-storey dwelling on the site of the present house, which the valuers considered to be the oldest building on the site, possibly dating from the early to mid 18th century. The present two-storey dwelling was built in 1837, with perhaps some of the fabric of the original house incorporated within the return. The two-storey barn to the south of the house was also added around this date, as were the storehouse to the north of the flax mill, the small cottage-like building, and the projection to the north side of the corn mill, all of which appear on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858.

The valuation of 1861 records the house and mill in the possession of Christiana Silcock, who leased them from Alexander John and Robert Stewart Esq. The buildings listed at that date include: the house measuring 14½ yards by 5 by 2 storeys, with a return of 6 by 5 by 2 storeys; offices of 10 by 5 by 1 storey, 7 by 4 by 1 storey, 6½ by 4 by 1 storey, 24 by 5 by 1 storey, and 16 by 6 by 2 storeys; a slated store of 15 by 5 by 1 storey; a slated shed of 6 by 4 by 1 storey; a second scutch mill, slated; a shed store wing of 6 by 3 by 1 storey; and a pig house of 9½ by 3½ by 1 storey. The house was graded A, with all other buildings graded B, suggesting that most were the same structures recorded in the 1836 valuation. The valuers also mention a barn on loft; a flax mill on basement containing three stocks with rollers; a breast water wheel of 14 feet with buckets of 4 feet, which worked briskly for four months of the year; and four stocks and a set of rollers. For the corn mill, they record three pairs of stones for shelling, grinding, and hard corn, and one stone for dressing pearl barley, with an 18-foot breast-shot wheel with buckets of 5 feet, which also worked briskly for four months of the year.

The Silcock family recorded in both the 1836 and 1861 valuations are believed to have acquired Mary Brook around 1790 to 1800 from a family named Traill. The Traill connection with the area dates back to 1647, when James Traill, an officer in the Parliamentary army, was granted the townland of Drumnaconagher. His grandson, also named James, is believed to have been the first actually to settle within the townland, building a house there in 1721. Walter Harris, writing in his Ancient and Present State of the County of Down in 1744, refers to this house — then occupied by James's son, Hamilton Traill — as Marybrook, seated on rising ground near a small lake, two miles south-south-east of Ballynahinch. On the face of it this description seems puzzling, as the present Mary Brook does not appear to be sited on rising ground, is not near a small lake, and lies closer to three miles east of Ballynahinch rather than south-south-east. However, if it is taken into account that ground level to the north of the flax mill drops considerably — a drop which may have been more pronounced in the mid 18th century — this could explain the reference to rising ground, while the small lake may simply refer to a mill pond or flood plain associated with the nearby river. The discrepancy in distance is explained by Harris's use of the longer Irish mile, as was common at the time, and the anomalous direction from Ballynahinch may reflect inaccurate mapping: a contemporary map entitled A New and Correct Map of Ye County of Down, apparently produced to accompany Harris's book, places locations almost directly east of Ballynahinch — such as Kilmore — considerably further south than they actually are.

At its height in the late 19th century, the Mary Brook complex employed around 150 people, engaged not only in corn and flax milling but also in a small hemstitching factory situated in a now-modernised building along the main drive off Raleagh Road. The children of employees were taught in a small schoolhouse on the site, which occupied the single-storey section attached to the large two-storey north return of the house. The hemstitching factory closed around 1900, with the flax mill ceasing production a few years later. The corn mill continued in full-time use until after the First World War, with production coming to a halt by the 1930s. The Silcock family continued to reside at Mary Brook until the early 1950s, after which the site was abandoned and fell into decay.