7 Main St., Bushmills, Co.Antrim

7 Main Street (also known as Nos 5–7 Lower Main Street) is a single-storey, four-bay, pebble-dashed rendered end-of-terrace house, built in 1832 as part of a row originally known as Metal Row. It sits on the west side of Main Street in the northern part of Bushmills, with views south towards the Market Square, and is located immediately south of Woodville House Mill. The street runs parallel with the Bush River to the west.

The building has a rectangular plan and a replacement fibre cement pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles and two unpainted rendered chimneystacks; the left chimneystack carries a single circular terracotta clay pot. Rainwater is collected in half-round painted cast-aluminium guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes throughout. The pebble-dashed rendered walls sit on a painted rendered plinth. The small timber painted replacement casement windows have sloping sills, rendered band surrounds, and hood moulds, all picked out in contrasting painted colours. The principal elevation faces south-east and is accessed directly from the tarmac pavement of Main Street. The four bays are arranged with the northernmost bay divided from the remaining three by unpainted rendered quoins. A slightly recessed doorway, not centred on the elevation, contains a replacement timber door with two decorative glazed top panes and brass door furniture. The south-west elevation adjoins the neighbouring No. 9 Lower Main Street. The north-west elevation overlooks a small rear yard and has two rear returns with a single window bay between each return to the main house; the left return has a corrugated metal sheet roof and a single window bay to the north-west side, while the right return has a felt roof and a single window bay to the north-west side. The north-east elevation is of brick construction and carries a modern timber and glazed shop frontage with the gable above in painted timber; the shop front is painted in contrasting colours, and there is a plain painted flush timber door to the right on the south-east side of the single-storey rear return. At the time of survey the building appeared to be vacant.

The current building is the product of a significant alteration carried out around 2003. It originally comprised two separate three-bay dwellings — No. 7 and the adjoining No. 5 Lower Main Street. At that time the two northernmost bays of No. 5 were demolished to provide improved access to a neighbouring coal yard and petrol station, and the surviving single bay of No. 5 was incorporated into No. 7, creating the present four-bay arrangement. The remainder of No. 5 retains a natural slate roof, while No. 7 has the fibre cement replacement noted above. Prior to that, the entire terrace of Nos 5–19 Lower Main Street had originally been thatched; the thatched roofs were replaced with natural slate by the turn of the 20th century.

The terrace forms part of a wider programme of rebuilding and expansion of Bushmills carried out from the 1820s by the Macnaghten family, who had acquired the estate in 1787. The row first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 in its current layout. The name Metal Row derives from the proximity of Woodville House Mill immediately to the north, a two-storey dwelling and former iron foundry. The Townland Valuations of around 1834 record that No. 7 was occupied by a Mr. Campbell Little and valued at £2 18 shillings. The valuer described it as a thatched building of medium age but in sound order and good repair, measuring 29.6 feet by 19.6 feet and standing 7.3 feet in height. By Griffith's Valuation of 1859 the value had been slightly reduced to £2 10 shillings, and the house was at that time leased by Sir Edmund Macnaghten of Dundarave House to a Ms. Mary Dixon, who continued to reside there until around 1886. The 1901 Census records No. 7 as occupied by Alexander Cochrane, a local labourer, and his son William, and describes it as a second-class dwelling of four inhabited rooms, by which point the roof had been slated. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) the house was valued at £3 10 shillings and occupied by a Mr. John Fall, who purchased it outright around 1950; by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72) its rateable value had risen to £6.

The history of the adjoining No. 5 follows a similar trajectory. The Townland Valuations record it as occupied by a Mr. William Armour and valued at £3 1 shilling, with original dimensions of 31.6 feet by 19.6 feet and 7.3 feet in height. Griffith's Valuation reduced the value to £2 15 shillings, with a Mr. Andrew Dinsmore as occupant. The McCaughan family lived there from the 1880s until around 1963; under the First General Revaluation it was occupied by a Ms. Caroline McCaughan at a value of £3 10 shillings, and the family purchased the property outright around 1950. A Ms. Elizabeth McLean occupied the house after around 1963, and by the end of the Second General Revaluation the value had risen to £6.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1972 guide to North Antrim described Bushmills Main Street as a well-scaled street, for the most part excellently painted and maintained, with many good doorways and shopfronts, and noted that while no individual building apart from the former Court House was worthy of separate mention, the unity of the street frontages must be maintained. Lower Main Street was specifically described as a pleasant curving street facing the grounds of Dundarave. Nos 5–7 Lower Main Street were listed in 1980 and are included within the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992, which protects a village holding the highest concentration of listed buildings of any town or village in the north-east of Northern Ireland.

Although the exterior and interior of the building have been significantly altered, the scale and simple proportions of the terrace as a group contribute positively to the architectural character of Bushmills and the buildings retain their external historic character on the Main Street elevation. This building has group value with the rest of the terrace, Nos 9–19 Lower Main Street.