38 Mill Street, Gilford, Craigavon, Co Down, BT63 6HQ

38 Mill Street, Gilford

A vacant three-bay two-storey with attic semi-detached house built around 1863 and extended around 1880, located in an alleyway east of Mill Street in Gilford town centre. The building is recorded for historical interest but is not of special architectural significance.

The house is rectangular on plan and linked to a two-storey outbuilding to the east by a first-floor addition supported on cast-iron beams over a ground-floor storage area. The roof is pitched natural slate with rendered chimneystacks topped with terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods run along the eaves. The walls are English-garden wall bonded red-brick on the south elevation and smooth render on the east gable.

The principal elevation faces south and is five openings wide on the first floor and four openings wide on the ground floor. Windows throughout are timber-framed, with a boarded casement window with leaded panes on the ground floor, 1/1 and 6/6 timber sliding sash windows on the east gable, all featuring projecting masonry sills and rendered reveals. A timber sheeted and glazed door to the left of the principal elevation is surmounted by a leaded and coloured glass transom light. The west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The north elevation was not accessible. The east gable has a 1/1 window to the attic, with the first floor abutted on the right by the addition and an exposed box 6/6 window at left. The ground floor has a half-panelled timber door surmounted by a leaded and coloured glass transom light with margin panes, and a 1/1 window to the right.

The house is accessed via an alleyway from Mill Street through timber-sheeted gates leading to a tarmacadam yard. A two-storey brick outbuilding stands to the east, its south elevation featuring two 6/6 timber sliding sash windows flanking a timber-sheeted door. The ground floor has a timber-sheeted door with a four-paned transom at left, a large timber-sheeted sliding door at centre, and metal doors to the right. To the far south is a mature garden enclosed by decorative cast-iron railings and gate.

Historical context

The current building forms the return to a dwelling house fronting Mill Street. According to Griffith's Valuation around 1861, the main house and return were in progress at that time. The neighbouring house was built as a public house and grocery by Thomas Thompson, while the current building was constructed as his dwelling. The incomplete house was recorded with dimensions of approximately 7 by 8 yards with a deduction for a carriage archway, while the two-storey return measured approximately 8 by 5 yards. Due to its unfinished state, the house was not given a valuation until the mid-1860s, when it was valued at £23.

In 1880 the pub and house passed to Bridget Thompson, and in 1881 new outbuildings and a garden were added to the plot, with the return extended to its present dimensions. The valuation increased to £24, with 10 shillings for the garden. The 1901 census records that Bridget Thompson, a wine and spirit merchant, was living in the 13-room house and return with her son, who managed the public house, and her granddaughter Carmen, who had been born in South America. The household also included a general domestic servant. Fourteen outbuildings are listed in census records, including stables, a coach house, a harness room, and agricultural buildings such as cow houses and a fowl house.

By 1905 the house had passed to Bridget Thompson's representatives, and the pub passed to the Livingstone family; from this point onwards the buildings were no longer jointly owned. Thomas Vaughan, a wood-turner, occupied the house and return from 1907, followed by his widow Mary Vaughan in 1925. The 1911 census lists Thomas and Mary Vaughan living with their 18-year-old daughter Edith, a dressmaker.

In 1926 the house was purchased for £570 by the Trustees of Gilford Roman Catholic Church and functioned as the parochial house, housing the first resident priest in Gilford, Father Michael Brown, who is recorded as the occupier from 1929. It has been speculated that during the tenure of subsequent priests—Father James McEvoy from 1949 and Father Michael H O'Rourke from 1952—the rear return may have been used as accommodation for a housekeeper. The house was sold to Mr Minnis in 1969 and subsequently became a funeral parlour (Cairns) before becoming vacant.