[extracted from Proc IoMNH&ASoc vol 7 #4 pp743/750]
During this period work continued on compiling an index of industrial monuments in the Isle of Man and recording those of particular interest, or threatened, in detail. Mr. M. C. P. Apps, Scholar of Queen's College, Cambridge visited the Island in 1970, when he worked on Mwyllin y Quinney, and in 1971 when he carried out research, on behalf of the section, on the Lhen mill.
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Since the group was accumulating much interesting material, which was unlikely to be published elsewhere, it was decided that it was desirable that further short notes on, and plans of, some of the sites should be appended to the Field Section's report in order that important data should be readily available to researchers outside the Isle of Man, and the fellow members of the Society be appraised of the results of the group's work. The second of these bulletins follows. Unless otherwise acknowledged the notes are based on the collective fieldwork of the group and were prepared by Dr. L. S. Garrad who has also re-drawn the plans where required.
Note: In the following reports numbers beginning GBM are those of the international mill recording system. Placenames follow the most recent one inch Ordnance Survey map, even if this is believed to be inaccurate, in order to facilitate the location of sites.
Like most Manx mills the Lhen Mooar has walls of local stone and a slated roof, which has almost gone. The 'Lan more' mill (for which Gilbert McHelly paid 20s Lord's Rent in 1515) almost certainly was on, or near, this site although there was a second mill, paying only 10s rent, in the parish 1542 — 1646. The McHelly's (later Kelly's) paid rent for the mill until 1700 although other families, including Christians of Cranstal and Milntown and Laces of Ballavaddan, Andreas, also held shares and the mill was usually occupied by a tenant miller. The Duke of Athol purchased the mill in 1809 for £1200 and extensive repairs and improvements were carried out. These extended to 'raising the walls' and erecting a wheel made mainly of cast iron, a slightly unusual development at so early a date. The mill was resold at a loss when the Duke died and seems never to have worked again with any real success. Throughout its history there was constant trouble with the water supply, the mill dam being held responsible for flooding higher up the Lhen or failing completely, and in 1921 the water rights were extinguished by the Lhen River Drainage authority. The unoccupied, and largely unused, buildings are now deteriorating rapidly and are likely to collapse completely before the end of the century.
SKETCH PLAN OF LHEN MOOAR MILL, Andreas - inset: map showing dam c1860.
KEY A Threshing mill B Mill complex C House, stables and granary D Outbuildings - 1 WC, Pair of pigstics 3 Room with boiler: House: 4 kitchen 5 downstairs room, with hall and stairs between. Upstairs, bedrooms, left and right, small room over entrance. Stables 6 with granary over both reached by outside stair. Mill 7 Kiln. with platform 2ft 6in high against its rear wall and end wall of mill. 8 gearing assembly, the axle of the wheel passed through slot in west wall. 9 Tail-race 11 road from main road toBallaclucas farm.
The buildings comprise a house (C) — with attached stables witha granary above — which is possibly the earliest surviving part of the complex, outbuildings (D), the mill proper (B) — with the kiln attached to its east end — and a threshing mill (A), which is probably the most recent structure.
The machine housed in this building was powered by the same wheel as the mill machinery. The axle of the water wheel passed through an aperture 8 ft by 4 ft in the streamside wall (through a 5 ft high cast iron frame) to connect with a second axle from which the threshing machine was belt driven.
The lower floor, entered through a door on the upstream side, is now used as a cow house and the upper, reached by a bridge over the mill race, is used to store hay although many of the floor boards have gone. The roof is substantially intact. It was probably built in the late nineteenth century.
This is 16ft in diameter and 3ft wide, with cast iron axle, struts, side pieces and diagonal strengtheners -- from the rim on one side to the hub on the other. Only about 25% of the rim now remains (most survived until 1950) and all the wooden buckets have gone. Unusually for the Isle of Man it was undershot. It probably dates from the mid-nineteenth century.
This is the usual three-storey building with stone walls — 2ft thick like those of most of the buildings on the site. There were finally three pairs of stones, of which the drive to one pair of French burrs remains, but in the Athol period only two sets were installed. All structural timbers are now in a poor state but the sack hoist - see illustration — is still suspended in its cradle in the roof. The door lintel bears the following inscriptions,
"NNW Hurricane wreck Abydos, Sylfaen Agnes Dec XXIII 1894
Great Snow Feb 17 1894"
It was reported to Mr. Apps that similar inscriptions appear on the granary wall adjoining the miller's house, together with a 'mural' of a ship under full sail.
There is a side chamber, housing the pearl barley stone used by the last two occupants c 1900-15, on the north, or upstream, side of the mill. The kiln is attached to the east wall. On the ground floor there is a central hearth while the drying room above had a metal floor, now gone. A slightly smaller room, probably a store, is attached in turn to the east wall of the kiln. The kiln and store are probably of a late nineteenth century date and the former replaced a smaller kiln on the same site. Marks left by the roof of the earlier kiln survive on the wall as may be seen in the illustration . The shute which led into the mill survives.
This is in reasonable repair having been occupied until recently. The house has a kitchen (4) on the north of the entrance passage and a downstairs room (5) with fireplace on the south wall, to the south. It seems unlikely that there was ever internal access to the stables (6) but in view of the presence of doors through partition walls with flues in the Factory, Ballasalla, it is not impossible. There were two large upstairs rooms and one, very small over the hall.
The two rooms lying south of the house were described to Mr. Apps as stables although it is not impossible one was originally a cow house, since the mill originally had some land attached. The whole of the upper floor was apparently agrain store, reached by means of an outside stair, now partly removed. The outbuildings (D) include a room with a boiler (3), two pigsties (2) and a lavatory (1). They are likely to be of nineteenth century date. However it seems highly probable that the house itself dates from at least the period of the Athol reconstruction, and very possibly earlier, and it certainly deserves further investigation of its architectural features.
Mr. D. H. Jones recorded this mill for the international survey and in the summer of 1971 Mr. M. C. P. Apps did further research, on which this report is based. His full account has been deposited in the library of the Manx Museum.
Note: the house has now (1974) been altered and re-occupied.
[This 2nd report also included another mill survey by Mr Apps - Mullen-y-Quinney]
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Water powered Mills etc |
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Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The
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