Central Block

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This extensive former flax spinning mill and thread works is situated on the right bank of the Upper Bann, at the NW end of Gilford village, and has been sub-divided into five discrete units (/20A-E).
HB17/01/020B is aligned E-W in the middle of the premises and comprises five sections: (1) an L-shaped three-storey building at SE, (2) a two-storey return at its W end, (3) a five-storey addition at NE, (4) a four-storey section aligned E-W along the N side of the block, and (5) a three-storey brick return at its NW end. All the buildings are now derelict.

Building 1
This three-storey building dates from the later 1830s. It has a hipped natural slate roof with eight circular metal ridge ventilators, behind a deep cement-rendered moulded cornice and blocking course above. The gutters behind the blocking course discharge into cast-iron down pipes.
Walls of random rubble blackstone, brought to courses and embellished with stepped, vee-jointed granite quoins. All openings, unless otherwise stated, are flat-headed with brick heads and jambs. All windows have granite cills. The GF window openings have been sheeted over.
The principal elevation faces S and is 12 openings wide. There are three doorways to the GF; two have overlights and are sheeted over, and the third is an up-and-over panelled timber door (by Overhead Doors (Great Britain) Ltd, Back Hilton Road, Aberdeen) in a three-centred archway leading into the yard behind. The upper floor windows are generally 2/2-paned timber sliding sashes, but some are 5x6-paned top-opening timber frames; all have granite cills.
The W elevation is three openings wide. All the upper floor windows to this elevation are 4x6-paned timber. The N end of this section is abutted at GF and FF by building 2; the exposed section above is of brick.
The E elevation is 14 openings wide. There are granite quoins on the upper half of the N end of this elevation, the GF and part of its FF having continued onwards. This continuation was demolished to make way for building 3. There are two doors to the GF and two sheeted timber loading doors to FF. The upper floor windows are generally 5x6-paned top-opening timber frames, with several 2x3-paned metal- and 2/2 timber-framed replacements. There are cast-metal patress plates between all openings and floors.
The yard elevations to this building were inaccessible and could not be surveyed.

Roof: Hipped natural slate
Rainwater goods: Eaves gutters and metal down pipes
Walls: Random rubble blackstone
Windows: 5x6 timber, 2x3 metal and 2/2 timber

Building 2
This two storeys high by seven openings wide (to GF, six to FF). Return runs N from the W end of building 1 and is contemporary with it (i.e. later 1830s date).
Pitched natural slate roof, the N half of which is missing. Vestiges of half-round steel gutters missing; steel down pipes survive.
Random rubble blackstone walls brought to courses and tied into building 1; brick eaves course and plain quoins at N end. All openings have flat brick heads and jambs; windows have granite cills.
The GF opes are sheeted over. Door with rectangular overlight at right-hand (S) end. Later window insertion (with concrete head and cill) at left (N) end. All FF opes are 4x4-paned top-opening timber frames.
There was no access to the N gable or E elevation of this building.

Roof: Pitched natural slate
Rainwater goods: Half-round steel
Walls: Random rubble blackstone
Windows: 4x4 timber

Building 3
This five-storey red brick building is aligned N-S at the NE end of building and dates 1903-10.
It has a pitched natural slate roof with skylights. The walls are of brick throughout, with advanced eaves course. Metal rainwater goods.
The E elevation is five openings wide (to the upper floors); those to the top floor are of diminished height. The three openings at right (N) were formerly abutted by a four-storey building now removed (evidenced by ragged wall joints and plastered walls). As noted under building 1, the GF and FF incorporate the random rubble wall of an earlier building. All window openings have flattish brick heads and concrete cills unless otherwise stated.
There is a door at GF left, with semicircular overlight. Above it are two columns of 2x3-paned top-opening timber windows. At GF right are two large openings with RSJ heads; one is an infilled window opening and the other a double-leaf sheeted timber door. Above are three doorways (now frameless) to the FF and SF (which formerly gave access to the now-demolished section). There is also a single semi-glazed timber door with 2x1-paned overlight to the TF and three 2x3-paned windows to the top floor.
The N gable of this building is three openings wide to its upper floors. There is a large 5x3-paned timber window under an RSJ head to the GF and three 2x3-paned top-opening timber windows to each of the upper floors.
At the right-hand (W) end of this gable are vestiges of a toilet stack, now demolished except for part of its GF. The semi-glazed timber access doorways through to it from the main building also survive.
There was no access to the W elevation of this building.
The exposed section of the S gable, above the roofline of building 1, has 2x3 paned windows to its top two floors.

