55 Dunbarton Street, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

55 Dunbarton Street, Gilford

An attached two-storey mid-terrace dwelling built around 1864, one of a terrace of three houses that forms a group with nos. 51 and 53 Dunbarton Street. The terrace also has historical links with Gilford Mill. Much of the original fabric and detailing survives, and the houses represent a good example of the type of small town dwellings that are becoming increasingly rare.

The building is rectangular on plan with a two-storey canted bay to the west gable. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue-black clay roll-top ridge tiles. A smooth rendered chimney with stone coping and clay pots rises from the roof. Ogee profile rainwater goods are supported on paired corbels and are cast iron. The walls are ruled-and-lined render over painted chamfered plinth.

The principal elevation faces north-east and comprises a square-headed entrance at the left containing a timber six-panelled door surmounted by a plain glazed fanlight. Two windows are positioned to the right of the entrance, with three windows at first floor level. A round-arched opening at the left (shared with no. 51) contains a wrought-iron bootscraper. The north-west gable is abutted by the two-storey canted bay, which contains two windows on the north-west face at each floor, with single windows to the north and south cheeks. Ground floor windows in this bay sit within smooth architraves. All windows throughout are square-headed timber 6/6 sliding sashes with painted masonry sills. The south-east elevation is abutted by the adjacent building (no. 51). The south-west elevation is abutted at ground floor by a lean-to return; the remainder was not viewed.

The building is accessed directly from the street to the north. An enclosed garden lies to the west, accessed via a metal gate set within a plinth wall supporting wrought-iron railings. The garden is enclosed to the west and south by hedging.

The house was built around 1864 on land leased from John Walsh McMaster, a partner in Dunbar McMaster & Co of Gilford Mill. The buildings first appear on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901-2 and do not feature in Griffith's Valuation of 1863, though they do appear in the Annual Revisions of 1864. The mill owners began constructing houses for their workforce almost immediately the mill opened, though the earliest properties were typically basic two-up, two-down and back-to-back dwellings. The population of Gilford grew dramatically during this period: there were 111 houses in 1841, rising to 559 by 1871. The Dunbarton Street terrace comprised three of the 81 houses built between 1861 and 1871, when population growth had reached its peak. These houses were notably larger than other mill-owned properties and were often occupied by school teachers. The provision of suitable accommodation for schoolteachers working in the mill school may have motivated the construction of the terrace, as little housing was then available that fell between the grand mansions of proprietors and the humbler worker's kitchen houses.

The double-height canted bay to the western facade of this end terrace made it larger than the other two houses in the group, and it was assigned a slightly higher valuation of £10. The first recorded occupant was William Valentine in 1864, followed by Thomas Anderson (1880) and William Manwell (1898). William Manwell, a native of County Galway, lived in the house for some years and appears in the 1901 census alongside his widowed mother from Scotland and his niece. Manwell was a National School teacher, likely employed in the Mill School opened in 1846 to provide educated workers for the Dunbar McMaster mill. By 1911, Manwell had married at the comparatively late age of 46 and the couple had two young sons. His niece had also qualified as a National School teacher by this time. The house was designated second class with six rooms. On his retirement, Manwell moved to Lisburn and was succeeded by Joseph W Heaney in 1927. William Manwell died on 18th September 1932. The house is today privately owned.