51 Dunbarton Street, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

51 Dunbarton Street is an attached two-bay two-storey mid-terrace dwelling built around 1864, located on the south side of Dunbarton Street in Gilford, County Down. It forms part of a group of three houses (with Nos 53 and 55) that has considerable group value. The terrace represents a good example of the type of small town houses that are becoming increasingly rare, retaining much of its original fabric and detailing.

The building is rectangular on plan. The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with blue-black clay roll-top ridge tiles. A smooth rendered chimney with stone coping and clay pots rises from the roof. Ogee profile rainwater goods are supported on paired corbels. The walls are rendered with ruled-and-lined finish over a painted chamfered plinth.

The principal elevation faces north-east and is accessed directly from the street. It comprises a square-headed entrance at the left containing a timber six-panelled door surmounted by a plain glazed overlight. Two windows appear at ground floor to the right, with three windows positioned directly above at first floor level. All windows are square-headed timber 6/6 sliding sashes with painted masonry sills. A round-arched opening at the left (shared with the adjacent building at No. 53) contains a wrought-iron bootscraper. The north-west gable is abutted by the adjacent building. The south-east gable is abutted by a lower adjacent building. An enclosed yard lies to the south of the dwelling.

The terrace was built around 1864 on land leased from John Walsh McMaster, partner in Dunbar McMaster & Co of Gilford Mill. The buildings first appear on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2 and are recorded in the Annual Revisions from 1864, though they do not appear in Griffith's Valuation of 1863. The mill owners began constructing houses for their workforce shortly after the mill opened, though these were initially basic two-up, two-down and back-to-back dwellings. Gilford's population grew dramatically during this period: there were 111 houses in 1841, rising to 559 by 1871. The Dunbarton Street terrace comprised three of the 81 houses built between 1861 and 1871, when population growth reached its peak. These houses were larger than other mill-owned properties and were often occupied by schoolteachers. The provision of suitable accommodation for schoolteachers working in the mill school may have been the reason for constructing the terrace, as little housing was available that fell between the grand mansions of proprietors and the humbler workers' kitchen houses.

The first noted occupant was William J Sinclair in 1864 (valued at £8), followed by Charles Bridget in 1880 and Mrs McFall in 1885. Anna McFall was an elderly lady from Holywood living with her daughter, who was a National School teacher, possibly at the Mill School opened in 1846 to provide educated workers for the Dunbar McMaster mill. She was succeeded by Annie McCluggage in 1910. By 1911, this house and its neighbour at No. 53 had been converted for use as a post office, managed by postmistress Frances Hunter with assistance from her sister Marion. Another sister worked as a National School Teacher. The post office also employed an unpaid learner and a general servant. The Hunters remained resident until at least 1930. The building is today privately owned.