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• ULSTER FOLK & TRANSPORT MUSEUM

CULTRA, HOLYWOOD, CO.DOWN BT18 OEU, NORTHERN IRELAND, TEL +44 (0)28 9042 8428

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Straid Corn Mill

STRAID CORN MILL

Original location: Straid townland, Ballymena, County Antrim

Small water-powered mills were a common feature throughout the countryside where fast-flowing rivers could be harnessed to provide power. These mills provided farmers with the means to grind their grain, in some cases paying the miller with a percentage of the meal, in others paying cash. Mill-ground oats were used as food for livestock and by people for making porridge and oatbread (oatcakes), one of the most common of the Irish flat breads.

Towards the end of the 19th century the bulk imports of American and Canadian maize offered millers a new lease of business life. The raw maize was ground into Indian, or Maize, Meal that provided an almost universal food. It was fed to both animals and poultry. For human consumption maize needed to be ground much finer than most of these small mills could manage. This meal, which was used for making porridge and bread, was usually ground in large commercial mills equipped with steel grinders.

This corn mill was owned and operated by the Weir family, who had been millers at Straid since the 17th century. The date-stone over the door shows the present building was erected in 1852. By the 1890s the family business had expanded to include a farm, a forge and a carpenter's shop as well as the corn mill.  The mill was powered by a waterwheel 18 feet (5.5m) in diameter and the complex includes a corn-drying kiln, a grain store and a pair of cottages for mill workers.

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