Saint John's Mills

Detached three-bay (three-bay deep) five-storey gable-fronted mill, dated 1885, on a rectangular plan. Closed, 1989. Now disused. Pitched (gable-fronted) slate roof behind parapet with clay ridge tiles, cut-granite coping to gables on cut-granite corbel kneelers including cut-granite coping to gable (south) on cut-granite corbel kneelers with granite ashlar pedimented bellcote to apex, and concealed rainwater goods. Tuck pointed coursed rubble stone walls with vermiculated cut-granite panelled quoins to corners (north) or red brick flush quoins to corners (south) supporting red brick Flemish bond parapet having cut-granite coping. Camber-headed window openings between cast-iron "Pattress" tie plates with cut-granite sills, and red brick block-and-start surrounds framing remains of timber casement windows. Interior including (ground floor): timber boarded floor; (upper floors): timber boarded floors on timber beams on chamfered posts; and (top floor) exposed Queen post timber roof construction with timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled vaulted ceiling. Set in unkempt grounds on a corner site with rendered diagonal piers to perimeter having concrete capping supporting sheet steel double gates.

A mill erected by Michael Lynch (----) for S. and A.G. Davis of Enniscorthy (Bassett 1885, 275) illustrating the continued development or "improvement" of the Saint John's Mills complex in the later nineteenth century with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact rectilinear plan form; the construction in an ochre-toned fieldstone offset by silver-grey granite or vibrant red brick dressings producing a pleasing palette; the uniform or near-uniform proportions of the openings on each floor; and the simple bellcote embellishing the roofline. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior where an array of machinery highlights the engineering or technical dexterity of a mill making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement overlooking the Urrin River.