68 Main Street

68 Main Street, Bushmills

This is a mid-terrace former house, now in use as a shop, built around 1834 as part of the early 19th-century reconstruction of the village of Bushmills. It stands two storeys tall, two bays wide, and is finished in smooth-rendered and painted masonry throughout. It sits on the east side of Main Street, within a continuous terrace row, with Market Square directly to the north-west. The building is of rectangular plan, with a shop front at ground floor level and a large single-storey extension added to the rear around 2004, spanning the full length of the site.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is accessed directly from the paved footpath on Main Street. At ground floor level there is a modern timber shop front with a recessed doorway; signage spans the full width of the elevation above it. The first floor has two bays, each containing a one-over-one timber sliding sash window, set on sills and painted in a contrasting colour to the render. Painted rendered corner quoins appear on the right-hand side of the front elevation only. Rainwater goods throughout are uPVC. The roof is finished in natural slate with a single unpainted rendered chimney stack to the south-east side, centred on the ridge. The north-west side elevation is adjoined to the neighbouring property at No. 66, and the south-east side is adjoined to No. 64.

To the rear, the single-storey extension runs the full length of the site to a high concrete wall at the north-east boundary. The north-west side of the extension is smooth-rendered with a painted finish and contains a flush timber fire exit door; the remaining elevations are blank. Full access to the rear elevation was not possible at the time of survey due to the close proximity of the boundary wall. The interior has been modernised, though the building retains much of its historic external character to the street.

The building was constructed alongside its neighbour No. 66 as part of the extensive rebuilding of Bushmills carried out from the 1820s onwards by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House, who had acquired the estate in 1787. Both properties are first recorded on the Townland Valuations Town Plan of around 1834, depicted along their current layout. The Townland Valuations of 1835 described No. 68 as a first-class structure — meaning a new or nearly new slated building — measuring 21 feet by 28 feet and standing 19 feet in height, with an initial valuation of £5. It was at that time occupied as a dwelling by a Mr David McElveney.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859, the property had been divided into two separate dwellings, each valued at £3 and 10 shillings, and both leased by a prominent local farmer, John Richmond, to David McElveney and a Mr John Templeton. The Annual Revisions Town Plan, covering the period 1909 to around 1935, records that the land to the rear of Nos 66–68 was known as Richmond's Court and contained numerous minor dwellings, all of which have since been demolished. Around 1874, the property was reconverted into a single dwelling, with the Annual Revisions setting its value at £7 and recording it as leased to a Mrs Mary Jane Twaddle by Richmond.

By the turn of the 20th century the building was occupied by David McConaghy, a local grocer. The 1901 Census of Ireland described it as a second-class shop and dwelling of six rooms, with outbuildings including a stable, coach house, cow house and barn. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 showed the building in its current terraced form with a number of minor outbuildings to the rear, now replaced by the modern extension. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, covering 1936 to 1957, the rateable value was raised to £18 and the site recorded as having been purchased outright by a Mr Samuel Morrison. The building continued to be occupied by Morrison as both a shop and dwelling at least through the end of the Second General Revaluation period, ending around 1972, by which time the total rateable value stood at £39.

In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's guide to North Antrim described Main Street, Bushmills in the following terms: "A well-scaled street. Many good doorways and shopfronts remain, although there is the usual profusion of signs. While no building apart from the former Courthouse is worthy of individual mention, the unity of the street frontages must be maintained." No. 68 was listed in 1980 and subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of a village that holds the highest concentration of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland. In the late 20th century the building was occupied by a chemist's shop, and the current rear extension was added around 2004 to increase the ground floor retail space.

The building contributes positively to the historic character of the Bushmills Conservation Area, with its architectural interest recognised in terms of style, proportion, ornamentation, setting and group value, and its historical interest acknowledged for its age, authenticity, historic importance and local interest. Its principal detraction is the alterations that have affected the building's integrity, most notably the modern rear extension.