Drumalane Mill, Drumalane Road, Newry, Co Down, BT35 8AL

Drumalane Mill is a granite multi-storey, multi-bay flax spinning mill with ancillary buildings, constructed between 1860 and 1879 and located east of Drumalane Road. It was designed by William Mitchell for Hill Irvine and cost £40,000. The complex is of considerable architectural and historical interest, particularly the main mill block, engine room, boiler house, preparing department, and office (Buildings 1 to 5) and the chimney. The miscellaneous sheds (Buildings 6 and 7) are of no special architectural or historical interest, though the contrast in scale and materials they provide contributes to the overall character of the complex, especially when viewed from the canal.

The mill first appears in the 1866 Valuation Revision book, recorded as vacant and belonging to Hill Irvine, with the ground floor half occupied with machinery, the first floor a quarter occupied, and the second floor fully fitted out. It appears to have been operational by 1867, powered by a 40 horsepower steam engine. Hill sold the enterprise to the Drumalane Spinning Company in 1876. In 1882 the Bessbrook Spinning Company took over operations, followed from around 1918 by the Blackstaff Spinning and Weaving Company. The mill closed around 1961 and has been occupied by Timber and Tile Products Ltd since around 1964.

The complex is historically significant as it was erected during the so-called "cotton famine" caused by the American Civil War, which triggered a boom in Ulster's linen industry. It also illustrates the broader industrial shift from water to steam power, and from rural to urban locations for textile mills. According to the local historian G. H. Bassett, writing in 1886, the mill had 7,200 spindles in operation and a workforce of 300 to 400 people, and at that time two other spinning mills were operating in the town alongside two weaving factories. Bassett described the building thus: "The walls are composed of native granite, the window dressings being of red brick. The stairs are also of granite, and the building throughout is in almost every respect fire-proof."

According to the 1873 large-scale Ordnance Survey map, Buildings 1, 2, 5 and 6 were the first to be constructed, along with the chimney. Valuation Revision maps indicate that Building 4 was probably added around 1879, and Building 7 sometime afterwards. Building 6 has been completely rebuilt during the 20th century; the only original portion surviving is its west gable.

BUILDING 1: FLAX SPINNING MILL

The main mill is a four-and-a-half-storey, fifteen-bay building aligned east to west, with its principal façade facing north. The roof is hipped, covered in natural slates, and has continuous skylights to all pitches. A rendered brick lift shaft with a flat concrete roof rises at the south end. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run over a projecting eaves course.

The walls are of finely dressed, regularly coursed granite blocks, snecked and strap pointed, with projecting vee-jointed ashlar granite quoins. All windows are timber-framed with granite cills, stepped jambs and shallow segmental heads of red brick. Most windows have four-over-eight fenestration with a pivoted upper section. The ground floor windows to the 2nd and 3rd bays have semicircular brick heads.

On the main (north) façade at ground floor, there are large sheeted double doors at the 1st and 15th bays (measured from left as viewed). The 15th bay door has a tripartite fanlight and leads to a stairwell; both are set in semicircular-headed brick openings with stepped brick jambs and rounded corners. A smaller door at ground floor in the 9th bay appears to be a later insertion into an existing window opening. There is also a loading door at first floor in the 8th bay, similarly a more recent insertion into a window opening.

A section of walling below each 4th bay window has been removed to provide access to toilets set into a metal framework externally affixed to the 3rd and 4th bays. The landings to these toilets, which have brick walls, are enclosed in embossed cast-iron panelling. These landings also give access to a metal fire escape descending from the 3rd bay. A metal water tank surmounts the attic toilet block.

The rear (south) façade is similar to the main façade but lacks the toilets and fire escape. Several new doors have been inserted into former window openings at ground floor level, and some window heads on the right three bays (as viewed from the rear) have been renewed. The right gable is pierced by a pair of two-over-four windows at second floor level, aligned with the apex of the roof of the abutting building. There is a smaller stairwell light between first and second floor, and another between second and third floor. A metal cantilevered hoisting beam projects from the top of this gable wall.

