The Corn Mill

Mullee's Corn Mill in Kilbride

We will stay with the name Mullee for this partof the story and refer to Patrick as Paddy, the name by which his customers would have known him. Paddy inherited this place in the 1830’s, from his father Darby Mullee, listed in the Tithe Applotment register as a farmer, with Mill and a holding of 18 acres, 17 of which were graded as being first class and for which he paid an amount of 15s – 6p, to the Protestant rector of the District of Kilbride. This land was along by the road opposite the school and stretched from the cross-roads, where the Mill was situated, up to and including the area where the new cemetery was established.

Darby probably died around the time that Paddy got married to Jane Dowling, in 1834. Darby could readily have used the Irish version of his name, Diarmuid Molloy at any time, if he so wished. The reason for using the anglicised version of the name remains a mystery. Darby’s brother Patrick had left from the Corn Mill in Kilbride to seek his own fortune and in so doing had taken on the tenancy of a fine farm of land at Newtown Great in Co. Kildare, owned by the Downshire - Blessington Estates. His story will be told separately.

Having such a facility as The Corn Mill was a valuable asset and Darby would have provided a service to farmers and others over a wide area. The Miller had a high social standing in his local community, because he controlled one of its most important services and because he regularly met almost everyone in the neighbourhood.

Early Mills were almost always built and supported by farming communities and typically a percentage of each farmer’s grain, called  “a miller's toll” was set aside for the miller, in lieu of wages. Although Grist Mill can refer to any mill that grinds grain, the term historically was used to refer to a local mill where farmers brought their own grain and received the flour from it, minus the “miller's toll”.

This Mill was designed and operated by this enterprising family, probably as far back as the early 1700’s. It required the establishment of a Mill Race which was diverted from the Lisheen river in the area of Glen Heste, clearly shown on the map as a Weir, where there is evidence of the existence of a reservoir and it then proceeded at the rear of the village, for a distance of at least a mile, along hedgerows, across fields and under two roads, to a point adjacent to the cross roads, where Mullee’s Corn Mill was situated. The route it took can still be clearly identified.  Passing under the road again, it was then used to revolve the large wooden wheel and operate the equipment that turned the millstone to grind the corn.

Latest research has revealed that the Mill Race passed through the land that was leased from the Kilbride Estate, shown as section No. 8 on map dated 1837, by James Molloy who was by all accounts another brother of Darby, who owned and operated the Mill.

As James Mullee he paid £2 –5 –1p in Tithes to the Protestant Church in 1823. A James Molloy was in possession of this land in 1864 when he paid £48 –10 - 0 in the Griffith valuations. No record of any James Molloy/ Mullee has been found anywhere after that, nor are there any known descendents that can be traced back to this holding. It later passed into the Olligan/ Halligan family. A large portion of it is now owned by the Ennis family and another portion by James Blake.

In the Mill Race the passage of water was controlled by sluice gates, allowing for maintenance, and some measure of flood control. The old map, drawn up in 1837, shows a reference to a weir on the river and this controlled the level of water in the reservoir, giving a constant supply to the mill. The ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have used the technology. In the first century B.C. the Greek Epigrammatist, Antipater of Thessalonica, made the first clear reference to the waterwheel. He praised it for its use in grinding grain and the reduction of human labour.

The water then returned to the Lisheen river, adjacent to the Mill in what was known as a tail race, before it joined with the river Liffey close to Ballyward Bridge. The Liffey proceeded on its circuitous route to enter the sea at the point where the city of Dublin is built.

Everything associated with this enterprise was hard work and done in a very dusty atmosphere. The Mill, with its wheel and the house the families were born and reared in, are long since gone. It is noted in the valuation records of 1887 “The Mill was all down”

Now replaced by a modern bungalow with security gates. Bits and pieces of old buildings and walls can still be detected around the place.

The photo, not of the Mullee Mill, gives an indication of exactly what it looked like. The other photos show how the mill race was constructed, from the exit point on the river and the mounds surviving of the reservoir, the bridge construction under the roads is the same today as when it was built, the route across the fields where water still lies, as the rushes show, is used as a watering facility for the many cattle in the fields.