Roof: Pitched natural slate
Rainwater goods: Metal
Walls: Brick
Windows: 2x3 and 5x3 timber

Building 4
This four-storey section is aligned E-W along the N side of the block and dates from the later 1830s.
It has a pitched natural slate roof with skylights, five circular metal ridge ventilators, and a timber bargeboard to W gable. Ogee cast-iron gutters and asbestos-cement down pipes. All but the top floor are of random rubble blackstone brought to courses. The top floor is a later addition dating from 1903-10. It is of brick, with a moulded brick eaves course. The eaves are raised to a small gable at the E end of the N elevation.
The N elevation is 14 openings wide. All openings contain windows (sheeted over to the GF), with flat brick heads and granite cills (but probably concrete cills to the top floor). The FF and SF windows are 2x3-paned metal-framed windows, whilst the top floor ones are 6x6-paned timber frames (with 2x2 central opening panel), several of the latter have been replaced with 2x3-paned metal frames. The eaves gable at left contains a 2x2-paned window under an RSJ head.
The W gable is abutted by building 5. The exposed top floor section above contains three multi-paned windows (probably 6x6) and a doorway circular window opening in the gable’s apex.
The S elevation was only partly visible as the yard in front of it is now inaccessible. There are loading doors at its left (W) end to all upper floors. The windows are detailed as the N elevation. There was a stairwell at the E end of this elevation at the corner with building 3, since removed.

Roof: Pitched natural slate
Rainwater goods: Ogee cast-iron gutters and asbestos-cement down pipes
Walls: Random rubble blackstone and brick
Windows: 2x3 metal and 6x6 timber

Building 5
This two-storey over semi-basement building runs S from the W end of building 4. It is shown on the 1903 OS map and is probably of later 1800s/early 1900s date.
Pitched natural slate roof with skylights, and raised gables and blocking course coped with concrete. Roof gutters discharge into metal down pipes. Red brick walls throughout with advanced quoins and shallow pilasters to FF along W elevation. All openings have flat concrete heads and the windows have concrete cills.
The N gable is two openings wide. Infilled openings to semi-basement, two large 3x3-paned top-opening timber windows to GF and FF and narrow ventilation opening to gable apex.
The W elevation is five openings wide. It was formerly abutted to its GF by a single-storey, flat-roofed section, now demolished (its concrete floor footprint survives). Five infilled window openings (one with a door inserted) and a doorway to GF, and five windows across FF detailed as N gable.
The S gable is two openings wide. Sheeted-over doorway at GF. Large 4x5-paned timber window at FF left, with semicircular brick relieving arch over (with three concrete keystones). At FF right is doorway out to now-demolished overhead passage across to the now-gone extension on the E gable of the adjoining block (/020A).
The projecting section of the E elevation is slightly advanced and contains a recessed blind panel at GF level and a 4x6-paned timber window to FF.
There was formerly a free-standing chimney in the yard of this block, now demolished.

Roof: Pitched natural slate
Rainwater goods: Metal down pipes
Walls: Brick
Windows: 3x3, 4x5, 4x6 timber

Setting
This block sits in the middle of the premises and is bounded to its immediate E and W by HB17/01/020C and /020A respectively. To its north, separated from the premises by a post and wire fence, is a landscaped public park. To its south are vestiges of the former mill pond (noted in /020A).

Historical information

On 12 February 1835, Hugh Dunbar , a linen thread and cloth manufacturer of Huntly, near Banbridge, leased a corn and tuck mill a short distance E of the present complex in perpetuity from Hugh and Eliza Law. Dunbar had formed a partnership with William Stewart with the intention of erecting a flax spinning mill at the north-west end of Gilford. For this, they needed control of the water supply belonging to the corn/tuck mill.

Work on the new complex began in 1836 and entailed the erection of a five-storey flax spinning mill on the right bank of the river, a handloom weaving factory on the opposite bank and houses for the workers. The five-storey spinning mill and a 22ft diameter x 20ft wide iron breastshot waterwheel of c.90hp output are both explicitly noted in the 1837 Ordnance Survey Memoir. The wheel may well have been designed by the eminent English millwright William Fairbairn. Part of the mill may have become operational in 1838, but the complex was not officially opened until November 184l.

William Stewart died in 1837 and he was replaced by Robert Thompson. Dunbar soon bought his new partner out and then formed another partnership with J.W. McMaster of Armagh. James Dickson became a third partner in 1839. In 1843, the flax spinning and bleaching operations were being carried on by Dunbar, Dickson & Co, and thread production by Dunbar, McMaster & Co. Dunbar died in 1847 and the enterprise was eventually acquired outright by the McMasters. The business was incorporated as a limited liability company in 1886 under the ownership of H. Dunbar McMaster (son of J.W.) and his six brothers.

By 1846, the factory was described as “the largest, or certainly one of the largest, of the flax-spinning factories in Ireland”.
A large scale map of 1860 shows that the complex had largely taken its present size and form. Two chimneys are shown, indicating the use of steam power as well as water. Further details of these engines are given by J. Smyth in 1874, when he describes them as four condensing steam engines working in tandem with the waterwheel. Coal for the steam boilers would probably have been off-loaded from the Newry Canal at Madden Bridge, some 1½ miles south-west of the village. From 1859 onwards, when the Banbridge Junction Railway Co opened the Scarva-Banbridge line, there was also a railway halt at Lawrencetown.