Features of particular note in this building include the vaulted fireproof ceilings, the end stairwell, and the cast-iron panelled toilet landings on the façade.

BUILDING 2: ENGINE ROOM

The engine room is a single-roomed building abutting the left (east) gable of the spinning mill and extending upward to one and a half storeys. It has a monopitch natural slate roof and half-round metal rainwater goods. A narrow corrugated metal lean-to rises from the roof up the gable of the mill; this formerly enclosed the rope drives to the upper floors.

The façade of the engine room is of red brick, with a large double wooden door under a concrete lintel, above which is a recessed rectangular panel dressed with yellow brick. The left (east-facing) wall is of random rubble granite containing three two-over-six top-pivoted timber windows, all with granite cills and yellow brick stepped jambs and segmental heads. The rear wall is of similar construction to the east elevation and shares a stepped red brick quoin. A shallow red brick, slated lean-to with a two-over-six top-pivoted timber window (with concrete cill and head) abuts the south face.

BUILDING 3: BOILER HOUSE

The boiler house is a three-storey, single-bay building aligned north to south, located to the left of the mill. It formerly contained steam boilers at ground floor level. The roof is pitched and sheeted in corrugated asbestos cement, with half-round asbestos rainwater goods. All ground floor walls are of coursed random granite rubble; the upper floors are of red brick, with a yellow brick string course marking the transition between the two materials. All windows have timber frames, yellow brick jambs, shallow segmental heads, and granite cills.

The north-facing gable was formerly abutted at ground floor by a concrete block building with a slated monopitch roof, which had been demolished by the time of re-inspection on 19 February 1998. The upper two floors each have three windows, all infilled except the middle openings: at first floor this contains a four-over-two window, and at second floor, louvres.

The left (east) elevation, which runs along the present eastern boundary of the site, has at ground floor a door at the left and four window openings to the right. The leftmost window has been infilled with concrete blocks, but the remaining three retain their timber two-over-two-over-two windows (with centrally pivoted middle panel). At first floor there are eight timber three-over-three hopper-type windows; directly above at second floor are eight louvred openings.

The rear gable is abutted by Building 6c at ground and first floor levels. At second floor there are three openings: louvres to the left, a window to the centre, and an infilled opening to the right. The apex of this gable appears to have been rebuilt or raised from a hipped form, presumably when the building was reroofed — a course of newer brickwork along the eaves also indicates this reroofing.

The right elevation has five windows at ground floor: three are fixed four-paned, one is a single-over-single top-hung replacement, and the fifth is obscured by Building 6c. At first floor there are eight four-over-two hopper windows, and at second floor, eight louvred openings.

BUILDING 4: PREPARING DEPARTMENT AND MECHANICS' SHOP

This two-storey red brick building is L-shaped in plan and abuts the right (west) gable of the mill. The portion in line with the mill — formerly the preparing department — is five windows wide and abuts the mill at first floor level over a ground floor vehicular arch (with stepped red brick jambs and a semicircular head) that passes through to the rear of the mill. The right-angled return, which was the mechanics' shop, is seven windows wide.

The roof is pitched with natural slate, with cylindrical ventilators along its apex and ogee cast-iron rainwater goods over projecting red brick eaves. The two walls facing into the yard are of coursed granite rubble at ground floor and finely dressed granite blocks in regular courses at first floor. There are three sets of double doors at ground floor, all trimmed with stepped red brick and each with a ten-paned transom light above. A metal stairway leads to a first floor door at the inside corner of the return, which is a later insertion into a window opening. All windows have ten-over-ten-over-ten panes, timber frames, stepped red brick jambs and heads, and granite cills. Between ground and first floor on the yard-facing wall of the return is a series of cast-iron ventilators.

The north gable of the return is also of coursed granite rubble with dressed granite quoins (the yard corner quoin is vee-jointed). A one-storey link block connecting to the office (Building 5) abuts it. A relatively modern cement-rendered shed abuts the west wall of the return from the second window opening southwards, with some original ground floor openings altered internally.

