Boundary Post beside 14 Dungiven Road Londonderry BT47 6BW

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing Cast-iron boundary marker, c.1842, marking the Municipal Borough Boundary of Londonderry as it had existed prior to 1864. The post is located on the footpath on the south side of the Dungiven Road; set hard against the front wall of no. 14 and is only visible from 3 sides.
A circular plan cast-iron bollard, just over 3 feet tall with ring topped cylindrical shaft, surmounted by an inverted arrowhead that terminates in a shallow dome topped cylinder with lip top. The arrowhead is flat fronted and displays a raised circular panel with lettering that reads ‘B.B’, likely an abbreviation of Borough Boundary.

Material: Cast-iron.

Historical information

This post appears to have been one of series that marked the municipal borough boundary of Londonderry as it had existed prior to 1864. The initials on it - ‘B.B.’ - presumably stand for ‘Borough Boundary’.

The exact date of the post is uncertain, but it is likely that it was installed following the 1840 Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act, as this stipulated that, ‘within six calendar months after the first election of Mayor…under this Act, shall cause to be set up…permanent and conspicuous boundary marks of iron, wood, stone or other durable material in exact conformity with, or as near as circumstances will admit, the respective metes and bounds…and in the most public and convenient places along or near the line of such metes and bounds…’. The Act came into operation in the City in October 1841 and the new Mayor, (Connolly McCausland Lecky), was elected in December; therefore, by law, posts marking the Corporation’s jurisdiction would have had to have been in place by mid-1842.

The line of the boundary is marked on the OS six-inch county series map of 1853, and it is shown crossing this particular location, though this map – unlike its successors – does not mark the posts themselves. It is specifically marked for the first time on the larger scale OS town plan of 1873, lying along what was by then the ‘old municipal boundary’, the city limits having been expanded in 1864. The new perimeter was marked by decidedly different square posts, several of which remain in place (see HB01/09/013, HB01-22-039 and HB01/23/003).

The post was originally observable from all sides, but with the construction of the terrace to the immediate south in the mid-19th century (sometime between 1853 and 1873) it became set right up against the wall of a building. It now appears to be only one of two from the original city boundary to have survived and the only one to remain largely intact, the other, near West End Terrace off Lone Moor Road, (but which may have been moved several metres at some point), being now largely submerged in tarmac and having a broken top.

References – Primary sources
1 OS map, 6-inch county series, Londonderry sheets 14 and 20 – 1830, 1853, 1905, 1932, 1949; IG series sheet 36 – 1963, 1973
2 "Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840" , ‘The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 3 & 4 Victoria. 1849. Vol. XV Part II.’ (Her Majesty's Printers, London, 1840), pp. 599–669
3 ‘Londonderry Standard’ – 4 November 1840, p.2; 29 December 1841, p.2
4 OS town plans of Londonderry – 1873

Secondary sources
5 Irish historic towns atlas, no.15, Derry-Londonderry, (Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, 2005)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Free-standing Cast-iron boundary marker, c.1842, marks the Municipal Borough Boundary of Londonderry as it had existed prior to 1864 appears to be only one of two from the original city boundary to have survived and the only one to remain largely intact. The other, in front of West End Terrace on Lone Moor Road has a broken top and is largely embedded within the footpath.

General comments

Previous LQ HB01/LQ083