POST OFFICE

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey three-bay pebble dashed end-of-terrace former house. Rectangular plan-form with a two-storey rendered extension to the SW side and two stone outbuildings; shop front on ground floor level; unpainted rendered chimney stacks to the SE and NW side of a fibre cement pitched roof. Set within a terrace row along Main Street Bushmills. Built prior to 1834 to designs by unknown architect. Situated on the West side of Main Street on a corner site adjacent to Market Square. Located in the centre of the Village of Bushmills with the Main Street aligned parallel with the Bush River to the West side.

Walling is of pebble dash finish; shop front on ground floor has a single entrance doorway accessed directly from the footpath on Main Street; first floor is of three bays wide, each opening set within plaster band surrounds; cast-iron rainwater goods to front elevation.

Principal elevation faces North-east accessed directly off paved footpath on Main Street; three bays wide, ground floor two bays either side of single entrance opening; (ground floor bays are aligned with the smaller bays on floor above), entrance doorway is centred on elevation having a replacement painted timber door with a glazed top pane and a plain glazed transom light over; first floor bays have timber sliding sashes, left side bay has a paired timber sliding sash. Cast-iron rainwater goods to front elevation.

South-east gable side is adjoined to neighbouring property No. 69 [HB05/08/052].

South-west elevation to the rear is set within a large enclosed yard surrounded by a high stone and red brick wall; main elevation is abutted to the right side by a two-storey pebble dash extension having a flat roof over; main elevation walling is of pebble-dashed finish having a single entrance doorway on ground floor level containing a flush timber door; first floor directly above contains a single entrance opening having a uPVC door, accessed via a set of external timber steps from within the rear yard; rear extension contains a window opening on ground floor and first floor level above each having a timber casement window with opaque glazing.

Outbuildings 1 & 2 walling is of a mixture of stone and red brick with rendered sections; door openings contain painted flush timber doors, all windows are timber casements; both outbuildings have a lean-to corrugated metal roof finish.

North west side faces out onto Market Square; ground floor level contains a large window opening to the left side and a single window bay to the right side; there is a high rough cast render wall extending towards the west,to the corner of the site abutting the east side of No. 65; the wall contains two doorways; left side opening has a three panel painted timber door with a glazed transom light over and metal door furniture; right side doorway contains a painted flush door set within a plain architrave surround. Gable-end elevation is topped by a large rendered chimney stack with two circular terracotta clay pots.

Setting:
The terrace row is situated on the West side of the Main Street with views North to towards the Market Square. Located to the South of the Village of Bushmills.

Materials:
Roof: Fibre Cement
RWGs: Cast-iron (NE) uPVC (SW)
Walling: Pebble dash
Windows: Timber sliding sash

Historical information

No. 67 Main Street, a two-storey three-bay end-terrace building located on the west side of Main Street, was constructed prior to 1834 as part of the general rebuilding of Bushmills in the early-19th century. 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. 67 Main Street was first recorded on the Townland Valuation Town Plan (c. 1834) which depicted the building as a terraced structure that possessed a number of small outbuildings to rear. The contemporary Townland Valuations (1835) described No. 67 Main Street as a 1A class structure (that is a new or nearly new building) that measured 28.6ft by 28ft and stood 19ft in height. The valuer set the initial value of the building at £7 and 14 shillings.

There was little alteration made to the layout of No. 67 Main Street by the mid-19th century and the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1855). The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1859) noted that the building had been slightly increased in value to £7 and 15 shillings but that the property was divided into two dwellings at that time. The valuer noted that the dwellings were leased out to tenants by the Rev. William Oliver, minister at the local Presbyterian Meeting House, who resided at the adjoining No. 69 Main Street. The two dwellings at the site were converted into a single property in c. 1863. In that year the valuer recorded that the site’s value was slightly increased to £8 and that the building was leased by the Rev. Oliver to Douglas McMullen, a local haberdasher who operated his shop from the premises. The occupants of No. 67 Main Street continued to change with frequency over the following four decades and by the turn of the 20th century the end-terrace building was inhabited by Margaret McNeill, a local grocer. The 1911 Census of Ireland described No. 67 Main Street as a 2nd class dwelling and grocers shop that consisted of seven rooms and possessed extensive out offices including a stable, coach house, two cow houses, a piggery, boiling house and a store. The contemporary Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1902) depicted No. 67 Main Street as an L-shaped corner-site building and noted that it possessed a number of small outbuildings to rear (now replaced). The value of No. 67 Main Street was increased to £26 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). The valuer noted that the McNeill family had purchased the site outright by at least the 1930s, however the McNeill’s vacated No. 67 Main Street in c. 1948. The valuation sources record that the building passed through a number of different owners over the following two decades. A Mr. Henry Morton was recorded as owner of the site from c. 1970 and by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) the total rateable value of No. 67 Main Street stood at £45.

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). No. 67 Main Street was listed in 1980 and was subsequently included in the Bushmills Conservation Area. The conservation area was designated in 1992 in order to preserve the built heritage of the village which possesses the highest number of listed buildings in the North East of Northern Ireland (Bushmills Conservation Area Guide; NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/3/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/3/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1855)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/3/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904)
4. PRONI VAL/1/D/1/7 – Townland Valuation Town Plan (c. 1834)
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/132 – Townland Valuations (c. 1835)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/25A – Griffith’s Valuation (1859)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/8A-D – Annual Revisions (1859-1894)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/4/6A-C – Annual Revisions (1895-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/13 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/22 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
12. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
13. First Survey Record – HB05/08/53
14. NIEA HB Records – HB05/08/053

Secondary Sources
1. Girvan, W. D., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings & areas of architectural importance in North Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.
2. ‘Bushmills Conservation Area Guide’ Belfast: Department of the Environment, 1992 – includes Ordnance Survey Town Plan (1902).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Two-storey three-bay rough-cast rendered end-of-terrace former house, now the village Post Office, built prior to 1834 as part of the reconstruction of the village of Bushmills in the early-19th century. Located on the west side of Main Street, Bushmills on a corner site, with the gable wall onto Market Square. For a period during the mid 1800s this building was divided into two dwellings, reverting to a single dwelling a few years later. Despite the large modern signage on the gable wall onto Market Square, artificial slate to the roof and the flat roofed extension at the rear, the building retains its original historic proportions and character to the front facade within its terraced village-centre setting.