3 Sion Terrace, Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, BT82 9HB

A mid-terrace two-storey house built around 1860, this is the fifth dwelling from the left in a terrace of seven positioned on the east side of Church Square in Sion Mills. The house is part of an important architectural group that formed part of the model village created by Herdman & Co, a flax spinning mill company that employed the residents.

The building is rectangular in plan with a one-and-a-half-storey gabled return to the west, further abutted by a single-storey gabled extension. The roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles sitting over a corbelled eaves course. Chimneys are smooth rendered with clay pots to the party walls, and there is a yellow brick corbelled chimney to the return. Two rooflights pierce the east and west roof pitches.

Walls are painted roughcast over a smooth banded plinth, while the return is smooth rendered. Windows are replacement square-headed timber-framed 1/1 sliding sashes in smooth reveals, all with painted masonry sills. The principal elevation faces east and features, at the left, a round-arched opening with a stepped painted brick surround containing a recessed replacement four-panelled timber entrance door with glazed top lights and transom light. A single window sits at ground floor right with two windows at first floor level. The south gable is abutted by the neighbouring property. The west elevation shows an exposed section at the left containing one window to each floor, while the north elevation of the gable holds two windows at first floor and a single window at ground floor. The west and south elevations of the gable are blank. The single-storey gabled extension contains two timber casement windows and a replacement timber sheeted door to the north elevation.

The house is directly accessed from the street at the east. A roughcast boundary wall with concrete coping encloses a yard to the rear, with access through a square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door with glazed panel. A garden lies across a path to the rear, bounded to the east by wire fencing and to other sides by hedging. Cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes serve the roof.

The terrace was built as worker's dwellings by Herdman & Co and is first documented on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905. Valuation records from between 1860 and 1923 suggest that numbers 1 to 3 predate the other properties in the group. The houses are all described as "house, offices and small garden" and were leased from J&E Herdman. According to historical records, the village was originally laid out with simple one-storey terraced cottages to house workers. In the early twentieth century, when Captain Ricardo was Director in charge of personnel and welfare, second storeys were added to many houses to accommodate more workers needed during the boom in the linen trade that began in 1903. This allowed villagers to take in lodgers during the week. The Herdmans' social experiment in providing housing, healthcare, maintenance services, and fair prices in their shop reflected contemporary model village principles. In the early 1960s, as the company sought to raise capital during a decline in the linen industry, village houses were sold off at prices ranging from £60 for the smallest to £120 for two-storey houses. The village was subsequently privatised.

Despite modernisation of some parts of the terrace in recent years—including replacement of some windows and doors—this house retains many original features such as the yellow brick chimneys and largely intact interior layouts. It remains an important part of an architectural group within the conservation area of Sion Mills, enjoying a good setting overlooking Church Square.