Ballynameen Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A triple arch masonry bridge carries the Coleraine – Maghera road over the Agivey River at the south end of Garvagh. It is of squared random rubble basalt, slightly battered to both faces. The piers have semicircular cutwaters rising to arch spring level at both ends. The cutwaters are finished with oversailing domed sandstone caps, from which dressed sandstone string courses continue through the arches.

The three equi-sized arches are of segmental profile and have finely dressed sandstone voussoirs and soffits. Shallow pilasters rise to the tops of the parapets above the abutments and piers. The parapets are of quarried rubble basalt, with chamfered sandstone string courses along the base of their external faces.

The downstream (east) parapet has projecting sandstone copings with curved tops. The upstream (west) parapet is higher, having been rebuilt with ribbon-pointed basalt and coped with concrete. The copings of both parapets have been painted and planters have been placed along the upstream one. The terminal piers of both parapets project outwards, in line with the pilasters.
The flat deck carries two lines of traffic and a footpath runs along the upstream side.

Metal floodlights have been affixed just above the crowns of the end arches on their downstream faces, and also above the middle arch on its upstream face.

Context
A rubble masonry archway has been erected in the relatively recent past just beyond the south end of the upstream parapet to give access to a footpath running upstream along the right bank. Just beyond the NW end of the bridge is a car park.

A sloped masonry vee weir runs downstream from the north abutment; there was formerly a race off its far end to a grain mill at Killyvally Bridge (HB03/02/010). A flat tarmaced area delineated by a rubble masonry wall along Kurtin Road runs along the right bank on the bridge’s downstream side.

Historical information

A road is shown crossing the river at this location on Taylor & Skinner’s 1777 map and a bridge is clearly depicted on the 1832 OS six-inch map. However, the main road at that time curved to the SE at the south end of the bridge (along what is now Kurtin Road) and then continued over Ravelin Hill and onwards to Maghera.

The 1835-37 Ordnance Survey Memoir notes this bridge as having two arches over the river (one of 20ft or 27ft span, the other 19ft), and two small flood arches at its south end. It was originally 8ft across, but was widened to 20ft in 1818 at the expense of the county (i.e. financed by the Co Londonderry Grand Jury). The Memoir also noted that it was proposed to realign the main road at the south end of the bridge so that it contoured around the west side of Ravelin Hill and rejoined the main road south of the hill. However, the plan could not be implemented owing to the objection of a landowner through whose property the new line of road would pass.

Ballynameen Bridge is also explicitly captioned on the 1848-53 OS map (and subsequent editions). The new line of road, described above, is also shown.

The present bridge shows no evidence of having been widened and it does not accord with the OSM description. Moreover, its style of construction is more akin to the mid-1800s than the mid-1700s. The documentary and field evidence both indicate that it was constructed in the period 1838-48, doubtless with finance from the Co Londonderry Grand Jury.

References – Primary sources:
1. A. Taylor & G. Skinner, Maps of the Roads of Ireland, p.274 (1777).
2. PRONI OS/6/5/18/1. First edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 18 (1832).
3. OS Memoir for Desertoghill Parish (1835-37). Reprinted as A. Day & P. McWilliams (eds), Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Parishes of County Londonderry VIII, East Londonderry, pp 2, 16, 29 (Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994).
4. PRONI OS/6/5/18/2. Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Londonderry sheet 18 (1848-53).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Ballynameen Bridge is an 1840s triple-arch masonry arch road bridge over the Agivey River. Its architectural style (squared rubble basalt), proportion (equi-sized arches) and embellishment (sandstone voussoirs and string courses) are typical of the mid-1800s and make it a fine example fropm the period. It is also of local historical interest as a tangible reminder of the realignment of the main Garvagh-Maghera road at the same time.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply