Gilford Library

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A four-bay three storey over basement Victorian house built c.1834. Rectangular plan form with a single-storey rear return. Set back off the main street, located centrally in the village of Gilford; adjacent to the junction of Castle Hill, Mill Street and Dunbarton Street.

Pitched replacement clay pantile roof with clay ridge tiles; slates and copings removed post first survey (1977). Replacement extruded metal rainwater goods throughout. Replacement chimneys with modern brick; central chimney removed. Brick walling laid to Flemish bond; raised granite long-and-short quoins. Partial rubble masonry to the gable ends with some modern block infill. Cement roughcast render to the rear and rear return. 6/6 timber sliding sash with no horns to the ground and first floor; 3/6 to the second floor; painted masonry cills throughout; cambered 1½ brick arches over. The front entrance comprises a modern flat roofed porch with modern timber panelled door with replica glazing and pebble dashed walling.

The principal elevation faces north east and has a symmetrical arrangement to the upper floors; asymmetrical modern porch and projecting bay abutting the ground floor. The covered porch encompasses a replacement entrance door left of centre and the original two windows to the right have been removed, being replaced by a single storey flat roofed projecting bay comprising four number twelve pane windows to front elevation separated by thick mullions and a single twelve pane window to each cheek. Left ground floor window remains in-situ. Solid pattress plate located centrally between first and second floor.

The left (south-east) gable is asymmetrically arranged with a single window to the left at ground floor and a 3/6 sliding sash first floor window directly over. Significant levels of repair and alteration to the masonry and brick work. Signs of rebuilding from eaves level up.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Replacement casement window right of centre on the second floor. Diminutive first floor replacement window adjacent to pattress plate. Single storey gable ended rear return over basement; pantile roof; two casement windows to the southeast cheek; two sliding sash windows to the southwest cheek over services access; blank gable abutted by a small profiled metal roofed lean-to to left .

The southwest gable is asymmetrically arranged. Two replacement casement basement windows. Single ground, first and second floor sliding sash windows to the right, that to second floor is 3/6. Rubble masonry wall abutting the left.

Setting:

The building is set back from the line of buildings adjacent. A small garden with trees to the front, accessed via and modern galvanised gated entrance with matching railings. Bus shelter located on the footpath across the front elevation. The rear is encompassed by yards belonging to the adjacent buildings.

Roofing: Replacement pantile/felt/profiled metal
Walling: Brick
Windows: Timber
RWG: Replacement extruded metal/uPVC

Historical information

The house and a mill to the rear (now gone) were built during the boom years of linen production in the 1830s by Hugh Law, forming part of a redevelopment of the existing mill complex around which the town of Gilford had grown up during the second half of the seventeenth century. Law’s new mill, initially used for corn, but subsequently for thread manufacture, was part of the early nineteenth century industrial development of the town, which was later to be so irrevocably associated with the Dunbar McMaster spinning mill to the north. Hugh Law’s mill was subsequently taken over by Dunbar McMaster as part of their linen thread production process, to be used as a dyeing house and drying loft. With the ending of the linen industry in the town, the house remained as a prominent reminder of its late Georgian linen heritage and became, in later years, a post office and currently, a library.

The mill with which the house was once associated is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834, captioned ‘Corn Mills’ (also referring to the earlier corn mill to the south) but the house itself has not yet been built. The large scale valuation map of the town shows that a stream ran beneath the mill building and the water flow collected into a mill pond to the south. The present house is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1858, with the mill now extending from it to the rear.

The history of this site extends back to the foundation of Gilford as a town and its settlement by the Cromwellian officer Captain John Magill. Magill originated from Scotland, but was in Ireland before the rebellion of 1641, having purchased land in Ballynagarrick in 1639. After the rebellion Magill bought several more townlands including Loughans and Drumaran where Gilford is now situated. It is Captain John Magill who gave his name to the town (ford of the McGills) and is likely to have built the first ‘water corn mill’ on or near the present site. Surviving deeds show that the ‘corn mill and tuck mill’ (for the felting and scouring of woollen cloth) of Gilford was conveyed by Sir John Magill, Magill’s grandson and the inheritor of his estates, to Thomas Purdy in 1691. Further deeds indicate that the mill passed to the Law family in the early 1780s, and a deed of conveyance notes the owner of the corn mill as George Law, linen draper of Hazelbrook in 1796. George Law took over the property and businesses of the Purdy family including the corn and tuck mill and constructed a new beetling mill to the south of Gilford Castle. He erected a new weir and widened the mill-race thereby increasing production and it is thought to be this impetus which began to attract more entrepreneurs to the town. (PRONI; Logan)

In 1825 the mill and mill lands passed to Hugh Law who became the tenant at nearby Woodbank and by 1831 he had built a new mill slightly to the north of the old. An elevation of this mill building survives showing that it was an 11-bay, five-storey structure, 114 feet long and 25 feet wide. The mill is listed in the Townland Valuation as the property of ‘Mr Hugh Law & Co’ but later passes to Mr Henry Mearne, presumably a tenant, when it is described as a ‘thread and yarn manufactory, stores and offices’ valued at £34. The house does not appear on the 1834 map edition but was built not long afterwards, by Hugh Law himself, and is shown on the Townland Valuation town plan of c1834 and listed in the Townland Valuation fieldbook as the residence of Hugh Law, a house 49x48x25.6 feet.

