11 Main St., Bushmills, Co.Antrim

11 Lower Main Street is a single-storey, three-bay, mid-terraced house built prior to 1832, forming part of a terrace on the west side of Lower Main Street in Bushmills village centre, County Antrim. It sits at the northern end of the village with views south towards Market Square and the Bush River to the west. The terrace, which runs from nos 5 to 19 Lower Main Street, was formerly known as 'Metal Row', taking its name from the adjacent Woodville House Mill immediately to the north — a two-storey dwelling and former iron foundry — and reflecting its later occupation by nail makers, foundry workers and mill workers.

The house has a rectangular plan with a pitched roof and a small single-storey flat-roof extension to the rear added during a renovation in 1981. The external walls are pebble-dashed throughout. The front roof pitch is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, while the rear pitch has been replaced in fibre cement. A single re-rendered chimney stack sits at the south-west end with no pots visible. Rainwater goods throughout are uPVC.

The principal elevation faces south-east and opens directly onto the pavement of Main Street. It is three bays wide, set on a painted rendered plinth, with the bays of neighbouring properties along the terrace separated by unpainted rendered quoins. The windows are small replacement painted timber one-over-one sliding sash units with exposed boxes, set over painted stone sloping sills within unpainted rendered or plain concrete band surrounds. The slightly recessed central doorway contains a painted panelled timber door with a small semicircular vision panel divided into four segments with textured glazing and metal door furniture, set within a plain concrete architrave surround. Notably, the front door is flanked by roughly hexagonal basalt blocks, similar in character to the stones found at the Giant's Causeway. The south-west and north-east sides are abutted by neighbouring properties nos 13 and 9 Lower Main Street respectively.

To the rear, the north-west elevation overlooks a small yard. The main rear elevation has a single square-headed uPVC window to the left side. The 1981 extension abuts the right side of the rear elevation; its walls are pebble-dashed, with a timber panelled door to the left side, a window opening to the right, and a uPVC window on the north-west elevation overlooking the rear yard. uPVC rainwater goods serve both the rear elevation and the extension.

Historically, the terrace was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and was developed as part of the wider rebuilding and expansion of Bushmills from the 1820s onwards, carried out by the Macnaghten family, who had acquired the estate in 1787. The Townland Valuations of around 1834 record that no. 11 was occupied by a Mr John Cooke and was valued at £2 and 17 shillings. The valuer described it as a thatched building of medium age, still in sound order and good repair, measuring 29.6 feet by 19.6 feet and standing 7.3 feet in height. The property was leased by Sir Edmund Macnaghten of Dundarave House, who was responsible for the broader redevelopment of Bushmills during this period.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859, the value had been slightly reduced to £2 and 10 shillings, with the Cooke family continuing as tenants under Sir Edmund Macnaghten's lease. The 1901 Census of Ireland records the house as occupied by Archibald Cooke, a local nail maker, living with his wife and three children. By this date the thatched roofs of the terrace at nos 5 to 19 had been replaced with slate. The census building return described no. 11 as a second-class dwelling with three inhabited rooms, partially used as a shop in connection with Cooke's business. The Cooke family remained at the property until around 1921, when it passed to the Joab family, who occupied it until the 1960s. The site was purchased outright by the Joab family in the 1950s and continued to be occupied by Thomas Joab, a local tailor, until his death in 1964. By the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, covering the period 1956 to 1972, the property was occupied by a Mr Harry McNeill and had been valued at £5 and 5 shillings.

The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1972 guide to North Antrim described Bushmills's Main Street as 'a well scaled street, for the most part excellently painted and maintained', noting that 'many good doorways and shopfronts remain' and that '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.'

No. 11 was listed in 1980 and underwent extensive renovation in 1981, which included the installation of the kitchen extension to the rear. It was included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to protect a village that holds the highest number of listed buildings of any town or village in the north-east of Northern Ireland. Although the building has seen alterations over time, it retains its external historic character through its simple proportions, and it carries group value as part of the wider terrace, nos 5 to 19 Lower Main Street.