Water tank at former station

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A water tank structure lying a short distance north of Kilrea station building (HB03/01/031A) originally sitting alongside the track. It comprises an open-topped rectangular cistern made up of painted cast-iron panels bolted together. It sits on top of a single-storey stone tower of random rubble basalt brought to courses, with dressed sandstone wall heads. There is a semicircular-headed doorway trimmed with purple brick on its E side, and an identical but taller on at W. The latter elevation is abutted by a small lean-to with monopitched corrugated cement-fibre roof and concrete block walls.
To the left of the E doorway is a handle and rod linkage to the top of the tower, presumably to open and close the valve on the outlet orifice (now capped) just below the cistern. To the right of the same door are two vertical timbers which may once have been part of the water level gauge assembly. ‘10/60’ is painted on the N end of the tank.

Setting
To the north of the tank is a tarmaced yard belonging to a house adjacent to the station premises. A mid-20th century shed lies W of the tank, and the station house yard to its south.

Schedule:
Random rubble basalt tower
Cast iron cistern

Historical information

Kilrea Railway Station lies on the Derry Central Railway (DCR) which ran between Magherafelt and Macfin Junction. It was designed by James Barton, the DCR’s architect/engineer. A contract for its construction, along with stations at Maghera, Upperlands, Garvagh, Aghadowey and Macfin, was signed with Messrs Dixon & Co in April 1879. This tank was built at the same time as the station.
The line opened in February 1880 and was worked by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway as it connected its Belfast-Londonderry line near Coleraine with its Antrim-Cookstown Branch at Magherafelt.
This station complex, including this tank, is depicted on the 1905 OS 25-inch map; it is also on the 1853 six-inch map, but the line was obviously engraved on the original plate in the 1880s.
The BNCR acquired outright possession of the DCR’s assets in 1901 and was in turn taken over by the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1903. This company was reconstituted as the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1923. At nationalisation in 1949, the line was taken over by the Ulster Transport Authority. All services were axed in 1950 except for goods traffic on the Magherafelt-Kilrea section which survived until 1959.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/5/27/2, Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 27 (1853).
2. PRONI OS/10/5/27/6/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 27-06 (1905).

References – Secondary sources:
1. J.R.L. Currie, The Northern Counties Railway, vol.1, p.173 (Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1973).
2. S. Johnson, Johnson’s Atlas & Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland, p.107 (Leicester: Midland Publishing, 1997).
3. W.A. McCutcheon, The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.173 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A cast-iron water tank on stone tower erected c.1879 as part of Kilrea Station (HB03.01.031A) complex. Although this largely intact water tank is a good example of this type of structure it is not of sufficient interest to warrant listing.