Engine House, Gilford Mill, Ann Street, Gilford, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6HX

Engine House and Four-Storey Store, Gilford Mill

This is a two-storey former steam engine house with an attached four-storey store, both dating from between 1836 and 1860. The buildings are now abandoned and derelict. They form part of one of the largest flax spinning mill complexes still surviving in the province, and one of the few that also produced thread. The engine house provided the mill complex with steam power to supplement its water power, and both buildings contribute to the character and setting of the wider complex. Together with the rest of the mill buildings, they are of national importance. The complex also has considerable group value with the adjoining village of Gilford, a large proportion of whose houses were built by the mill's operators, Dunbar, McMaster and Co.

The mill complex as a whole sits on the right bank of the Upper Bann at the north-western end of Gilford village.

The Engine House

The engine house is a two-storey building aligned north to south, positioned at the south-east corner of this block. It has a pitched natural slate roof with a skylight and a raised firebreak at its north end. Rainwater goods are plastic, with only vestiges remaining.

The walls are of random rubble blackstone with stepped vee-jointed granite quoins to the south gable. The upper section of the wall has been raised slightly in red brick, probably at the same time as the store (described below) was added — this later brick section has no granite quoins.

The east elevation has a sheeted-over door, above which is a large timber window opening of five panes by four panes, with a brick semicircular head and jambs that extends upward through both floors. A circular metal exhaust flue from a disused oil-fired boiler inside projects through this window. Towards the southern side of the same elevation is a small cast-iron bearing housing. The south gable appears to have formerly been abutted by another structure, as traces of whitewash survive and the roof oversails this end slightly. This elevation has three sheeted-over window openings at ground floor level, all with granite cills, plus an infilled doorway at first floor level and a door at the apex.

The west elevation was formerly abutted at ground floor level by a single-storey building with a Belfast roof, aligned east to west and spanning the tailrace. The lower portion of this wall is cement rendered and has a flat-headed double-leaf timber door leading to that now-demolished building. Above it is a four-by-three-paned window set within a semicircular brick-trimmed opening.

The Four-Storey Store

This red brick building abuts the north gable of the engine house and is also aligned north to south. Its pitched natural slate roof is slightly higher than that of the engine house and features four circular metal ridge ventilators and a skylight. Vestiges of plastic rainwater goods remain. The wall heads are continuous with those of the engine house, confirming the two buildings are broadly contemporary. The walls are of red brick throughout, except for the north gable which is of random rubble with a brick apex.

The east elevation is five openings wide. The entire wall above ground floor level is carried on a rolled steel joist running the full length of the building. The ground floor section is rendered and contains five large openings, all infilled or sheeted over. The first floor is painted and has four timber windows, each one pane wide by two panes tall with top-opening sashes and sidelights, but no cills. The second and third floors have two-by-three-paned top-opening timber windows, all with granite cills. At the northern end of the second floor there is also a double-leaf sheeted timber loading door.

The north gable is of random rubble with a brick apex, rendered at ground and first floor level, with a small window opening to the apex. On the west elevation, the ground floor walls are rendered and partly abutted by a two-storey structure of which only vestiges survive. The second and third floors have two-by-three-paned top-opening timber windows. A felt-covered timber chute runs vertically up the southern end of this elevation.

Setting

This block sits at the western end of the mill premises. To its east and south-east stand a chimney and the main multi-storey mill building respectively. To the north, separated by a post and wire fence, is a landscaped public park. The tailrace runs along the western side of the engine house, beyond which is a yard enclosed by a rubble masonry wall separating it from the river.

Historical Background

The origins of the Gilford Mill complex lie in a lease signed on 12 February 1835, when Hugh Dunbar — a linen thread and cloth manufacturer from Huntly, near Banbridge — leased a corn and tuck mill a short distance east of the present site from Hugh and Eliza Law. Dunbar had entered into partnership with William Stewart with the intention of building a flax spinning mill at the north-western end of Gilford, and gaining control of the water supply attached to the existing corn and tuck mill was essential to that plan.

Construction of the new complex began in 1836. It involved the erection of a five-storey flax spinning mill on the right bank of the river, a handloom weaving factory on the opposite bank, and workers' housing. The 1837 Ordnance Survey Memoir explicitly records both the five-storey spinning mill and a 22-foot diameter by 20-foot wide iron breastshot waterwheel of approximately 90 horsepower output. The wheel may well have been designed by the eminent English millwright William Fairbairn. Part of the mill may have become operational in 1838, but the complex was not officially opened until November 1841.

William Stewart died in 1837 and was replaced by Robert Thompson. Dunbar later bought out Thompson and formed a new partnership with J. W. McMaster of Armagh, with James Dickson joining as a third partner in 1839. By 1843, flax spinning and bleaching were being carried on under the name Dunbar, Dickson and Co, while thread production operated separately as Dunbar, McMaster and Co. Hugh Dunbar died in 1847 and the enterprise was eventually acquired outright by the McMasters. The business was incorporated as a limited liability company in 1886 under H. Dunbar McMaster — son of J. W. McMaster — and his six brothers.

By 1846 the factory was described as the largest, or certainly one of the largest, flax-spinning factories in Ireland. A large-scale map of 1860 shows the complex had largely reached its present size and form. Two chimneys are shown on this map, confirming the use of steam power alongside water power. By 1874, J. Smyth described the steam installation as four condensing steam engines working in tandem with the waterwheel. Coal for the steam boilers was most likely brought by canal from the Newry Canal at Madden Bridge, approximately one and a half miles south-west of the village. From 1859, when the Banbridge Junction Railway Company opened the Scarva to Banbridge line, coal could also have arrived via the railway halt at Lawrencetown.

The 1861 Valuation Book describes the premises as "Gilford flax spinning mill, thread manufactory and yard", with a combined rateable valuation of £840. Operators listed at that time were John Walsh McMaster, James Dickson, Benjamin Dickson, William Spolten, and William Robert Massaroan. A fire in 1869 caused £40,000 worth of damage, after which some buildings were rebuilt. By 1888 the mill employed over 1,500 people, many living in company-owned houses nearby, and water and steam power together drove 16,000 spindles for yarn spinning and a further 4,000 for twisting spun yarn into thread, which was exported worldwide. In 1891 the site was described as one of the largest thread manufactories in the United Kingdom, with a weekly production of 75,000 miles of yarn and thread, both bleached and unbleached.

The 1902 Valuation revision records that part of the mill had been burnt and was being rebuilt. A footprint broadly similar to today's is shown on the 1903 large-scale town plan. The site's rateable valuation rose from £843 to £893 in 1907 and to £1,070 in 1910, indicating substantial additions during that period, including the raising of some of the multi-storey mill buildings by a further storey and the provision of stair and toilet stacks. Sometime after 1903, the original waterwheel was replaced by a water turbine, and an electricity generating house was erected beside the turbine house; valuation notebooks indicate this occurred around 1913 or shortly afterwards.

Yarn and thread production continued until approximately 1986, when the mill closed. Part of the site was subsequently used for small-scale industrial units and a coal yard. Ambitious plans for conversion into apartments, leisure facilities and a shopping complex were drawn up in the 2000s but did not proceed, and the site now lies unoccupied.