Survey Data

Reg No

40001069


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Social, Technical


Previous Name

Greene's Mill


Original Use

Mill (water)


Date

1845 - 1850


Coordinates

241961, 304571


Date Recorded

13/06/2012


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Attached multiple-bay two-storey former corn mill, built 1846, with three-bay extension on split-level to west and two-storey return to side. Renovated 1995 as a museum and coffee shop, now vacant. Pitched slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods and sandstone eaves course with timber louvered vent at apex. Roughcast-rendered walls. Irregular fenestration with openings of varying size having with timber louvred windows, one cast-iron lattice window and plain battened doors at ground level. Unusual scales hanging from bracket on west gable. Adjacent mill building to the north, removed from its original site and rebuilt here in 1995. Wrought-iron gates to the yard at the north of the site, upper yard bounded by rubble walls.

Appraisal

The only surviving example of five mills in Cavan town, the former Lifeforce Mill is important element of the industrial heritage of the town. The functional location of the mill on the banks of an historic mill race makes a strong aesthetic contribution to the architectural landscape, and gives insight into how energy was generated for industrial use in the town in former times. Architecturally the mill typifies the simple finishes and plan form of mill buildings having an unornamented exterior. The variously sized openings and their locations illustrate the process of bringing corn and milled product into and out of the building.