17, Main St., Bushmills, Co.Antrim

No. 17 Lower Main Street is a single-storey, three-bay, pebble-dashed mid-terraced house, built prior to 1832. It forms part of a terrace at the northern end of Bushmills village centre, on the west side of Lower Main Street, with views south to Market Square and the Bush River to the west.

THE TERRACE AND ITS HISTORY

The terrace at Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, already laid out along its current alignment. It was built as part of the wider rebuilding and expansion of Bushmills from the 1820s onwards, largely driven by the Macnaghten family, who had acquired the estate in 1787. Sir Edmund Macnaghten of Dundarave House was the original landlord of No. 17. The terrace takes its former name, 'Metal Row', from its proximity to Woodville House Mill immediately to the north — a two-storey dwelling and former iron foundry — and because the terrace later housed nail makers, foundry workers, and mill workers.

The Townland Valuation of around 1834 records that No. 17 was occupied by a Mr. James Adair and valued at £3 2s. The valuer described it as a thatched building of medium age, in sound order and good repair, measuring 31ft by 19.6ft and standing 7.6ft in height. By Griffith's Valuation of 1859, the value had fallen slightly to £2 15s, and the property was recorded as leased by Sir Edmund Macnaghten to a Mr. Archibald Stewart, who remained at the address until around 1886, when it passed to Patrick Hunter. The 1901 Census records the house as occupied by David Montgomery, a local carpenter, and his wife. The census building return confirms that by the turn of the 20th century the thatched roofs of Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street had been replaced with slate. No. 17 was described at that time as a second-class dwelling with three inhabited rooms.

By the First General Revaluation of 1936–57, the house had risen in value to £3 10s and was occupied by a Mr. Archibald Platt; the Platt family remained until 1968, when the property passed to a Mr. Robert Neill, who was recorded as owner at the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which point the value stood at £8. The house was listed in 1980. In 1992, Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street were included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated to protect a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings of any town or village in the north-east of Northern Ireland. In 1998 the house underwent extensive renovation, which included re-slating the roof in natural slate, the addition of cast-iron rainwater goods, and the installation of the current entrance door and window frames.

EXTERIOR

The house has a rectangular plan with a pitched roof and a small single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear. The walls are pebble-dashed throughout. The roof is fibre cement with black clay ridge tiles and a single unpainted rendered chimney stack at the south-west end, with no pots visible. Rainwater goods are uPVC throughout.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is accessed directly from the pavement on Main Street. It is three bays wide and set on an unpainted rendered plinth. Along the terrace row, each property's elevation is divided by unpainted rendered quoins. The windows are small, timber-effect uPVC units with painted stone sloping sills and painted rendered band surrounds. The slightly recessed central doorway contains a timber-effect uPVC door with a glazed vision pane and metal door furniture, set within a stepped concrete architrave surround with stop blocks.

The south-west and north-east sides are abutted by the neighbouring properties, Nos. 19 and 15 Lower Main Street. To the rear, the north-west elevation is partly abutted by the flat-roof extension to the left side. The left-hand wall of this extension has a coloured brick finish with a single uPVC door and a small uPVC window to its left side; to the right of the extension on the main rear elevation there is a further small uPVC window, with pebble-dash walling. The projecting flat-roof extension itself is pebble-dashed with brick detailing to the left corner and contains two window bays with uPVC casement windows. Fascia boards are PVC.

SIGNIFICANCE AND SETTING

Although No. 17 has been altered — most notably in the 1998 renovation and through the replacement of original materials — it retains its external historic character through its simple proportions and original window surrounds to the front elevation. It has group value with the remainder of the terrace, Nos. 19 and 5–15 Lower Main Street. The 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide to North Antrim described Lower Main Street as 'a pleasant curving street facing the grounds of Dundarave', and noted of Bushmills Main Street more broadly that 'the unity of the street frontages must be maintained.'