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

18 Ann Street is a two-bay, two-storey mid-terrace house built around 1840–1850, 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 gatehouse at No. 1 Ann Street) and was originally built as workers' housing by the proprietors of the adjacent linen thread spinning mill.

The house is square on plan, with a two-storey modern flat-roofed return to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, and there is a rendered chimney stack with clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round to the front and uPVC to the rear. External walls are finished in painted ruled and lined render. Windows throughout are replacement uPVC, with a timber casement to the rear, all set on projecting masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces east and features a window at first-floor centre, a modern timber door at ground-floor right, and a window at ground-floor left. The south elevation abuts the adjoining property. The west (rear) elevation has a first-floor window to the right and is abutted on the left by the two-storey flat-roofed modern return, which itself has a single-storey lean-to extension to the right, accessed via a panelled and glazed timber door. The return has a window at each floor; the left cheek was not viewed during inspection; the right cheek is abutted by the lean-to at ground floor level, with a window to the right at first floor. The north elevation abuts the adjoining property on that side. Vehicular access is available to the rear, and the site is bounded toward the mill by mature trees.

The house was originally part of a complex of back-to-back dwellings built for workers at the linen thread spinning mill, which was established at Gilford in 1839 by Hugh Dunbar in partnership with William Agnew Stewart and Robert Thompson, initially trading as Dunbar and Thompson, and later as Dunbar McMaster & Co Ltd. The mill was an immediate commercial success and drove extraordinary population growth in Gilford: between 1841 and 1851 the town's population more than quadrupled, from 643 to 2,814. By 1870 the mill employed over 2,000 workers and the firm built around 200 houses between 1836 and 1862. All mill-owned houses were inspected monthly, and annually lime-washed, painted and repaired at the firm's expense.

The terrace to which this house belongs appears to be among the earliest housing built by the company. It was originally constructed as two rows of back-to-back dwellings: numbers 9 to 26 fronted onto High Street, while a second row known as Bann Street ran behind them, sharing a common back wall and facing toward 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 shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned 'High Street' and 'Bann St[reet]'. The houses are listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1863 as the property of Dunbar McMaster & Co. The High Street houses were all valued at £2 10s, measured two storeys, 15 feet long and 12 feet wide, and were rated as 'deteriorated by age and not in good repair', suggesting they had already been standing for some time by then. The Bann Street houses to the rear were valued at £2 5s, despite being the same dimensions.

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 on an open site with free circulation of air. They were regarded as adequate for single people or smaller family units and a considerable improvement on poorer rural dwellings of the period. Census and valuation records show considerable tenant mobility within the terrace, with many residents living at two or more different addresses over the years.

The first tenants recorded at this address — then numbered nineteen on the High Street side — were John Bird (High Street) and James Meehan (Bann Street). Later occupants of the High Street house included Sarah Ramsey (1902), who at the time of the 1901 census was a deaf woman of 76, of no employment, originally from Derry. Eliza Ferguson is recorded in 1905, William Mooney in 1907. On the Bann Street side, William Adamson, a flax sorter, lived with his wife, who also worked at the mill (recorded 1903), and Mary A. Erwin in 1907. By the time of the 1911 census, the High Street house was occupied by Mary Anne McAlinden, a widow from County Monaghan who worked as a preparer in the mill, along with her three children — the elder two, aged 16 and 14, working as a rover and a doffer respectively. The Bann Street house at the same time was home to Anne Anderson, a widow of 72, caring for her two young grandsons. In 1916 the Bann Street house was incorporated into the front dwelling, and the combined High Street property was revalued at £4 10s, with a weekly rent of 3s 3d. The property was subsequently occupied by James Burns from 1922.

In 1879, following the imposition of a high import tariff on linen thread in the United States, Hugh Dunbar McMaster established a mill in Greenwich Village, New York, to which workers and machinery were brought from Ireland, with Hugh's brother John installed as manager. The resulting emigration had a significant effect on Gilford's population, which halved between 1871 and 1881. Despite this, the firm continued to thrive and had a worldwide reputation. The British Trade Journal of 1890 reported that the company 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 markets including the United States, South and Central America, Brazil, Australia, and the rest of the British Colonies. The mill owners maintained a paternalistic interest in their workers and in the life of the town throughout much of the 20th century, but a long decline in the Ulster linen industry eventually led to the mill's closure in the early 1980s.

The building retains its use as a dwelling. However, it has been subject to extensive alterations over the years and little historic fabric now remains. While the house is of local interest principally because of its relationship with Gilford Mill and as an example of mill workers' housing in the town, it is not considered among the best surviving examples of the type, and the extent of alteration has significantly reduced its architectural and historic interest. The property was removed from the statutory list of protected buildings on 1 November 2013 and is recorded here for its group and historical context only.