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

Free-standing brick chimney of 19th or early 20th century date, formerly serving the engine house of the Gilford Mill complex on Ann Street, Gilford. Together with the other buildings and structures on the site, this chimney forms part of one of the largest flax spinning mill concerns still surviving in the province, and one of the few to have also produced thread. The chimney is of particular merit for its functional relationship with the rest of the mill complex — having supplied steam power alongside the water supply — its contribution to the setting of the complex, and its group value within it. The mill complex as a whole was one of the largest in Ireland and is of national importance. The chimney also has considerable group value with the adjoining village, particularly given that so many of the houses there were built by Dunbar, McMaster and Co.

The extensive former flax spinning mill and thread works occupies the right bank of the Upper Bann at the north-western end of Gilford village, and has been subdivided into five discrete units. The chimney stands towards the western end of the premises, a short distance east of the engine house and just north of the multi-storey mill. To its north, separated from the mill premises by a post-and-wire fence, lies a landscaped public park.

The chimney rises to its full height and is of octagonal cross-section, though with a circular brick lining internally, tapering inwards to a corbelled brick crown. The brickwork of the upper section is noticeably fresher than that lower down, indicating that the chimney has either been rebuilt at the top or was heightened at some point. Whether the structure is original or represents a later rebuild on the same footprint remains uncertain. The square brick base has recessed rendered blind panels to the east, south and west sides, a projecting concrete cornice, and a large opening on the north side for the flue intake from the boiler. Metal tie bars are fixed around both the base and shaft, and a lightning conductor runs down one side.

The history of the complex is well documented. On 12 February 1835, 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 complex in perpetuity from Hugh and Eliza Law. Dunbar had formed a partnership with William Stewart with the intention of erecting a flax spinning mill at the north-western end of Gilford, for which they needed control of the water supply belonging to the existing corn and tuck mill. Work on the new complex began in 1836 and 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 houses for the workers. The five-storey spinning mill and a 22-foot-diameter by 20-foot-wide iron breastshot waterwheel of approximately 90 horsepower are both explicitly noted in the 1837 Ordnance Survey Memoir. 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 subsequently bought out his new partner and formed another partnership with J.W. McMaster of Armagh. James Dickson became a third partner in 1839. By 1843, flax spinning and bleaching were being carried on by Dunbar, Dickson and Co, and thread production by Dunbar, McMaster and Co. 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 the ownership of H. Dunbar McMaster, son of J.W. McMaster, and his six brothers.

By 1846, the factory had been 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 by then largely taken its present size and form, with two chimneys indicated — confirming the use of steam power in addition to water. Further detail on the steam plant is provided by J. Smyth in 1874, who describes four condensing steam engines working in tandem with the waterwheel. Coal for the steam boilers was probably off-loaded from the Newry Canal at Madden Bridge, approximately one and a half miles south-west of the village. From 1859 onwards, when the Banbridge Junction Railway Company opened the Scarva to Banbridge line, there was also a railway halt at Lawrencetown. The 1861 Valuation Book records the premises as the Gilford flax spinning mill, thread manufactory and yard, with a combined rateable valuation of £840, under the operation of John Walsh McMaster, James Dickson, Benjamin Dickson, William Spolten and William Robert Massaroan.

A fire in 1869 caused £40,000 worth of damage to buildings, and some were subsequently rebuilt. It is possible that the chimney dates from this period if not original, though it could equally be a later rebuild. By 1888, the mill employed over 1,500 workers, many living in company houses nearby. Water and steam power together drove 16,000 spindles for spinning yarn and a further 4,000 for twisting the spun yarn into thread, which was exported throughout the world. The site was described in 1891 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 a portion of the mill had been burnt and was in the course of being rebuilt. A footprint broadly similar to that of today is shown on the 1903 large-scale town map. The site's valuation rose from £843 in 1907 to £893, and then to £1,070 in 1910, indicating substantial additions during this period. These included the raising of the multi-storey mill buildings by a further storey and the provision of stair and toilet stacks. Sometime after 1903, the waterwheel was also replaced by a water turbine and an electricity generating house was erected beside the turbine house; the valuation notebooks suggest 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 an apartment, leisure and shopping complex were formulated in the 2000s but came to nothing, and the site now lies unoccupied.