Law was noted for his liberality within the town and his name was mentioned in this regard in the pages of the Belfast Newsletter, when he took steps to counter an outbreak of cholera in the town, “Having frequently occasion to visit the village of Gilford, and being there within the last few days, I was highly pleased with the clean and improved appearance of the houses; and on making inquiries I was told that of late a bad fever had broken out, and to counteract as much as possible the spread of that pestilential disease, Hugh Law Esq of Woodbank, with his usual liberality, had given lime and brushes gratis to have the entire village whitewashed. I think it but justice to this worthy gentleman to say, that he has been only a few years in the neighbourhood and in that short time he has expended some thousands of pounds in the improvement of the town, and in giving employment to its poor inhabitants. An Observer” (Belfast Newsletter, 8th June, 1832).

In the late 1830s Hugh Dunbar of Dunbar and Thompson (later Dunbar McMaster) purchased lands from Hugh Law to build his own mill and Hugh Law’s former mill became a dyeing house and drying loft for spun yarn, valued in Griffith’s Valuation at £23. The adjoining house was valued at £30 and was the residence of Henry Heron, but it is not clear whether the occupant of the house retained a connection with the Dunbar McMaster business. Subsequent occupants were I M Benson (1864), Thomas Frazer (1875), H R McCausland (1878) Matthew Luke (1890), Dr James M Browne (1894) Robert Martin (1902), William Gore (1905) Moses Kinlay (1908) Christopher Boyle (1926) John Constables (1927) W A McConnell (1929) and John Higgins (1937).

The 1901 census shows that the mill to the rear was unoccupied and Robert Martin, an iron turner was living in the house with his wife, four young children and his mother-in-law, Jane Kinley. By 1911 another member of the Kinley family, Moses, a farmer and former ‘flesher’ was living in the house with his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Outbuildings included stables, a coach house, cow house, calf house, piggery and potato house. The house was not in use as a gentleman’s residence at this stage, but appears to have assumed the role of farmhouse. There were frequent changes of tenant in subsequent years, but the dye house and drying lofts to the rear continued in use by Dunbar McMaster until c.1940 and were finally deleted from the record in 1951, when they were demolished.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in the early 1930s the occupier was William A McConnell who leased the house from the McMaster family. The house had 13 rooms and was revalued at £9.5s. The rent was £20 yearly free of taxes, later £25. The valuer commented that the house was ‘much too big for requirements and is in a poor position for so large a house. Present tenant occupies five rooms only, third floor superfluous’. From 1937 the house was the town post office and the postmaster was John Higgins. A room at the front (north side) was the post office and a sorting office was located to the rear. The ground floor had a kitchen with a small range and a bath WC and lumber room. The drawing room and a bedroom were on the first floor and two further bedrooms and a box room on the second floor. The house had electric light and well water and the tenant had put in the bath and WC at his own expense. The whole of the house had recently been painted and redecorated by the owner, but the valuer commented that it was an old house ‘and the fabric is showing signs of wear’. The valuation was raised to £13 in 1936 and £16 in 1941. By 1951 the building was a dwelling house and shop let to Sydney Spence for 7s.6d a week.

In the 1970s the house became Gilford library but is facing the threat of closure. (Lurgan Mail 20th September 2011; Banbridge Chronicle 9th May 1975)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/13A-B – Annual Revisions (1923-29)
9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/9 – Valuer’s Notebook (1916-22)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/J/1 – Valuers RV Binders (1933-57)
12. PRONI D2839/1/1 – Bound volume of typescript copies of deeds (1691-1835)
13. PRONI D492/28 – Map and elevation of new mill Hugh Law 1831
14. Belfast Newsletter, 8th June 1832
15. 1901 census online
16. 1911 census online
17. Banbridge Chronicle 9th May 1975
18. Lurgan Mail 20th September 2011

Secondary Sources

1. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A four-bay three storey with basement Victorian house built c.1834. Although the exterior, less the front door, still retains its general proportions and styling, the building has undergone significant alteration resulting in loss of historic fabric. The interior and plan have been altered as a result of changing use throughout the 20th century. The overall presence of the building adds to the character and wider historic context of the village although it is not one of the best examples of the type and its interest has been compromised by extensive alterations.