The rear wall of Building 4 is of random granite rubble throughout and is partly abutted on the right side of the arch by a single-storey, double-pile shed (Building 7). Above the arch there is a ten-over-ten-over-ten paned window; identical windows along the first floor to the west are all now infilled.

BUILDING 5: OFFICE

The office is a one-and-a-half-storey, three-bay building aligned north to south at the west side of the yard. It has a pitched natural slate roof, ashlar granite chimneys with projecting copings to each gable, and modern metal rainwater goods. A three-paned box dormer with a concrete cill has been inserted into the roof above the main entrance.

The walls are of finely dressed granite blocks in snecked regular courses over a projecting chamfered base course, with vee-jointed ashlar quoins. All door and window openings have stepped red brick jambs and shallow segmental heads, and granite cills unless otherwise noted.

The entrance is centrally placed on the east wall facing the main yard and contains a painted timber double door — each leaf with two raised and fielded panels — with a three-paned transom light over. On either side is a three-over-six sliding sash window. The north gable and rear (west) elevations are rendered in lined cement. The north gable has a three-over-six sliding sash at ground floor (with a metal security grille) and a two-over-four sliding sash at attic level. The rear wall has two three-over-six windows, one sash and one fixed. The narrow gap between the office and Building 4 has been filled with a link block.

BUILDING 6: MISCELLANEOUS SHEDS AND CHIMNEY

Immediately south of and parallel to the main mill building is a long, single-storey block incorporating three contiguous buildings, with a tall chimney rising from the south-west corner of the easternmost section. According to a 1961 plan held by the mill's owners, the west building (6a) was a bunching and dispatch room, the middle building (6b) a drying room, and the east building (6c) the preparing room. All three have pitched corrugated asbestos cement roofs with half-round asbestos rainwater goods, and concrete heads and cills to the timber windows.

Building 6a: The west block has three sets of four-over-four windows (top panel centrally pivoted) and two sets of sliding doors along its north façade, which is of concrete block construction. The west gable, which is blank, is partly of finely dressed granite blocks in regular courses and partly of coursed random rubble, suggesting that an earlier structure has been incorporated into the present building. The south wall is also of concrete blockwork and has a fixed four-over-four window on each side of a sliding door. A small concrete block monopitched annex abuts its right end.

Building 6b: The middle block, which is slightly taller than the west block, has brick north and south walls. Steel I-profile beams set vertically in the walls support a metal truss roof. The north façade has a sliding door at the east end with a six-paned window over; to its right are three timber six-over-three windows (bottom panel centrally pivoted). The south wall has four nine-paned windows.

Building 6c: The east block has concrete block walls. Its north wall, which abuts the south gable of the boiler house (Building 3), has a large sliding door to the east and four sets of four-over-four windows (top panel centrally pivoted) to the right. The south wall has a door at the right and five sets of fixed four-over-four windows to the left. At the south-west corner of this block stands a tapered octagonal red brick chimney rising to a corbelled top and braced with metal ties; the freshness of the brickwork at the top suggests it has been heightened or rebuilt at some point.

BUILDING 7: MIXING ROOM AND BREAKER HOUSE

This single-storey, double-pile block is aligned north to south and abuts the south wall of Building 4. The walls are of coursed random granite rubble with dressed stepped granite quoins. Both single-bay piles have pitched natural slate roofs with cylindrical ridge ventilators and ogee cast-iron gutters over projecting brick eaves. Of particular note are the finely dressed ogee-moulded granite cornices at the corners, which support the gutters. All openings have brick jambs and heads.

The original door at the north end of the east wall has been widened. This wall also has four window openings: two are infilled and two contain ten-over-ten-over-ten top-pivoted timber windows. A small monopitched concrete block lean-to toilet block abuts the south gable of the east pile, with a small window — probably a later insertion — to its left. The south gable of the east pile has two fixed five-by-five paned timber windows, above which is a brick-trimmed roundel.

Elsewhere in the yard there is a modern shed of no interest. According to the 1961 plan, a gatehouse and tow store also formerly stood within the complex, but both have been demolished.