20 Alexandra Place, Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, BT82 9HR, *** See General Comments***

20 Alexandra Place is an end-terrace house built around 1880 as worker's housing for the local Herdman's Mill, located on the west side of Melmount Road in Sion Mills.

The building is a two-bay single-storey structure on a rectangular plan with a single-storey lean-to extension to the west, added around 1995, which abuts the north boundary wall of the adjacent property. The pitched roof is finished with natural slate and terracotta ridge tiles, set over deep overhanging eaves with decorative timber bargeboards. The chimney is smooth rendered with concrete coping and replacement clay pots. The walls are painted roughcast over a smooth banded plinth.

Windows throughout are timber casements in smooth rendered reveals with painted masonry sills. The principal elevation faces east and contains, on the right, a square-headed opening with a replacement panelled timber door and transom; a single window sits to the left; a central gabled dormer projects into the attic storey. The south gable is abutted by the neighbouring property. The west elevation is abutted by the lean-to extension, which contains a timber panelled entrance door; a single window opens onto the north elevation. The north gable contains a single window at ground floor level on the right. The house is directly accessed from the street at the east. A roughcast boundary wall with concrete coping encloses a rear yard, accessed through a vertically-sheeted timber gate to the north. The rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes.

The ground floor and return were remodelled and extended around 1995. The building is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905 as part of a terrace of houses along Alexandra Place. Valuation Revisions of 1879 record that houses were "in Progress" at that date, with numbers 3 to 20 valued at £2 10s and listed as "house, office and yard" with various occupiers.

Sion Mills was a company-owned town established by Herdman & Co., a flax spinning mill run by the Herdman family as a model village for their workers and village maintenance staff. The village was originally built with simple but well-built one-storey terraced cottages to house workers and save them from having to walk miles to work. By 1853 the mill employed upwards of 500 workers. The cottages are part of a planned layout similar to the work of Sir Titus Salt at Saltair. Until the 1960s, the mill trained and employed people to cover all necessary trades needed to maintain and repair the village houses, the mill, its machinery, and the waterpower system. Workers were charged fortnightly rent and gas. Over the early years the Herdmans provided a shop with fair prices and a dispensary. Workers paid a small contribution from their wages towards healthcare, with the mill providing a doctor and mill nurse. The village had its own fire service and fire engine. The village was privatised in the mid-1960s when the mills needed to raise capital during a slump in the linen industry.

Although alterations and extensions to this house and those in the adjoining terrace have resulted in considerable loss of original architectural character both individually and as a group, the general massing and historic interest of these small-scale houses mean they continue to contribute to the Sion Mills Conservation Area.