20 Orken Lane, Aghalee, Craigavon, BT67 0ED

20 Orken Lane is a formal two-storey plus attic semi-detached house in a late Georgian style, built around 1840, though its almost identical attached neighbour (No. 18) appears to be earlier, possibly dating from the 1820s. The house stands on Ballymacilrany townland, set back from a relatively secluded country road approximately 1.2 kilometres north-west of Aghalee. To the south lies a large collection of outbuildings that appear to belong to No. 18, and a short distance to the north-west stands a Methodist church of 1846, whose history is closely bound up with this property and its neighbour.

The building comprises a main two-storey gabled front block, a two-storey gabled rear return, and to the west a relatively recent single-storey hip-roofed extension with an attached sunroom or conservatory. The walls are finished in painted render. All roof sections are gabled and covered in natural Welsh slate, though the chimneystacks appear to have been rebuilt in what seems to be concrete brick. Some original features survive, including windows and rainwater goods, but PVC window replacements have been introduced at the rear, and a large sunroom extension has been added to the side.

The north (front) elevation is formal but asymmetric. An off-centre entrance is framed by a panelled timber door beneath a double sunburst elliptical fanlight, with sidelights featuring intertwining tracery set on painted brick aprons. To the left of the entrance is one window, and a further window to the left of that, making two on the ground floor; three windows to the first floor align with the ground floor openings. All of these windows are square-headed with tripartite sash frames arranged in a 2/2, 4/4, 2/2 glazing pattern, and have painted stone cills.

The west elevation has a window to the extension, two further windows to the return — one of which is now contained within the conservatory — and two windows at first floor level aligned with these; all have 6/6 timber sash frames. A single attic window appears to have been enlarged and has a six-pane timber frame.

The south elevation appears to consist of the gable of the return only. There is a window to the right on the ground floor with a 6/6 sash frame, and one roughly to the centre of the first floor with a replacement frame. It is unclear whether the section abutting the east side of the return belongs to this property or to No. 18.

The site has a long and well-documented history. A house with a long rear return — broadly similar in footprint to the present No. 18 — is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832, along with outbuildings to the south and east that do not correspond precisely to anything visible today. In the valuation of 1834 the property is recorded as the home of Mr Henry Shillington, with the dwelling described as a "not new" slated structure in good condition, graded 1B+. At that date, the main front section of the house measured 32½ by 18 by 20½ feet, with a kitchen return of 19½ by 19 by 13½ feet. The same valuation records stores of 51 by 21½ by 10½ feet, sheds measuring 26 by 7 by 4 feet and 12½ by 9 by 5 feet, a scullery of 18½ by 8 by 4 feet, thatched offices measuring 65 by 16 by 5 feet, 31½ by 16½ by 5½ feet, 42 by 17½ by 6 feet and 28 by 18½ by 13 feet, a kitchen with returns of 34½ by 18 by 6 feet and 15 by 6 by 5 feet, a barn of 34 by 19 by 8 feet, and a stable of 19 by 17 by 6½ feet.

The Shillington family, whose name is commemorated in the nearby Shillington's Hill just to the east, is believed to have held land in Ballymacilrany townland since the later 17th century, and it is probable that a dwelling has existed on this site from that period. Henry Shillington (c.1774–1864) was a farmer and prominent Methodist in the Aghagallon area, and is mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1838 as the sect's principal class leader in the district. In 1845 he set aside a plot to the west of his home for the building of the adjacent Methodist church. Both the church and No. 20 are shown on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858, along with a different configuration of outbuildings to the south and east that again do not compare precisely to the present structures, though the small scale of the map makes certainty difficult.

In the valuation of around 1860, No. 20 is recorded as measuring 34 by 18 by 20 feet, with additional sections — presumably returns — of 17 by 21 by 16 feet and 10 by 6 by 6 feet. The main front portions of both houses are graded 1A by the valuers, suggesting that No. 18 had either been rebuilt or refurbished at some point after 1834. By the early 1860s both houses had assumed the collective name of Craig Villa or Craigvilla, with No. 18 occupied by Henry Shillington junior and No. 20 by Henry Shillington senior. Henry senior died at the age of 90 in 1864, and following the death of Henry junior in 1875 at the age of only 34, both houses passed to Maria Shillington and then in 1884 to Thomas Shillington.

Changes in rateable value suggest new structures may have been added to the site in 1869, or existing ones upgraded. A valuation entry of 1874 mentioning a 50-foot chimney and engines of five and three horsepower indicates that the southern brick-built section of the L-plan outbuilding to the east of No. 18 dates from around this time. By 1889 No. 20 was recorded as only partially furnished, with two rooms occupied by a steward named Samuel Cowan, while the outbuildings were in use for machinery in connection with a manufacturing business. By the 1890s the valuers refer to a winding room, indicating that the business involved the winding of thread. The plans of both houses and the outbuildings to the immediate east of No. 20 are shown broadly as they stand today on the 1900 Ordnance Survey map.

In 1902, Thomas Shillington, who had by then become a successful businessman in Belfast, donated both houses together with 140 acres of farmland to the Methodist Church for use as a boys' orphanage. Craigmore Boys' Home opened in 1903, and over the following 34 years almost 400 children were cared for there and educated in a schoolhouse added in 1908 along Orken Road just to the north. The children were also given instruction in agricultural techniques on the farmland, while the younger children appear to have been accommodated in a playroom located in the former winding room. The two houses were extended to cope with their new roles, though the precise extent of this is uncertain as their footprint does not appear to have changed significantly during the period. The home was merged with that at Childhaven, near Millisle, in 1937.

Ownership of both houses is difficult to trace with certainty for the following decades, as the wider area had by then assumed the name Craigmore. It is likely that both were among the two houses at Craigmore, Aghalee, offered for sale as one lot in September 1944, one being described as containing dining and drawing rooms, five bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, scullery and pantry, and the other having dining and drawing rooms, three bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and scullery. The outbuildings at that time included a milk house, coalhouse, garage, workshop, cart shed, large potato house, poultry house, byre for three cows, and wash-house, all forming a large enclosed yard. The two properties, described as Craigmore House — two superior residences, were offered for sale again in October 1950. The main residence was described as stone and lime built, in first-class decorative order, with an entrance hall, two large reception rooms, a living room with parquet flooring, a large kitchen, cloakroom, three main bedrooms, two secondary bedrooms, bathroom, and a separate water closet. Its neighbour, of similar construction, contained an entrance hall, two reception rooms, a kitchen with a modern range, a scullery, a cloakroom with bathroom off, and five principal bedrooms. The outbuildings at that time comprised a large hall of 40 by 28 feet with a partly glazed roof, a store with loft over measuring 40 by 21 feet, a wash-house and fuel store all adjoining the main building, a large garage, loose-boxes, byre, feeding-house and barn of 70 by 40 feet all with slated roofs and in good structural repair, and a large poultry house of 20 by 18 feet with a corrugated iron roof. The pair were acquired for £2,800 by William and Eveline Anderson, and remain in the same family. The single-storey extension to the west side of No. 20 was added after 1966.

The key heritage interest of No. 20 lies principally in its group relationship with the two adjacent properties. Owing to significant replacements and alterations to those two neighbours, this group value has diminished to the point where the record no longer meets the threshold for individual listing.