19 Main St., Bushmills, Co.Antrim

No. 19 Lower Main Street is a single-storey, three-bay, pebble-dashed end-of-terrace house built prior to 1832, forming part of a terrace formerly known as 'Metal Row' at the northern end of Bushmills village centre. It sits on the west side of Lower Main Street with views south to Market Square and the Bush River to the west.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Bushmills was already a significant settlement by the end of the 18th century, but from the 1820s the village was largely rebuilt and expanded by the Macnaghten family, who had acquired the estate in 1787. The terrace at Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, laid out along its current alignment. It 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 it later housed nail makers, foundry workers, and mill workers.

The Townland Valuations of around 1834 record No. 19 as a thatched building of medium age, still in sound order and good repair (classified as a 2B+ building), measuring 31 feet by 19.6 feet and standing 7.3 feet in height, with a rateable value of £4 6s. 6d. At that time it was occupied by a Mr. Alex McCaughan and had a forge as its sole outbuilding to the rear, now demolished.

The property was initially leased by Sir Edmund Macnaghten of Dundarave House, who was responsible for the redevelopment of Bushmills from the 1820s. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records that the lease had been held by a Mr. Alexander Corry, who remained at the address until 1886, by which time the value had fallen to £2 15s. The property briefly passed to a Mr. John Pollock that year, and by around 1893 was occupied by William Carton, recorded in the 1901 Census of Ireland as a local agricultural labourer living there with his wife and four children. The census building return confirms that the thatched roofs of Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street had been slated by at least the turn of the 20th century, and describes No. 19 specifically as a second-class dwelling consisting of two inhabited rooms.

Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), the value had risen to £3 10s. and the house was occupied by a Mr. James Wilkinson, a local merchant. In 1954, No. 19 passed to Charles Crooks, who purchased the site outright and remained there until the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), at which point its value stood at £8. The house was listed in 1980 and underwent a renovation around 1981 that included internal alterations and the installation of a modern bathroom extension to the rear. Nos. 5–19 Lower Main Street were 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.

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 remaining, and specifically described Lower Main Street as 'a pleasant curving street facing the grounds of Dundarave.'

EXTERIOR

The house has a rectangular plan with a pitched roof, now finished in fibre cement with black clay ridge tiles. There is a single unpainted rendered chimney stack at the south-west end with a single terracotta clay pot. Rainwater goods are uPVC throughout. The walls are pebble-dashed throughout, with the exception of the south-west gable-end elevation, which is of rough-cast render and is otherwise blank. The north-east side is adjoined to the neighbouring property, No. 17 Lower Main Street.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is accessed directly from the pavement on Lower Main Street. It is three bays wide, all set on a painted rendered plinth. The bays along the terrace row are divided by unpainted rendered quoins. The slightly recessed central doorway contains a replacement timber door with glazed top panes and metal door furniture, set within a painted rendered band surround with a pointed keystone at the top. The windows are small timber casements with painted stone sloping sills and painted rendered band surrounds.

To the rear, the north-west elevation is abutted by a single-storey flat-roof extension added around 1981. The main rear wall is of pebble-dashed render with a single doorway to the left side of the extension and a single window to the right. The flat-roof extension has a single window on both the north-east and south-west walls and two window bays on the north-west wall. All windows in the extension are top-hung hardwood casements. The rear yard can be accessed directly from the Lower Main Street side.

SETTING AND GROUP VALUE

The house retains a relatively original setting and has group value with the remainder of the terrace, Nos. 5–17 Lower Main Street, and with Woodville House Mill immediately to the north. Although No. 19 has been altered, it retains much of its external historic character through its simple proportions and its window and door surrounds to the front elevation.