County: Antrim Site name: 5-17 George Street, Ballymena
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AE/20/074
Author: Jonathan Barkley
Site type: Post-medieval mill race
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 710479m, N 903292m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.865236, -6.278972
The development site was located on the eastern side of George Street, Ballymena. The buildings present on the site were first visible on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map (1860), though earlier buildings were present on the 1st edition OS map (1830s). A Level 3 Industrial Historic Building Survey was conducted of these structures prior to their demolition. Once the buildings had been reduced to ground level monitoring of removal of all floors and hard surfaces was undertaken. No earlier buildings, floors or cellars were present.
Removal of the south-east wall of the buildings revealed an earlier stone wall that followed the line of a modern culvert. This stone wall is the remnants of a boundary wall that followed a mill race from the direction of Mill Street. A deposit of dark soil was present between the south-east wall of the buildings and the mill race wall. Hundreds of sherds of glass and pottery were present within this deposit; the majority of the material was 19th century in date, though sherds of 18th-century pottery were also present.
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