A series of caches to highlight some of the places of historical interest in Comber.
The Upper Distillery buildings have recently been converted into apartments, but still retain the old Scrabo stone walls. There was also an octagonal red brick chimney, which was controversially demolished during the building work.
COMBER’S DISTILLERIES.
Comber began to manufacture alcoholic beverages in the 18th century.
James Patterson, who died in 1763, owned a malt kiln and distillery in what is now Killinchy Street, but was then called Barry Street and later Market Street. This became the Upper Distillery in 1825, having, up to that date, been called “The Mound Distillery”, because there was an earthen mound to the rear of the buildings. (there was also another distillery called the Lower Distillery, on what is now Newtownards Road)
Alexander Riddel (ancestor of Riddel’s of Belfast still remembered in Riddel Arcade and in Riddel Hall in Queen’s University.) who was also an extensive bleacher in Comber, took over the distillery in 1761 and ran it until 1767. In that year John Andrews (John the Great) rented the buildings and bought some utensils to carry on the business. He employed William Murdoch, to run the business for him. On William Murdoch’s tombstone in the Church of Ireland graveyard, he is described as “the eminent distiller of Comber”. This arrangement ended in 1788. William Murdoch died in 1805 aged 85 years.
Distilling apparently continued on the site, for a distillery was there when John Miller (1796-1883) came to Comber in 1826. John Miller lived in “Aureen”, in The Square, and his name is on the edge of the footpath in front of the house, picked out in white cobble stones. This is private ground belonging to the house. Also on the footpath in white cobble stones is a hare, a greyhound and the Trainer. This footpath was originally perfectly smooth and was washed with soap and water every Saturday night, to be clean for Sunday.
George Johnston was running the Distillery in 1825 and took John Miller into partnership in 1826. The business was successful and in 1829-30, 80,000 gallons of whiskey were produced. Power for this Distillery came from a breast wheel, 14 feet in diameter on the river and in summer months by a steam engine.
In 1860 John Miller got complete possession of both distilleries
(Upper and Lower) and from then on both were run very successfully. Both distilleries were built of Scrabo sandstone. The power for the Lower Distillery (on Newtownrds Road) came from an undershot wheel on the river, 18 feet in diameter and in summer months by a steam engine as the water level in the river was low. In 1925 the Lower Distillery was capable of storing 50,000 casks -the contents of many of them being over twenty years old. In the early 1920’s the Upper Distillery was re-built with Scrabo stone at a cost of £50,000 and it was then described as the most up-to-date distillery in Ireland.
The granary had a capacity of 6,000 tons. In 1925 electric light was installed throughout both distilleries. They were owned by the Bruce family, John Miller having sold them to Mr. Samuel Bruce around 1873.
The lower Distillery was closed prior to 1931 and during the 1939-45 War was used by the Army as a Command Supply Depot for troops in the district.
The Upper Distillery last distilled in 1952 and closed in 1956.
The cache has been changed to a micro as the tab lock box went missing twice. Wheelchair users may need help retrieving the cache. A small pair of tweezers or pliers may be needed to retreive the log.
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