Click
on images to enlarge
|
Sketch of Milford Mills complex from Mr and Mrs Halls Ireland c1840
Courtesy of Carlow Library |
The mills complex at Milford were built in
1790. They were also used for other purposes. The largest building (now
completely gone) on the west bank of the Barrow ended its days as a
tannery. It employed ninety people when it was destroyed by fire in July,
1965.
This was not the only fire in the complex
because we read in the Carlow Post of November 11, 1862 — “... fire
destroyed the flour mills at Milford, extensive malt houses adjoining were
saved - machinery valued c£20,000, the water wheel valued at £1,000 was
saved - the mills were only recently reconstructed and refitted by Wm.
Fairbairn of Manchester.”
The building, partly in ruin still standing
was also used to generate electricity in 1891 and has been re-commissioned
to feed power into the National grid since 1990. (See Carloviana
No. 39).
Mr and Mrs. Hall’s “Ireland,” published in
1840, describes the Milford Mills complex “as one of the most extensive
and celebrated in Ireland.” “It is situated about four miles from
Carlow, on the Barrow, in the centre of a lovely valley, through which the
river runs — surrounded by hills, and with the magnificent mountains,
Leinster, Blackstairs and Brandon in the background.”1
Another 19th century traveller was also lavish
in his praise for Milford. His observations were published in The Carlow
Sentinel of October 8, 1836. It was a quotation from “Letters to the North
from a traveller in the South,” who signed himself ‘ J.K.’. The article
was originally published in the Ulster Times. J.K’s. comment on Milford
reads as follows:-
- “... To drive along the Barrow to
Milford, the residence of John Alexander, Esq., is extremely beautiful,
following the course of the river, and passing through a rich
plantation.
- No place in the county afforded us more
gratification than the grounds and estate of Mr. Alexander, not only for
their intrinsic beauty, but for the fact that they are altogether the
creation of their intelligent and enterprising proprietor.
- The spot which they now cover was an
exposed and uninteresting district without a single tree when Mr.
Alexander came to reside there. It is now covered as far as the eye can
reach with luxuriant and well grown timber, above the foliage of which
rises the beautiful mansion and unrivalled mills of their owner.
- I have told you that the flour mills at
Slane were the most beautiful, as well as the largest I had seen in
Ireland. I had not then seen Milford; the Slane mills, superb as they
are, cannot compare with Milford, in point either of situation or
architecture, and are not more than one third the extent.2
- They consist of three immense buildings,
one for malting barley, the others for grinding wheat and corn; and it
is impossible to calculate the good which such a vast establishment
must do to the adjacent country, by thus affording encouragement and a
market for the three most important descriptions of agriculture ...“
1. See Carloviana
No. 26 for a full reprint of their comments.
Click to enlarge |
2. The
Griffiths Valuation of 1845 shows that the Milford Mills, which are
situated in the townland of Ballygowan was one of the most valuable
properties, if not the most valuable in Ireland.
Images of the Barrow River
at Milford taken by W. Muldowney c1967, 1978 & 2006.
