Patterson's Spade Mill

There has a been a mill on the site of Patterson's Spade Mill since at least 1770. First used as a flax and corn mill until 1837, it was subsequently converted to use as a paper mill by Robert Sloane, initially employing nineteen people. Sloan's son, William, took over the paper mill, but by 1864 it had been transferred to a company called Diamond & Steen. By 1877 the mill had changed hands again to the Carnanee Paper Mills Company. In the 1880s it was owned by the Ballyclare Paper Mills Company, but by 1891 machinery had been removed and the site was dilapidated. In 1919-1920 the mill once again underwent conversion, this time to facilitate spade production, under the ownership of the…

The earliest map of the site from 1770 shows a building connected to the Ballymartin Water by the head race and tail race of what became the early mill. It also shows two further buildings, which may have been early iterations a mill-owners house and workers' cottages. By 1832 there were five buildings on site, including a second building, likely a mill, that was also connected to the head race. The flax mill was powered by a waterwheel and the corn mill by a waterwheel that measured . Two roads had also been constructed to enable access to the site; one of these connected to a major turnpike.