The 1861 Valuation Book describes the premises as “Gilford flax spinning mill, thread manufactory and yard”, all with a rateable valuation of £840. Its operators are given as John Walsh McMaster, James Dickson, Benjamin Dickson, William Spolten and William Robert Massaroan.

A fire in 1869 caused £40,000 worth of damage to buildings and some were subsequently rebuilt.

By 1888, the mill had over 1500 employees, many of whom lived in company houses nearby. Water and steam power drove 16,000 spindles for spinning yarn and a further 4000 for twisting the spun yarn into thread which was exported throughout the world.

The site was described in 1891 as one of the largest thread manufactories in the UK, with a weekly production of 75,000 miles of yard and thread, both bleached and unbleached.

The 1902 Valuation revision entry notes that a portion of the mill had been burnt and was in the course of being rebuilt. A footprint broadly similar to that of today is shown on the 1903 large-scale town map.

In 1907, the site’s valuation rises from £843 to £893, and then to £1070 in 1910, indicating substantial additions. These included the raising of some of the multi-storey mill buildings by a further storey and the provision of stair and toilet stacks. Sometime after 1903, the waterwheel was also replaced by the present water turbine and an electricity generating house erected beside the turbine house; the valuation note books indicate this happened c.1913 or shortly afterwards.

Yarn and thread production continued until c.1986 when the mill closed. Thereafter part of the site was used to house small-scale industrial units and a coal yard. Ambitious plans for the buildings’ conversion into an apartment, leisure and shopping complex were formulated in the 2000s but came to nothing and the site now lies unoccupied.

References – Primary sources:
1. PRONI D1769/8/1. Conveyance from Hugh and Eliza Law to Hugh Dunbar cited in 1885 document.
2. OS Memoirs for Tullylish Parish, 1837 revision. Reprinted as A. Day & P. McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Mid-Down, p.147 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992).
3. National Archive, Dublin VO/MILL/5. Valuation Mill Books, Co Down (no date).
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1. First edition OS six-inch map, Co Down sheet 26 (1834)
5. PRONI OS/9/33/1/3. Town plan of Gilford, 1:1056 scale (1860).
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48E, p.66. Second Valuation Book for Tullylish Parish, Banbridge Union (1861).
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H. Valuation revision books, 1864-1929.
8. PRONI OS/8/11/2/1. Town plan of Gilford, 1:1056 scale (1903).
9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/7, p.46. Valuation noebook (1910).
10. PRONI OS//11/201/14/1. First edition Irish Gird 1:2500 map, sheet 201-14 (1972).

References – Secondary sources:
1, J. Smyth, On the Industrial Uses of the Upper River Bann (London: Taylor and Francis, 1875).
2. G.H. Bassett, The Book of Co Down, pp 262-263 (1888).
3. The Industries of Ireland, Part 1: Belfast and the Towns of the North, p.165 (London, 1891). Reprinted in 1986 as ‘Industries of the North One Hundred Years Ago’ by Friars Bush Press, Belfast.
4. E.R.R. Green, the Industrial Archaeology of Co Down, p.22, entry 30 (Belfast, HMSO, 1963).
5. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, plates 83.4 and 87.2 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).
6. M.P. Campbell, ‘Gilford and its mills’, in Banbridge & District Historical journal, vol.2 (1990).
7. Report on turbine by Mr Terry Maguire, Newmills Hydro, Co Antrim (March 1997).
8. F.W. Hamond, Mill Waterworks, Gilford Spinning Mill, Co Down (report prepared for Environment & Heritage Service, 24 November 1997).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A multi-bay flax spinning mill of mid-1830s date, with early 1990s multi-storey additions has been sub-divided into five discrete units (/20A-E). HB17/01/020B is aligned E-W in the middle of the premises and comprises five sections: (1) an L-shaped three-storey building at SE, (2) a two-storey return at its W end, (3) a five-storey addition at NE, (4) a four-storey section aligned E-W along the N side of the block, and (5) a three-storey brick return at its NW end. This block and the other buildings and structures within this complex comprise one of the largest flax spinning mill concerns still surviving in the Province, and also one of the few to have also produced thread. Its proportions and regularly fenestrated rubble-stonework reflects its mid-19th century date of erection, whilst the use of brick indicates its subsequent expansion.

This mill complex was one of the largest in Ireland and of national importance. It also has considerable group value with the adjoining village, particularly given that so many of the houses in the latter were built by Dunbar, McMaster & Co.

General comments

This block was formerly included in HB17/01/020.