Survey Data

Reg No

12315001


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical


Original Use

Mill (water)


Historical Use

House


In Use As

Heritage centre/interpretative centre


Date

1780 - 1785


Coordinates

249492, 143644


Date Recorded

05/07/2004


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Flour mill complex, established 1782, including: (i) Detached four-bay three-storey rubble stone flour mill possibly incorporating fabric of earlier mill, 1204-6, with two-bay single-storey projecting bay to left ground floor, single-bay three-storey return to north-east leading to single-bay two-storey return block with attic to east, and two-bay two-storey lean-to infill mill manager's house to south-east. In use as corn mill, 1948. Part refenestrated, pre-1969. Restored, 1997, to accommodate use as heritage centre. Pitched slate roofs (lean-to to mill manager's house) with clay ridge tiles, red brick Running bond chimney stacks, rooflights, and iron rainwater goods on rendered squared rubble stone eaves. Random rubble stone walls with waterwheel to side (south) elevation over mill race, square apertures to eaves level, and dressed rubble stone buttress to return block. Square-headed window openings with no sills, red brick voussoirs, and three-over-six timber sash windows having some replacement timber casement windows, pre-1969, to mill manager's house. Square-headed door opening to first floor with red brick voussoirs, and timber boarded door having overlight. Square-headed door opening to mill manager's house under gabled slate canopy on timber brackets with glazed timber panelled door. Interior with timber boarded floors on timber beams supported on timber posts retaining iron mechanisms to each floor. Set back from road in own grounds with gravel forecourt, and mill race to south having random rubble stone retaining walls. (ii) Detached two-bay two-storey rubble stone flax mill, built 1782, to south. Closed, 1966. In residential use, post-1966. Renovated, 1997, to accommodate use as offices. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, and iron rainwater goods on rendered squared rubble stone eaves. Random rubble stone walls. Square-headed window openings with no sills, red brick voussoirs, and timber casement windows. Square-headed door opening with cut-stone step, red brick voussoirs, and timber boarded door.

Appraisal

An attractive substantial mill building also known as Mullins Mill forming an important artefact of the long-standing industrial legacy of Kells: historic records indicate that a mill was established on site in 1204-6 by Geoffrey de Monte Marisco FitzRobert (c.1197-1242), first Baron FitzRobert, the buildings of which were incorporated into the present complex by the Mullins family in the late eighteenth century. Decommissioned in the 1960s the mill has been sympathetically maintained under various guises until adaptation as a museum retaining most of the historic attributes of the composition, thereby considerably enhancing the character of the locality: the survival of early mechanisms to the interior together with the waterwheel identifies the engineering significance of the site. One of a number of industrial buildings in the immediate locality (including 12315003/KK-27-15-03) the mill remains of particular importance for the contribution made to the picturesque scenic value of the townscape of Kells.