Mill, adjacent to 63 Derryleckagh Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3RB

Mill adjacent to 63 Derryleckagh Road, Newry

This Second World War flax scutching complex, situated on the south side of Milltown Road, comprises three structures of industrial archaeological interest. Although the hand-operated machinery and water turbine are present, they remain in dilapidated condition. The buildings are comparable in architectural scale, style and layout to other flax mills built around this period in south Down, such as Ballymagart and Tullyquilly, but possess no particular architectural or historic merit.

The complex contains a manually-operated flax scutching mill, an automatic flax scutching mill, and the chimney of an earlier flax mill.

The manually-operated scutching mill is a two-storey building with a one-storey rear return, cut into a south-facing slope so that the first floor is accessed from ground level at the rear. The ground floor is divided into three bays, while the first floor is single bay. It has a pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof and smooth rendered walls, probably over concrete blockwork. The principal elevation faces north-east and contains ten openings to the ground floor: four to the left bay alternating between doors and windows, a doorway to the narrow middle bay, and five to the right bay alternating between windows and doors. All windows have 3x5 panes with concrete cills. Six regularly spaced 3x6 paned windows light the first floor. The left and right gables are blank. The rear elevation has large doorways to each end at first-floor level with an abutting engine shed return to the centre. A flat-roofed porch abuts the left side. The return is now roofless and derelict, with a doorway on its left cheek.

The automatic flax scutching mill occupies the north-west corner of the complex. It is a two-storey building with an engine shed return, pitched corrugated asbestos roof with ridge vent, and smooth rendered walls probably over concrete blockwork. The principal elevation faces east. The left section advances from and is slightly higher than the right-hand section, measuring three openings wide. The ground floor features a central sliding metal door flanked by 3x5 metal-framed windows with concrete cills. The first floor has a loading door at left and two 3x5 windows to the right. The exposed section of the right cheek has openings at ground and first-floor levels. The remainder of the east elevation spans four openings wide, with four 3x5 windows at ground floor and three similar windows plus a door at first floor on the right, the latter accessed by external concrete stairs. The left gable contains a loading door at first-floor level with a pulley bracket above, otherwise blank. The rear elevation is abutted at left by a one-storey engine house of similar construction, which has a large doorway on its south-facing elevation and metal-framed windows. The remainder of the main block has windows and loading doors on both floors. The right gable is blank.

The chimney, located immediately north-west of the automatic mill, is a slightly tapered octagonal brick structure standing to its full height with a corbelled top and small access opening on one face near the base.

Historical development

A water-powered corn mill was recorded at this location in the 1830s, supplied from Milltown Lough to the south. However, it appears to have become defunct and is noted as being in ruins on the 1860 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map. Flax scutching commenced sometime in the mid-1860s, and the brick chimney probably relates to this phase of development. James McLoughlin acquired the mill around 1883, and it has remained in family ownership since. No traces of the mid-19th-century mill survive. The two buildings described above date from the 1940s and were purpose-built with government finance as part of the war effort.