Clark's Bridge,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-span road bridge, built c.1850, carrying Beagh Road over railway line (now disused). Squared-and-snecked rockfaced sandstone piers, splayed abutments, spandrels and parapet; plain sandstone springing course to arch; rockfaced string course to carriageway level; rockfaced coping to parapet. To east and west, curved retaining wall terminates in square pillar. Single elliptical-headed arch with dressed rockfaced voussoirs; soffit is squared-and-snecked.

The carriageway is approximately 4m wide. Road bounded to embankment at each side by hedging.

Roof N/A
Walling Squared-and-snecked sandstone
Windows N/A
RWG N/A

Historical information

This bridge first appears on the second edition map of 1854, captioned ‘Clark’s Bridge’. The railway is captioned ‘Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway’. By the third edition of 1905-6 this has become the ‘Great Northern Railway (Ireland)’

McCutcheon comments on the development of the railway," The Londonderry & Enniskillen Railway Company was incorporated in 1845, authorised to construct a single-track line of railway extending southwards from a Londonderry terminus…Work began soon afterwards and by April 1847 the single-track line had reached Strabane…The cost of construction was relatively low, about £10,000 per mile…However, due to the shortness of the line, storm damage…and competition from the Strabane Canal and Foyle Navigation, this first section of the company’s line was not a great commercial success. It was not until the construction of the line to Omagh, reached in 1852, Fintona (1853) and Enniskillen (1854) that the full benefits of the railway became apparent. Undoubtedly the new line of rail communication brought important commercial advantages to the towns which it served, and indirectly, to the agricultural lands, both arable and pastoral in character, lying along the valleys of the Foyle, its headstreams and tributaries, and to the flanking upland areas to both east and west. Omagh and Strabane, in particular, emerged as major market centres from which goods could be conveyed northwards to the port of Londonderry. ” (p.109-110)

The Londonderry and Enniskillen Railway eventually amalgamated with other lines, starting in 1860 when it was “leased to the Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway Company, subsequently the Irish North Western Railway Company, for 99 years …The INWR was absorbed by the Northern Railway Company on 1 January 1876 and this in turn merged with the Ulster Railway Company on 1 April 1876 to form the Great Northern Railway Company (Ireland).” (p.110-1)

During the post-war period the railways faced increasing competition from road transport and in 1953 the GNR ceased to exist as a separate and independent company. “In that year the entire system was acquired jointly by the Governments of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and was subsequently operated by a Board consisting of representatives of the two governments. In 1958 the greatly diminished portion of the former Great Northern system which lay within Northern Ireland passed under the absolute control of the Ulster Transport Authority” A period of contraction followed in which many lines deemed to be unremunerative were closed down. (p.119)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/43/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/43/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1854)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/43/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1906)
4. PRONI OS/6/6/43/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1936-8)

Secondary Sources

1. McCutcheon, W.A. “The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland,” London: HMSO, 1980.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A single-span road bridge, built c.1850, carrying Beagh Road over railway line (now disused). The bridge was built during the mid-nineteenth-century to carry the road over the new section of the Londonderry to Enniskillen railway. It is one of a series of bridges that remain as a remnant of the route long after the railway has ceased to operate. Stonework detailing and dressings have been retained and the structure survives in good condition but there are other, better examples along this line that are listed.