4 Drumaran Road, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6DP

4 Drumaran Road, Gilford

A vacant direct-entry single-storey vernacular dwelling, possibly pre-dating 1834, situated on the west side of Drumaran Road south of Gilford in a rural setting. The building is rectangular on plan with a pitched corrugated metal roof, likely covering original thatch, and raised masonry verges with rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are mounted on drive-in brackets. The walling is roughcast rendered with smooth rendered gables.

Windows are 2/2 timber sliding sash in smooth rendered surrounds with projecting sills. The principal elevation faces south and features a timber-sheeted door at the centre in a smooth rendered surround, flanked by two windows on either side. The north (rear) elevation has three evenly spaced windows, with the central window being smaller, and a timber-sheeted door to the far right. The east gable is blank, while the west gable was inaccessible at the time of survey.

Although the original proportions and layout have been retained and much external character survives, the building has been altered and is not among the best examples of its type. It is roughly 50 feet by 17 feet in dimension and constructed of rubble masonry. The house was refinished around 1920.

The dwelling appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, when it extended further to the west, and on the second edition of 1858 with its present plan form. According to Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), the occupier was Edward McGiveregan, who leased from Mrs Charritie, a significant landowner in the Gilford area. McGiveregan held the house, valued at £3, alongside over 12 acres of land. The valuation had been raised from £2 10s because the outbuildings were slated, suggesting the property was reasonably substantial. McGiveregan also sublet several smaller houses in the vicinity, indicating he was a prosperous small farmer.

The land subsequently passed through several owners, but the house itself came to the Campbell family in 1876, who remained tenants until around 1920. The 1901 census lists Alexander Campbell as a farmer resident in the house with his wife and five children aged between one and nine. By 1911, two additional children had been born, though one had died by then. The older children, aged sixteen and over, were employed in the linen industry as finishers and bleachers, possibly at the nearby Banford Bleach works.

Valuation records become unclear at this point, with notes indicating the house temporarily became uninhabitable and was struck from the record. When it reappears in 1920, it is recorded as the home of Margaret Moles, valued at £1 5s. In the early 1930s, during the First General Revaluation, Margaret Moles remained resident as a lessee from Alexander Campbell. The cottage, comprising three bedrooms and a kitchen, was revalued at £3 10s with a rent of three shillings per week free of taxes. The valuer noted the building as "old" but of "good building and finish".

The property sits in a rural setting along a country road south of Gilford, with its gable facing the road. It is bounded to the east by a modern timber fence and to the north and west by mature hedgerow and trees. An original wrought-iron gate to the northeast provides access to farmland. The house has changed little since the first Ordnance Survey of the early 1830s, remaining characteristic of the rural farmhouses that served tenant farmers who supplemented their income from nearby linen mills. Although still structurally sound, the dwelling is currently unoccupied.