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

24 Ann Street is a two-bay, two-storey end-of-terrace house built around 1850, situated on the main road through Gilford, east of Gilford Mill, and forming part of a terrace of 25 dwellings on Ann Street (excluding the gatehouse at No. 1). It was originally constructed as part of a back-to-back housing complex for workers at the adjacent linen thread spinning mill.

The building is square on plan, with a modern two-storey flat-roofed return to the rear. The roof is natural slate with blue/black angled ridge tiles, and there is a rendered chimney stack with clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron ogee-profile to the front and uPVC to the rear. External walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render. Windows are replacement 1/1 timber sliding sashes to the front and a timber casement to the rear.

The principal elevation faces east and has a window at centre first-floor level, a half-panelled timber door to the ground floor right, and a window to the ground floor left. The south elevation is abutted by the adjoining building. The rear (west) elevation has windows to the first and ground floor right, and is abutted on the left by the modern flat-roofed two-storey return, which has a timber-sheeted door enclosing the rear yard and a large window to the ground floor with a window directly above at first-floor level; the left and right cheek walls of the return were not inspected. The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining building to that side. Vehicular access is available to the rear, and the boundary with the mill site is marked by mature trees.

The terrace of which this house forms part is among the earliest housing built by the proprietors of the mill, originally known as Dunbar and Thompson and later trading as Dunbar McMaster & Co Ltd. Hugh Dunbar, descended from a linen-manufacturing family whose grandfather had leased property at Huntley from the Whytes of Loughbrickland, was compelled by 1834 to establish his own spinning mill in response to competition from the new wet-spinning process. He chose Gilford as the site, entering into partnership with William Agnew Stewart and Robert Thompson to raise the necessary capital. Land was obtained from Hugh Law of Woodbank, with the mill's tail race running through land belonging to James Uprichard of Bannvale. The mill opened in 1839 as Dunbar and Thompson, Stewart having died in 1837. It was an immediate commercial success and drew large numbers of workers to the town; the population more than quadrupled between 1841 and 1851, rising from 643 to 2,814. By 1870 the mill employed over 2,000 workers, and between 1836 and 1862 the firm built 200 houses for its workforce. All mill-owned houses were inspected monthly, and were annually lime-washed, painted and repaired at the firm's expense.

The houses were originally constructed as two parallel back-to-back rows: numbers 9 to 26 fronted onto High Street, and sharing their rear wall was a second row called Bann Street, which faced towards the mill. A view of the mill said to date from around 1841, shortly after its completion, shows the rear of the terrace as it then appeared, and both rows are recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'High Street' and 'Bann St[reet]'. The back-to-back houses have been described as the most basic units available, each having only two rooms with a single window 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 on an open site with good air circulation. 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 their modest size, it was not uncommon for these two-room dwellings to house families of four or more, and valuation and census records show considerable tenant mobility within the terrace, with many occupants living at two or more addresses over the years.

The houses are first recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 and appear in Griffith's Valuation of 1863 as the property of Dunbar McMaster & Co. The High Street houses, each two storeys, 15 feet long and 12 feet wide, were valued at £2 10s, while the Bann Street houses behind, of the same dimensions, were valued at £2 5s. By 1863 the High Street houses were already rated as deteriorated by age and not in good repair, indicating they had been standing for some time. The first tenants recorded at the property then numbered twenty-five (now twenty-four) were Agnes McFadden in the High Street house and Samuel Bamber in the Bann Street house. Subsequent tenants included William Potter (1887), Samuel Potter (1902), Thomas Potter (1904), James Meehan (1902), and Anne Meehan (1904). The 1901 census records the High Street tenant as Ann Potter, a widow from County Armagh, who kept house for her two children, her daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren; her daughter worked as a thread twister at the mill, and her son and daughter-in-law were also employed there. The Bann Street house at that time was occupied by James Meehan, a carter, living with his wife and a female lodger who was a linen spinner at the mill. By 1911 the High Street tenant was Thomas James Moore, a flax rougher, living with his wife and three young children, one of their children having not survived. Anne Meehan, an 80-year-old widow, was the Bann Street occupant at that date.

In 1915–16, most of the Bann Street houses to the rear of the High Street row were incorporated into the front dwellings, though some — including this house and its neighbours at the end of the terrace — remained as back-to-back properties with two sets of tenants until the 1930s. Eliza Thompson occupied the High Street side until at least 1929, and Annie McBurney was the Bann Street tenant from 1922 to 1929. The Bann Street portion had been absorbed 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 housed in a rear extension.

In 1879, following the imposition of 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 from Ireland and installing his brother John as manager. The resulting emigration of workers from Gilford had a significant effect on the town's population, which halved between 1871 and 1881. The company nonetheless continued to prosper at Gilford and gained 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, South and Central America, Brazil, Australia, and the rest of the British colonies. The mill's owners maintained a paternalistic interest in their workers and in the life of the town throughout much of the 20th century. A decline in the Ulster linen industry eventually led to the mill's closure in the early 1980s.

The building has been retained in use as a dwelling. It is of local interest primarily on account of its relationship with Gilford Mill and as an example of mill workers' housing in the town. However, it is not considered among the best examples of its type, and extensive alterations over the years have significantly reduced its architectural and historic interest, with little historic fabric now remaining. It was removed from the statutory heritage register on 1 November 2013.