21 Ann Street, Gilford, Craigavon, County Down, BT63 6HX

Number 21 Ann Street is a two-bay, two-storey mid-terrace house built around 1840–1850, situated on the main road through Gilford, east of Gilford Mill and north of the town centre. It forms part of a terrace of 25 dwellings on Ann Street (excluding the gatehouse at No. 1) and was originally constructed as part of a back-to-back housing complex built for workers at the adjacent linen thread spinning mill.

The house is square on plan, with a modern single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear. The roof is pitched and clad in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles. The rendered chimney stack has clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round to the front and uPVC to the rear. The external walls are finished in painted ruled and lined render. All windows are replacement uPVC units set above projecting masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces east and has a window at first-floor centre, a modern uPVC door at ground-floor right, and a window at ground-floor left. The south elevation abuts the neighbouring property (No. 21T). The north elevation abuts the neighbouring property on the other side (No. 21V). The west, rear elevation is fully abutted at ground-floor level by the modern flat-roof extension, which has three small windows and a uPVC door to the right. At first-floor level there is a central window, with a further window at half-landing level to the left. Vehicular access is available to the rear, and the site is bounded towards the mill by mature trees.

The house was built by the proprietors of Gilford's linen thread spinning mill — originally known as Dunbar and Thompson, and later as Dunbar McMaster and Co. Ltd — a hugely successful enterprise that was largely responsible for the rapid growth of Gilford throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Hugh Dunbar came from a linen-manufacturing family; his grandfather had leased property at Huntley from the Whytes of Loughbrickland, where hand-loom weavers produced linen cloth. By 1834, competition from mill-spun yarns produced by the new wet-spinning process compelled Dunbar to establish his own spinning mill. He chose Gilford as the location, entering into partnership with William Agnew Stewart and Robert Thompson to raise the necessary capital. Land was obtained from Hugh Law of Woodbank for the mill itself, and the tail race ran through the land of James Uprichard of Bannvale. The mill opened in 1839 as Dunbar and Thompson — Stewart having died in 1837 — and was an immediate success, drawing large numbers of workers to the town. Between 1841 and 1851 the population more than quadrupled, from 643 to 2,814, and by 1870 the mill employed over 2,000 workers. The company built 200 houses for its workforce between 1836 and 1862, inspecting all of them monthly and annually lime-washing, painting, and repairing them at the firm's own expense. The mill also provided a medical attendant and a school as part of a wider structure of social welfare support.

This terrace is believed to be among the earliest housing built by the company. It was originally constructed as two rows of back-to-back houses: numbers 9 to 26 fronted onto High Street, and behind them, sharing the same back wall, was a second row fronting onto Bann Street towards the mill. A view of the mill said to date from around 1841, shortly after its completion, shows the rear of the terrace as it appeared at that time. Both rows are shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned "High Street" and "Bann Street." Griffith's Valuation of 1863 records all properties as belonging to Dunbar McMaster and Co. The High Street houses were valued at £2 10s each and described as two storeys, 15 feet long and 12 feet wide, though they were noted as "deteriorated by age and not in good repair," suggesting they had been standing for some time by then. The Bann Street houses behind were valued at £2 5s, despite being the same dimensions.

These back-to-back houses have been described as the most basic units available: with only two rooms and a single window at each floor, they would have provided cramped living space for more than four occupants. The absence of rear doors and windows reduced ventilation, though this was considered less critical on an open site with free circulation of air. They were regarded as adequate for single occupants or smaller family units and as a considerable improvement on poorer types of rural dwellings. Despite this, it was not uncommon for families of four or more to occupy these two-room dwellings. Valuation records and census returns reveal considerable mobility within the terrace, with many tenants living at two or more different addresses over the years.

The first tenants recorded at what is now number 21 were James McAvoy in the High Street house and Charles Drainer in the Bann Street house. Subsequent High Street tenants included Robert Lewis (1887), Ellen Lewis (1902), Annie Hamill (1904), and Joseph Fullerton (1922). The Bann Street tenants included Letitia Halliday (1902), David Hanna Junior (1908), Annie McBurney (date unknown), and John McKeown (1922). The 1901 census records Annie Hamill in the High Street house as a flax spreader at the mill, living with her sister (a flax carder) and a female boarder working as a flax rover; all three women were from County Fermanagh. At the same time, the Bann Street house was occupied by Letitia Halliday, a 31-year-old widow working as a twister at the mill, living with her three children aged between 6 and 12. By 1911, Annie Hamill was still in the High Street house, by then keeping house for a half-sister and two boarders, all working at the mill as spreaders and reelers. The Bann Street house was then occupied by Mary Fearon, a 52-year-old single woman working as a drawer at the mill, living with her 11-year-old son.

Between 1915 and 1916, most of the Bann Street houses to the rear were incorporated into the corresponding High Street houses. This house and its immediate neighbours at the end of the terrace, however, continued as genuine back-to-back dwellings with two separate sets of tenants until the 1930s. The Bann Street portion of this house had been incorporated into the front dwelling by 1937, and the combined property was revalued at £5 in 1938, when it was described as a "good type parlour house" consisting of a parlour, kitchen, scullery, and two bedrooms, with the scullery and lavatory housed in a rear extension.

In 1879, following the imposition of a very high import tax on linen thread in the United States, Hugh Dunbar McMaster established a mill in Greenwich Village, New York, bringing workers and machinery from Ireland and installing his brother John as manager. The emigration of workers from Gilford had a significant effect on the local population, which halved between 1871 and 1881; many of the early occupants of this terrace are likely to have been among those who emigrated. The Gilford company nonetheless continued to thrive and gained a worldwide reputation. The British Trade Journal of 1890 reported that the firm exported twine for salmon fishing to British Columbia, carpet threads, bookbinder's threads, extra strong threads for leather and thick cloths, and fine threads for sewing-machinists and lace makers, to destinations including the United States, South and Central America, Brazil, Australia, and the rest of the British colonies. The mill and its owners remained central to the life of Gilford well into the 20th century, but a decline in the Ulster linen industry eventually led to its closure in the early 1980s.

The building has been retained in use as a dwelling. Little historic fabric now remains, the house having been substantially altered over the years. Although it is of local interest as an example of mill workers' housing associated with Gilford Mill, it is not considered among the best surviving examples of the type, and the extent of the alterations has reduced its architectural and historic interest to the point where it no longer meets the threshold for listed status. It was removed from the heritage register on 1 November 2013.