119 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey three-bay painted rendered mid-terrace shop. Rectangular plan-form with a slated pitched roof (no chimney stacks); Set within a terrace row along Main Street Bushmills. Originally built between 1834 and 1857 as two smaller houses; the name of the architect is unknown. Extended to rear (south-west) in 2005 with a single storey return and further adjoining gabled block set parallel to the original building. Located within the village of Bushmills, on Main Street, which is aligned parallel to the Bush River. Set on the West side of the street, due South of Market Square.

Natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and projecting eaves course; uPVC guttering discharging to uPVC downpipes throughout; walling is render – lined and ruled render to front (painted), rough-cast to rear and keyed to blank south-east gable; three timber sliding sash windows to first floor at front elevation each having one-over-one lights, with heads set just below eaves and two large picture windows to shop front, with entrance door to right (N) and additional door to right-of-way passage, accessed directly off paved footpath on the Main Street.

Principal elevation faces North-east; three bays wide on first floor, shop front on ground floor (not aligned with bays on first floor); all set on a rendered plinth. Entrance doorway to the far right side contains a vertically sheeted painted timber door; door, windows, rainwater goods and base plinth are all painted in contrasting colour.

South-east gable elevation is blank; walling is of unpainted (scratch-coat) plaster finish with evidence of adjoining building having been demolished (toothed quoins remain). Unpainted rough cast to new extension, on smooth rendered base.

South-west elevation extends as cat-slide roof from two-storey main building across almost the full width of rear; a narrow slice of yard remains that is equal in width to the vertically sheeted timber back door (to right-of-way passage). Wall above door is smooth rendered (unpainted) and a small window (blocked up) is tucked below eaves height at first floor. Cat-slide roof is abutted by a single storey return, in turn adjoined by further gabled extension at ninety degrees. The latter has a painted timber eaves board and a sheeted metal door offset to left side accessed by galvanised metal steps and ballustrade that support a timber framed monopitched canopy over the door, with corrugated polycarbonate roofing. Rear extensions have rough-cast unpainted rendered walling, pitched natural slate roofs, clipped eaves and uPVC rainwater good throughout.

North-west side adjoined to neighbouring property [HB05/08/035] No. 117 Main Street.

Setting:
Set in a terraced row of similar scaled buildings on the West side of Main Street within the Bushmills Conservation Area, between No.121-123 Main Street (HB05.08.033) to the left (now demolished) and No.117 Main St (HB05.08.035) to the right.

Materials:
Roof: Natural slate
RWGs: uPVC
Walling: Render, smooth lined and ruled, painted (NE); unfinished render to SW
Windows: Timber sliding Sash (NE)

Historical information

No. 119 Main Street, a two-storey three-bay building with ground floor shopfront located on the west side of Main Street in Bushmills, was originally constructed between c. 1834 and 1857 as two smaller houses. The Townland Valuation Town Plan (c. 1834) depicted a building on the current site in the early-19th century, however the contemporary Townland Valuations (1835) noted that this structure was already in an old and dilapidated condition in the 1830s. The Bushmills Conservation Area Guide records that 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. 119 Main Street was constructed by at least 1857 as it was first depicted on the second edition Ordnance Survey map in that year and was also included in the contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1859).

Griffith’s Valuation notes that No. 119 Main Street was originally constructed as a pair of smaller houses. The valuer set the total rateable value of the buildings at £2 each and noted that they were leased out to tenants by William McNeill (lessor of the adjoining nos 115-117). The original tenant of the northernmost dwelling was a Mr. William Patterson whilst the adjoining house was occupied by a Mr. Archibald Kane. Ownership of the site passed to James McCallum, a local shopkeeper who resided at nos 109-113 Main Street, in c. 1874. The occupants of the dwellings changed frequently over the following decades but by the turn of the 20th century both properties were acquired by William Douthart, a local shoemaker. In 1901 only the southernmost building was occupied and in that year the Census of Ireland described it as a 2nd class dwelling that consisted of six rooms. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Town Plan of Bushmills (1902) depicted the property along its current layout as a single property, however under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) the building was once again recorded as two separate premises with different tenants. In the 1930s the valuer set the total rateable value of the buildings at £14 and 10 shillings and noted that each address possessed a shopfront at ground level. The occupants of both buildings continued to change with frequency and by the 1970s Hugh Lecky, a prominent local landowner, leased the northernmost shop and dwelling to a Mr. Alexander McKinney and the southern building to a Mr. George McMullan. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of the property stood at £31 and 10 shillings.

In 1972 the UAHS Guide for North Antrim described the buildings along Main Street in Bushmills in the following general 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’ (UAHS Guide, p. 16). The formerly separate houses on the site had been converted into a single three-bay building by at least 1980 when No. 119 Main Street was listed as a single property. The site was subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area, which was designated in 1992 in order to preserve the built heritage of the village (that possesses the highest number of listed buildings in the North East of Northern Ireland). The NIEA HB Records note No. 119 Main Street underwent work in c. 2005 when the current single-storey extension was constructed to the rear of the property. Field inspection of the site, carried out as part of the Second Survey, finds that No. 119 Main Street continues to operate as a single commercial property (Bushmills Conservation Area Guide; NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/7/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/7/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/7/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/7/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1922)
5. PRONI VAL/1D/1/7 – Townland Valuation Town Plan (c. 1834)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/132 – Townland Valuations (1835)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/25A – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/8A-D – Annual Revisions (1859-94)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/4/6A-C – Annual Revisions (1895-1929)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/13 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/22 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
12. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
13. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
14. First Survey Record – HB05/08/034
15. NIEA HB Record – HB05/08/034

Secondary Sources
1. ‘Bushmills Conservation Area Guide’ Belfast: Department of the Environment (N. I.), 1983 – including the Ordnance Survey Town Plan of 1902.
2. Girvan, W. D., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in North Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.

Evaluation

Two-storey three-bay painted rendered mid-terrace shop, built between 1834 and 1857 as two smaller houses (architect unknown) with single storey extensions added to the rear in 2005, set within a terrace row along Main Street in the Bushmills Conservation Area. Rectangular plan-form, with a slated duo-pitched roof (no chimney stacks). The front elevation is substantially modified at ground floor level including the loss of character and identity of each individual elevation of the former separate houses. Internally, there is very little evidence of historic detailing; the entire ground floor is modern, including the staircase. Whilst the rear extensions are subservient and sensitively integrated, they obscure much of the original building and the cumulative effect of all these changes means that the building is of insufficient architectural or historic interest to be considered special.