6 Ann Street, Gilford, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6HX

6 Ann Street is a two-bay two-storey mid-terrace house built around 1840, located east of Gilford Mill in Co Down. It forms part of a terrace of 25 dwellings on Ann Street, excluding the gatelodge at No. 1, and is situated at the east entrance of the mill.

The building is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles and a rendered chimneystack. Rainwater goods are uPVC. The walling is painted ruled and lined render. Windows are replacement 1/1 timber sliding sash on the principal elevation, with timber casements to the rear, all with projecting masonry sills. The principal elevation faces east and is two openings wide. At ground floor left is a modern glazed timber door. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The north (rear) elevation is fully abutted by a two-storey return and comprises two windows to ground floor and a window to first floor left. The east elevation is abutted by the adjoining building.

The house is of primary interest due to its relationship with Gilford Mill and as an example of workers' housing built by the mill proprietors. The terrace, originally built by Dunbar and Thompson (later trading as Dunbar McMaster & Co Ltd), appears among the earliest housing constructed by the company. A view of the mill dated around 1841, shortly after its completion, shows the terrace. The terrace first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 captioned 'Ann Street'. A photograph from 1900 shows the original fenestration: 3/6 sliding sash windows on the first floor and 6/6 to the ground floor, with a solid timber door surmounted by a transom window.

Hugh Dunbar was descended from a linen family; his grandfather had leased property at Huntley from the Whytes of Loughbrickland, where Hugh was manufacturing thread and his hand-loom weavers produced linen cloth. In 1834, competition from mill-spun yarns produced by the new wet-spinning process forced Dunbar to establish his own spinning mill or cease business. He chose Gilford and entered into partnership with William Agnew Stewart and Robert Thompson to raise necessary funds. Land was obtained from Hugh Law of Woodbank to build the mill, with the tail race running through land belonging to James Uprichard of Bannvale. The spinning mill opened in 1839 as Dunbar and Thompson, after Stewart's death in 1837. The mill was an immediate success and attracted large numbers of workers to the town.

Hugh Dunbar, like many employers of his era, took his duties seriously. The mill provided social welfare support including a medical attendant and a school. Dunbar began building houses for his workforce almost immediately as the town experienced extremely rapid population growth following the mill's opening. Between 1841 and 1851 the population more than quadrupled, from 643 to 2,814. By 1870 the mill employed over 2,000 workers. Between 1836 and 1862 the company built 200 houses. All houses owned by the mill were inspected monthly by the firm's owners, and annually lime-washed, painted and repaired at the company's expense.

The current terrace is listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1863. Houses in Ann Street varied in size and valuation from £5 to £10, and were generally larger than other houses built by the company, possibly intended as accommodation for mill supervisors. They were rated as "slightly decayed but in repair". The first recorded resident at number 6 was William Valentine, whose two-storey house measuring 5½ yards by 7½ was leased from Dunbar McMaster & Co and valued at £5. Subsequent tenants included William Bridget (1878) and James Bridget (1896). William Mulholland was resident at the time of the 1901 census and was a mill worker living with his wife. By 1911 Mulholland had become a spinning master, and his wife's sister had moved into the family home.

In 1879, following 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. Workers and machinery were brought from Ireland and Hugh's brother John was installed as manager. The emigration of workers from Gilford had a very significant effect on the population, which halved between 1871 and 1881. The company nonetheless continued to thrive in Gilford for some years and acquired a world-wide reputation. The British Trade Journal of 1890 reported that the firm exported "twine for salmon fishing to British Columbia, carpet threads, book-binder's threads, extra strong threads for leather and thick cloths and fine threads for the sewing-machinist and lace maker...to the United States, South and Central America, Brazil, Australia and the rest of the British Colonies". The owners retained a paternalistic interest in their workers and the life of the town, which revolved around the mill through much of the twentieth century. However, decline in the Ulster linen industry eventually led to the mill's closure in the early 1980s.

The building has been retained in use as a dwelling. All buildings in the terrace have been altered over the years, compromising the group interest, though their location and relationship to the mill and its setting remain of interest. As a whole, this section of the terrace is a good example of the type.