Newtownstewart Old Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A six-span stone bridge, built 1727, carrying the Douglas Road over the River Strule. Random rubble basalt parapets and spandrels; depressed stilted round arches with rubble voissoirs sprung from V-shaped rubble cutwaters, arches to west have cement-rendered soffits. Parapets have soldier-coursed rubble coping, extended out as similarly detailed dwarf boundary walls flanking the roads. Carriageway is tarmac.

The bridge is situated northeast of Newtownstewart town centre, south of the reinforced concrete Abercorn Bridge (1931-1932); mature woodlands to northeast, mature trees and the Pigeon Hill Motte to southeast, modern petrol station to southwest of bridge, and modernised two-storey house to northwest of bridge with modern outbuilding built into boundary wall extending off of northwest parapet wall.

Historical information

The bridge is dated by contemporary sources to 1727, and appears to have replaced an earlier bridge.

A bridge is marked, uncaptioned, on the first edition (1833) of the OS map. In 1854, it is captioned ‘Newtownstewart Br.’

OS Memoirs comment, “…one of the principal of these [bridges] is that over the river Strule at Newtownstewart, it was built about the year 1727. It is in bad condition and is very narrow, the breadth being only 13 feet. The length is 300 feet. It is built of unhewn stone and has 6 arches. The approach to it is by a narrow street called Castle Road…Its height above the water is 20 feet. The breadth of the river at this part is 270 feet. It was made by the county and kept in repair at the expense of the county.” (p.5)

Occupying an important junction of three rivers, Newtownstewart was founded in the seventeenth century by William Stewart on land granted by Charles I. James II, upon his retreat from the Siege of Derry in 1689, lodged in the town for a night and then razed the entire town and bridge. The town was rebuilt in 1722 by the Stewarts a few years before the bridge. (Gebbie)

The multi-span round-headed arches and undressed stone of the spandrels, cutwaters, and parapets appear in character with an early-eighteenth-century bridge.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/17/1 -First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/17/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/17/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone I, 1821, 1823, 1833-36, Vol. 5.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990.

Secondary Sources

1. Gebbie, John Hewitt. “Ardstraw Parish Church, Newtownstewart: Year Book and Blotter, 1946.” Newtownstewart, Co. Tyrone: Self-published, 1946.
2. Gebbie, John Hewitt. “Ardstraw (Newtownstewart): Historical Survey of a Parish 1600-1900.” Omagh: The Strule Press, 1968.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A rare six-span stone bridge, built 1727, carrying the Douglas Road over the River Strule. This early-eighteenth-century bridge, displaying good masonry craftsmanship, was executed at a substantial scale commensurate with the townscape and the close by Newtownstewart Castle (c.1619). Occupying an important junction of three rivers, Newtownstewart was founded in the seventeenth century by William Stewart and destroyed by James II, upon his retreat from the Siege of Derry in 1689. The town was rebuilt by the Stewarts a few years before the bridge in 1722. The bridge therefore is linked to the rebuilding of the town.