79 & 81 Main Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A heavily renovated, two storey, three bay, semi detached, house and shop on Bushmills Main Street. Pebble dash finish, thin concrete cills, timber casement windows with high level openings. Man made slate roof. The Main Street façade faces north east and consists of three equally spaced openings at first floor. Below at ground level a window aligning to the south west, a central paneled timber door (of modern construction) aligning with the central window and to the north west a second similar door and shop window opening adjacent. There is no formal shop front just the simple pebble dashed openings.

The building is located on a corner and a blank pebble dashed corner is exposed. This is surmounted by a chimney at ridge level. Also pebble dashed it has one pot but is large enough for two to three more. The coping appears to be of stone. A single pvc down pipe is located near the corner with Main Street.

To the rear of the building the structure is similarly finished. A single storey flat roofed return projects housing the kitchen. Windows at first floor are not equally spaced. Two windows to the north west are casements matching those to the front within an opening of proportion suggestive of former sashes. To the south east end the third window has a higher cill and is vertically subdivided suggesting a bath room behind. A soil vent pipe adjacent confirms this. Below at ground level a casement window of vertical proportion. The return covers most of the rest of the façade though space is left with the boundary to accommodate an oil tank.

The building has a long rear yard partly enclosed by a one meter high pebble dashed wall with concrete coping.

**Now renumbered as HB05/08/048 A is now 81 Main Street. HB05/08/048 B is now 79 Main Street.

Historical information

Building indicated on First Edition Ordnance Survey Map and is thought to date from the late 1820's when much of the village was rebuilt by the McNaghten's of Bushmills House. This building formerly had a cut sandstone chimney similar to other buildings near the Market Square which is suggestive of landlord influence. On the 1832 Map the building is indicated as a block with some small out buildings separate from the building along the roadside to the rear. A similar pattern is recorded in the maps of 1857 and 1902. The present return is not indicated on the 1972 map and is of modern date.

When visited in 1972 as part of the First Survey of buildings of special architectural or historic interest it was described as: ‘A two storey three bay rendered building with quoins. The roof is slated, chimneys are stone. There is a pilastered shopfront, panelled street door and 12 pane Georgian glazed windows’. An accompanying slide shows a shopfront which extends across the shop to enclose the doors to the shop and the house. The doors and main shop window are flanked with thin pilasters supporting a sign board detailed as a classical entablature. The shop window is divided in three divisions of vertical proportion with a central horizontal bar. The stall raiser at the base of the window is also in timber with a deep recess under the cill. The door to the shop is glazed in its upper half. The stone chimney on the gable is constructed from sandstone similar to other buildings in the near vicinity. There are three pots on the top.

The building was listed in 1980 at grade B. Around this time the structure was renovated to the condition in which it is found today. Permissions were not sought as required for this work and enforcement action was not carried out. Enforcement action was considered by EHS in 2004. It was concluded after detailed consideration that it would not be appropriate to persue such action this case.

References- Primary sources

Ordnance Survey First Edition 1832 Co Antrim Sheet 7
Ordnance Survey Second Edition 1857 Co Antrim Sheet 7
Ordnance Survey 1902 Edition Co Antrim Sheet 7
Ordnance Survey Sheet 007-5, 1972 Edition.
Griffiths Valuation, Bushmills, 1858.
EHS First Survey record card and slides.
EHS listed building files.

Secondary sources
UAHS Buildings of North Antrim, p16,Belfast, 1972
Current owners (2004)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A heavily renovated, two storey, three bay, semi detached, house and shop on Bushmills Main Street. Significant inappropriate alterations to the shop front, exterior walls, windows and internal appearance of this building have reduced its architectural and historic character to a point were these are no longer considered to be of special interest.