65 Main Street, Bushmills, Co.Antrim

65 Main Street, Bushmills, is a two-storey, three-bay terraced house built between approximately 1834 and 1855, most likely around 1840 in connection with the laying out of Market Square and the construction of the second bridge across the River Bush. The architect is unknown. The building occupies a key corner position at the end of a terrace on the west side of Main Street, at the junction with Market Square, in the centre of the village of Bushmills. The Main Street runs parallel with the River Bush to the west.

The building is of rectangular plan, with a two-storey rendered extension to the south-west side and a slated pitched roof. The walls are finished in rough-cast pebble dash render on the principal north-east elevation, and unpainted render on the south-east gable. Chimney stacks, also unpainted and rendered, rise from both the south-east and north-west sides of the roof. A cast-iron rooflight sits on the front slope of the roof. Rainwater goods to the front elevation are cast-iron half-round guttering discharging via a decorative hopper to a circular cast-iron downpipe, with the lower section replaced in uPVC.

The principal elevation faces north-east and is accessed directly from the paved footpath on Market Square. At ground floor level there are two entrance doorways, a shopfront, and a coach archway to the right side leading to the rear yard. The left doorway contains a timber door whose upper section has two diamond-faced raised-and-fielded panels. The right doorway contains a pair of timber half-doors, each with a diamond-faced raised-and-fielded panel in the upper section. The coach archway is fitted with a pair of large vertically sheeted timber gates. Windows on both ground and first floors are currently obscured by vinyl window graphics. The ground floor bays are not aligned with the bays on the floor above. The first floor is three bays wide, with window surrounds set within plaster bands painted in contrasting colours.

On the south-east gable elevation, where visible, the walling is of unpainted render topped by a rendered chimney stack. Two small timber casement windows sit at attic level. At the rear, the angle of the roof slope changes and a section of wall contains a timber casement window at first floor level. The rear return on the south-east elevation is blank.

To the south-west, the rear of the building faces onto a large enclosed yard surrounded by a high wall of stone and red brick. The main rear elevation is abutted on its right side by the two-storey smooth-rendered extension, which has a slated pitched roof. The rear return has a single window bay at first floor level containing a timber sliding sash on a concrete sill. To the north-west, the building adjoins the neighbouring property at No. 63 Main Street.

The front facade is of particular architectural interest, displaying a strong urban vernacular quality in the informal disposition of its openings. The elevational treatment expresses unity and rhythm characteristic of buildings along Bushmills Main Street, and the building makes a strong contribution to the streetscape through its setting and group value.

The historical background to the building is well documented. Bushmills was a significant settlement before the end of the 18th century, but from the 1820s the village was extensively rebuilt by the MacNaghten family of Bushmills House, who had acquired the estate in 1787. No. 65 Main Street was first recorded with certainty on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1855 and in Griffith's Valuation of 1859, which recorded it as initially valued at £9 and leased to Thomas Saul by Robert Boyd, a local grocer and ironmonger. Thomas Saul remained at the property until around 1870, after which occupants changed with some frequency over the following three decades. By the turn of the 20th century, the building was occupied by John Templeton, a local flesher who operated a butcher's shop from the premises. The 1901 Census described the building as a second-class shop and dwelling comprising eight rooms. The Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902 depicted the building in its current layout and noted the presence of several small outbuildings to the rear, since replaced by modern outbuildings. The Templeton family remained at No. 65 until around 1925, when a Ms Elizabeth McMichael took possession. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57) raised the assessed value to £21 and noted that the McMichael family purchased the property outright from the MacNaghten family in around 1954. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), the building was occupied by Eleanor and Elizabeth McMichael and carried a total rateable value of £25. A butcher's shop continued to operate from the ground floor until the 1990s, when the building fell vacant. No. 65 Main Street was listed in 1980 and subsequently included within the Bushmills Conservation Area, designated in 1992 to preserve the built heritage of the village, which contains the highest number of listed buildings in the north-east of Northern Ireland.