25 Ann Street, Gilford, Craigavon, County Down, BT63 6HX

25 Ann Street is a two-bay, two-storey end-of-terrace house built around 1840, situated on the main road through Gilford, east of Gilford Mill and north of the town centre. It forms part of a terrace of 25 dwellings on Ann Street (excluding the gate lodge at No. 1 Ann Street), and was originally constructed as part of a mill workers' housing complex of back-to-back houses built by the proprietors of the adjacent linen thread spinning mill.

The house is square on plan with a one-and-a-half storey return to the rear. The roof is pitched with natural slate to the front slope and artificial slate to the rear, finished with blue/black angled ridge tiles. There is a rendered chimney stack with clay pots. Cast-iron ogee-profile rainwater goods survive to the front, with uPVC replacements to the rear. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render. All windows have been replaced with uPVC units.

The principal elevation faces east and has a window centrally placed at first floor level, with a half-panelled timber door to the ground floor right and a window to the left. The south elevation abuts the neighbouring property. The rear (west) elevation has a window to the first floor right, and is abutted to the left by a one-and-a-half storey catslide return, which incorporates a large pitched-roof uPVC-clad dormer. A timber gate encloses the rear yard. The return has a single window to its west face; the left and right cheek elevations were not inspected. The north elevation abuts the neighbouring property to that side. Vehicular access is available to the rear, and the site is bounded toward the mill by mature trees.

The house has its origins in a remarkable episode of industrial and social history. The adjacent linen thread spinning mill was established in 1839 by Hugh Dunbar in partnership with William Agnew Stewart and Robert Thompson, trading as Dunbar and Thompson — Stewart having died in 1837 before the mill opened. The mill was an immediate commercial success and was largely responsible for the dramatic growth of Gilford in the 19th and 20th centuries. Between 1841 and 1851 alone the town's population more than quadrupled, from 643 to 2,814. By 1870 the mill employed over 2,000 workers and the company had built around 200 houses for its workforce between 1836 and 1862. All mill-owned houses were inspected monthly, and annually lime-washed, painted and repaired at the firm's expense. The mill owners also provided a medical attendant and a school as part of a wider structure of social welfare support for their workers.

The current house was originally built as one half of a back-to-back pair. The row of houses numbered 9 to 26 fronted onto High Street, while a second row called Bann Street shared their back wall and faced toward the mill. A view of the mill said to date from around 1841 shows the rear of the terrace as it then appeared, and both rows are shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'High Street' and 'Bann Street'. The houses are listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1863 as the property of Dunbar McMaster & Co. — the name under which the firm was then trading. The High Street houses were each valued at £2 10s, described as two storeys, 15 feet long and 12 feet wide, and were already noted as 'deteriorated by age and not in good repair', suggesting they had been standing for some time by then. The Bann Street houses behind were valued slightly lower at £2 5s, despite being the same size.

These back-to-back dwellings have been described as 'the most basic units available, having only two rooms with single windows at each floor', providing rather cramped living space for more than four occupants. The absence of rear doors and windows reduced ventilation, though this was considered less critical given the open site. They were regarded as adequate for single people or smaller family units and represented a considerable improvement on the poorer type of rural dwelling of the period. Despite this, it was not uncommon for these two-room dwellings to house families of four or more.

The valuation records and census returns reveal considerable mobility among tenants. The first recorded occupants of what is now number 25 were, on the High Street side, Margaret Rocks, and on the Bann Street side, Joseph Brown. Later tenants included William Orr (1902), William Harper (1904), James Morrison (1903), Robert Hoey (1904), and Thomas Moore (1907). The 1901 census records William Harper, a flax sorter, living on the High Street side with his wife and one-year-old son, while James Morrison, a fireman at the thread mill, lived on the Bann Street side with his wife and eight-year-old daughter. By 1911 the High Street side was occupied by William Henry McDonald, who worked alongside his wife as flax preparers, together with their three children aged between three and seven. The Bann Street side was then home to Anne Jane Duffy, a widowed flax preparer living with her eight-year-old daughter.

Between 1915 and 1916 most of the Bann Street houses were incorporated into the corresponding High Street houses, though this property and some neighbours remained as back-to-back dwellings with two separate sets of tenants into the 1930s. Lizzie Thompson occupied the High Street side and Anne Meehan the Bann Street side, at least up to 1929. The Bann Street portion had been merged into the front dwelling by 1937, and by 1938 the combined house was revalued at £5 and described as a 'good type parlour house' comprising a parlour, kitchen, scullery and two bedrooms, with the scullery and lavatory accommodated in a rear extension.

The wider fortunes of the mill shaped the lives of many residents of the terrace. In 1879, following the imposition of very high import tariffs on linen thread in the United States, Hugh Dunbar McMaster established a mill in Greenwich Village, New York, bringing workers and machinery over from Ireland and installing his brother John as manager. This emigration of workers had a very significant effect on Gilford's population, which halved between 1871 and 1881. Despite this, the company continued to thrive in Gilford and developed a worldwide reputation. The British Trade Journal of 1890 reported that the firm exported twine for salmon fishing to British Columbia, carpet threads, bookbinder's threads, extra strong threads for leather and thick cloths, and fine threads for sewing machinists and lace makers, to the United States, North, South and Central America, Brazil, Australia and the rest of the British Colonies. The mill owners retained a paternalistic interest in their workers and in the life of the town throughout much of the 20th century, but a decline in the Ulster linen industry eventually led to the mill's closure in the early 1980s. The building has remained in use as a dwelling.

The house is considered to be of local interest primarily because of its historical association with Gilford Mill and as an example of mill workers' housing in the town. However, it is not regarded as among the best examples of its type, and the extensive alterations it has undergone over the years have substantially reduced both its architectural and historic interest. Little historic fabric now remains, and the building is no longer considered to be of special interest.