Ormonde Woollen Factory — Dukesmeadows (shillelogher By., St. John's Par.)

On the S bank of the River Nore, c. 400m NE of Kilkenny Castle (KK019-026078-) and outside the city wall, in the townland of ‘Dancing Meadow’ which has become Dukesmeadow. The medieval Lacken Mills (KK019-028----) and Magdalen Mills (KK019-026076-) are located on the opposite/N bank and all the mills on this stretch of the Nore were sited to take advantage of the increased flow of the river as it exited a meander. Following the Anglo-Norman conquest, the crosslands at Dukesmeadows were annexed as seignorial demesne for Kilkenny Castle and a mill was constructed, probably by William Marshal, earl of Pembroke and lord of Leinster. A clause in his 1207 charter to Kilkenny contains the earliest historical notice of what is presumably the mill, 'I have granted to the burgesses that they may grind in my mills for a reasonable toll' (McNeill 1931, 73). In the Calendar Documents Ireland (1302-7), the mill is probably one of the six referred to as being 'in bad condition with many defects ...' in the 1307 extent of the possessions of Joan, Countess of Gloucester and Herford in the borough of Kilkenny (Sweetman and Handcock 1886, vol. 5, 187). In 1399 the third earl of Ormond granted to William Archer the profits of four mills, including probably the mill in question (Curtis 1934, vol. 2, no. 343; 242-3). The Archers reconstructed the mills and may also have constructed new mill buildings after 1432 (Doyle 1985, 156). The family held the mills until their properties were confiscated following the Cromwellian attack on Kilkenny in March 1650. A watermill is indicated here on the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘The Liberties of the Citty of Kilkenny’ and the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘St Patricks Parish’ (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). According to the terrier accompanying the parish map, ‘In Dancing Meadow is a new stone mill’ and the proprietor in 1640 is listed as ‘Comon’ (ibid.). In the Civil Survey (1654-6) the mills, located, ‘Lying a quart[e]r of a mile from ye Citty Southward upon ye river Neor’, are described as, ‘Ormond Mills being 3 in number under one ruffe [roof] Whereof 2 are Corne Mills and ye other a Tucking Mill ye walls being stone and ye ruffe [roof] slates’ and the ‘Ten[an]ts when ye Towne was Taken’ is given as Thomas Archer (Simington 1942, vol. 6, 549). The mill complex is indicated on Rocque’s map (1758) as ‘Castle Mills’. The c. 1699 Francis Place view of Kilkenny provides the earliest view of the mill. It shows a single long one-storey building with a gable to the river and a mill race running below it. A lane, which is no longer extant, provided access to the mill from the south. What also appears to be the mill is depicted as a freestanding building on the c. 1700 Pratt view of Kilkenny. However, by the time it was mapped by John Rocque in 1758 it comprised a complex of two large long buildings and at least three wheel houses, one of which is shown using the 'New Canal', in reference to the Kilkenny Canal, construction of which had begun to the S of the mill the year previously (1757). Four mill wheels are depicted in total, the other three are using the mill race that diverted off of the river Nore. On the map it is called 'Castle Mills'. A lock gate, known as 'Scots Lock' (in reference to a later owner of the complex), and a bridge were built to the south of the mill. Thomas Mitchell's view of Kilkenny in c. 1760 shows the N side of one of the mills in operation, complete with mill wheel and weir on the Nore to the NW. In 1769 the mill was described as follows: 'Stone Mills now occupied by Kenny Scott Miller is at present much out of repair' (Kenealy 1970, 45). In 1783 John Butler of Kilkenny Castle leased to Mathias Scott 'millwright of Kilkenny City' the 'Ormond Mills' and 'Jenkins Mill ... for three lives at a yearly rent of £50'. Five years later Matthew Scott, 'Corn Merchant, Miller, of Ormond Mills' was named in Lucas's General Directory of Co. Kilkenny. In the same year the site is referred to as a corn mill (Finn's Leinster Journal 5.3.1788). The firm of Kenny, Scott and Co. significantly expanded production and some five hundred people were employed in the enterprise (Bassett 1884, 66). Cloth milling, focussing on the production of heavy woollen blankets, was the main produce of the mills at this time. George Holmes's painting shows the north gable of one of the mill buildings in c. 1799. Pigot's 1824 Directory names the mill as 'Ormond Mills' and it is also named as such on the 1st ed. (1839-40) OS map and subsequent editions (Bradley 2000, 16). On the 1840 first edition map a large complex of mill buildings is depicted forming the Ormonde Woollen Mills. In 1969, the mills and all their stock were destroyed in a large fire and the site was abanonded, becoming disused and overgrown (Bradley 2000, 16).In the 19th century the mills were to become the Ormonde Woollen Mills (Bradley 2000, 16; Doyle 1985, 152). The mills were destroyed by fire in 1969 but survive in a ruinous condition (ibid.). An industrial archaeological survey (Hamond 1990), describes the complex as 'a medieval mill site (destroyed above ground level) and an intact post-medieval/early modern water mill, with six surviving undershot mill wheels and three mill races'. An archaeological assessment (01E0551) of the River Nore banks and riverbed in 2000-2001 found medieval and later medieval material was noted at intermittent locations tested downstream of John’s Bridge, with a concentration around the Ormond/Maudlin Mills complex (Stevens 2003, 221-2). See attached: KK019-027----_01 Extract from Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘The Liberties of the Citty of Kilkenny’ KK019-027----_02 Extract from Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘St Patricks Parish’ KK019-027----_03 Extract from the terrier accompanying the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘St Patricks Parish’ Compiled by: Jean Farrelly and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 12 November 2020