An old corn mill near Naas, which is the sort of commuter town outside Dublin you normally just drive past.
I haven’t found any history at all for this mill online, but maybe there is some in a local archive.
Anyway, it’s shown on the map with a long mill pond to the south, and two tailraces, the one on the left probably being an overflow.
The waterways are all dry - a view of the mill from the mill pond and looking out along the main tailrace behind.
The rear of the mill showing shuttered concrete in the wheel pit - good, that usually means a water turbine.
Empty wooden (Hurst) frame in the basement - all the original corn-grinding equipment has gone.
Some junk down here including a not very old newspaper (1986) and bottles.
Oddly, there was also a copy of the 1916 Proclamation (of the Irish Republic) - everyone in the picture was shot by the Brits.
A collapsed section with the remains of a drying kiln next door - the skinny metal beams in the kiln would originally have supported perforated tiles - both faces of a broken one shown below.
Up a level, the only mill-related thing in the main ground floor space seemed to be a Bamford grinder, powered by the turbine with a takeoff extending through the wall into the next room.
The water turbine turns out to be a ‘Hercules’, an American make from the late 1800s and one of the first efficient mixed flow designs.
I haven’t seen one of these before but it’s recognisable by protrusions on the top for the cylindrical flow control gate, adjusted from within the mill by the wheel in the wall.
Not much upstairs except a hopper for feeding the grinder below and the usual sack-flap and hoisting gear.
So what we have here is a little corn mill which probably ended its days grinding animal feed.
You don’t need a whole building to do that - many farms still have feed mills in a shed somewhere, usually driven by electricity or a tractor attachment.
In this case it was presumably worthwhile to use the (free) water power at an existing site for a while.
I haven’t found any history at all for this mill online, but maybe there is some in a local archive.
Anyway, it’s shown on the map with a long mill pond to the south, and two tailraces, the one on the left probably being an overflow.
The waterways are all dry - a view of the mill from the mill pond and looking out along the main tailrace behind.
The rear of the mill showing shuttered concrete in the wheel pit - good, that usually means a water turbine.
Empty wooden (Hurst) frame in the basement - all the original corn-grinding equipment has gone.
Some junk down here including a not very old newspaper (1986) and bottles.
Oddly, there was also a copy of the 1916 Proclamation (of the Irish Republic) - everyone in the picture was shot by the Brits.
A collapsed section with the remains of a drying kiln next door - the skinny metal beams in the kiln would originally have supported perforated tiles - both faces of a broken one shown below.
Up a level, the only mill-related thing in the main ground floor space seemed to be a Bamford grinder, powered by the turbine with a takeoff extending through the wall into the next room.
The water turbine turns out to be a ‘Hercules’, an American make from the late 1800s and one of the first efficient mixed flow designs.
I haven’t seen one of these before but it’s recognisable by protrusions on the top for the cylindrical flow control gate, adjusted from within the mill by the wheel in the wall.
Not much upstairs except a hopper for feeding the grinder below and the usual sack-flap and hoisting gear.
So what we have here is a little corn mill which probably ended its days grinding animal feed.
You don’t need a whole building to do that - many farms still have feed mills in a shed somewhere, usually driven by electricity or a tractor attachment.
In this case it was presumably worthwhile to use the (free) water power at an existing site for a while.
