(78) Moore's Carding Mill (Ballakilly) - later Tynwald Mills
From 1868 O/S Plan IX/8 - SC 283824
The road is the Poortown road - Ballig Bridge is off the
map to the east - it is at the bottom of the sheet but sheet IX/12 appears
not to show the southern edge of the mill.
Field 2491 shows the drying frames.
The second mill race to the south of the mill feeds the
now lost Glen Mooar Corn Mill.
The photos and some of the history are taken from an unpublished
student report on "Manx Weaving" by Kathleen Moore later a
teacher - her information was mostly obtained from a Mr Howarth who
had worked at Moore's Mill before moving in 1927 to a
mill at Sulby.
The 1868 plan and the 1942 photos would indicate that
the buildings had remained unaltered in the intervening years.
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View from North West
photo dated April 1942
Mill and drying frame viewed from east - photo dated April 1942
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Kathleen Moore dates the building of the Mill to 1848 - this fits in with the
following two deeds - there is an 1846 date stone on the building . Her sequencing
is that "...the machinery consisted of a carding machine worked by water
power and vats for dying wool in the fleece. Later on looms were brought into
a further building and a certain amount of weaving was done. This old mill still
[1942] stands at the head of the valley but has not been used since 1924."
Its use in 1942 was to store fleece - the old carding machine still in situ,
but the water wheel had been disused several years earlier. In a note attached
to the photo of the mill she states the wheel was near the bridge. The wheel
was inside the large building near where the bridge stood - the mill race running
through the building and exiting in fron of the smaller building.
Photo dated December 2003 |
The Wheel remained in existance - still present in 2003 though in a very
poor condition - though the mill race had probably been removed by the
time the new Tynwald Mills were built - the looms being powered by electricity.
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Reg Deed Feb 1848 #18
dated 12 Nov 1839; M.H. Quayle + wife Mary Jane Hamilton sell for £325(Brit)
to John Moore(Kk German) that part of Ballalig which lies between the Ramsey
road and the top of Ballig Hill currently under lease to John Moore junr together
with two plots reserved in the sd lease, sale includes the houses etc thereon
erected; witt D F Wilson?, Philip Killey
Reg Deed Feb 1848 #25
dated 18 April 1846; Caesar Wattleworth(Kk German) + wife Eleanor sell for
£3 to John Moore (dyer Kk German) 4 ft in width of that easement part
of estate of Ballig for the purpose of a watercourse or aquaduct commencing
at the bridge of Ballig running thru sd easement towards property of sd John
Moore and the right + liberty to erect a dam head + necessary sluices with
the right of access to clean, amend or repair sd Dam head, water course etc;
and to place the excavated soil on sd easement; witt Evan Quirk, Margaret
Wattleworth.
1942 View of Tynwald Mills from North
The roof of the 1846 mill is just visible far left |
water colour as illustrated in Mona's Herald 13th September 1960 |
The mill would appear to have remained in the Moore family until it ceased
operating some 40 years ago - the name "Tynwald Mill" first appears
in 1917 and by 1922 T J Moore's 'ever expanding' Tynwald Mills were noted. Kathleen
Moore's account states that though some weaving was undertaken in the old mill
- an old handweaver used to come into the mill to help with the weaving - it
was secondary to the carding and dying. This would appear to have changed around
the time of the adoption of the new name and especially after the building of
the new mill to the west of the old mill dated by her to 1933-4. This mill was
a single storey building using electric power for the looms - it also had outgrown
the local wool supply and was using imported wool for much of its production
by 1942.
Closed c.1980 and buildings used as a shopping mall with the old mill adapted
as a meeting and conference centre.
References
Kathleen Moore Manx Weaving 1942 - a student thesis produced whilst
training at Southlands College (a Wesleyan training college for women teachers)
