Boundary Post near 50 Limavady Road Londonderry BT47 6LS

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing cast-iron boundary marker of c.1864, marking what was originally the perimeter of the administrative jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Londonderry. The post is embedded in the footpath on the northern side of the Limavady Road, backing onto the garden wall boundary of no.50.
Square plan cast-iron bollard has approximately one and a half feet showing above ground. The shaft has a moulded throat top with oversailing square cap and integral smaller cuboid on top. On each of the four sides, the shaft has a recessed panel. On the front, this contains raised lettering, with the letters ‘Y BOUNDARY’ visible. The base is not visible, but likely to be the same as the Boundary Post, SW of 1 Maybrook Mews, Buncrana Road, Londonderry (HB01 23 003) which has a square-plan moulded-top base with a raised name plate on the front bearing Coppin’s maker’s mark.

Material: Cast-iron.

Historical information

This boundary post is one of a series of that marked the limits of the jurisdiction - as set out in 1864 - of the then Municipal Corporation of Londonderry. The Corporation had applied to Parliament for permission to extend the municipal borough in late 1863, stating that ‘the great number of dwellings erected, and the consequent increase in population outside the present boundary render it necessary that the sanitary conveniences and municipal regulations should be extended to those localities’, and under the ‘Londonderry Improvement Act’ of the following year the city limits were extended to include the newly populated areas highlighted in the application.

In late September 1864 it was reported that ‘the tender of Mr. Thomas Miles to supply metal boundary pillars’ had been accepted by the Corporation. Thomas Miles appears to have been a business associate of William Coppin (1805-95), the noted Derry-based 'sailor, shipbuilder and inventor' who had established a foundry off Strand Road in 1840. Coppin’s maker’s mark appears on the base of one of the other surviving ‘1864’ posts on Buncrana Road, and although now obscured by the rise in the level of the tarmac, it is probable that this post has an identical mark on its base also.

The post is marked on the OS map of 1904 and all others thereafter.

References- Primary sources
1 ‘Derry Journal’ – 4 November 1863, p.2; 14 November 1863, p.1; 20 July 1864, p.4; 28 September 1864, p.2; 24 April 1866, p.3
2 OS maps 6-inch county series, Londonderry sheet 20 - 1904, 1932, 1948; IG series sheet 36 - 1961-62, 1973, 1984

Secondary sources
3 Malley, Annesley and McLaughlin, Mary, ‘Captain William Coppin “Neptune’s brightest star”’, (The Foyle Civic Trust, Derry, 1992)
4 https://www.dib.ie/biography/coppin-william-a2031 (accessed 31 October 2023)

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

Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This free-standing cast-iron boundary marker marks the perimeter of the administrative jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Londonderry in c.1864 and is testament to the expansion of the city beyond the previous municipal boundary.
The portion that is visible of this square plan cast-iron bollard survives fully intact and in good condition. The lower portion is submerged beneath the footpath; its integrity likely intact but cannot be confirmed. The marker has group value with the other surviving ‘1864’ posts HB01 23 003 Boundary Post, Southeast of 1 Collon Terrace, Buncrana Road and the Boundary Post, north of 116 Northland Road.

General comments

Previous LQ HB01/084