Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
White Bridge
ToCrom/ Inisherk, Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Bridge
- Date of listing
- 1 April 1981
- Date of delisting
- 31 March 2005
- Date of construction
- 1960 - 1979
- Address
- White Bridge, Crom Estate, Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh, BT92 8AP
- Townland
- ToCrom/ Inisherk
- Council
- Fermanagh and Omagh
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.16705, -7.45211
- Date of survey
- 12 December 2000
- HB reference
- HB12/02/002 H
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public LibraryDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 2 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1922 "Ireland - northern section." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
This bridge carries a single-lane accommodation track over a branch of Upper Lough Erne to Inisherk Island, within the grounds of Crom Estate. It comprises 18 horizontal pre-fabricated reinforced-concrete deck slabs (each 4.27m long by 3.15m wide by 24cm thick), the ends of which rest on cross transoms (69 x 61cm section) supported just above the water line on pairs of concrete piles (30cm square). The total length of the bridge is 76.8m (252ft). Along each side is a low concrete parapet (13cm wide by 12cm high), with rainwater channel to the inside. The actual carriageway is 2.75m (9ft) wide. At the S end of the bridge is a metal cattle grid.
The balustrade comprises identical cast-iron segments bolted together and attached at regular intervals to the outside faces of the concrete parapet with metal brackets. Running along the top is a timber handrail (14.0 x 9.5cm cross-section). Each cast-iron segment is six-sided, measures 1.07m long by 91cm high, and comprises two mirror-image diagonally-braced parallelograms. The metalwork is 7.0cm x 1.6cm in cross-section and painted white (hence its name, 'White Bridge').
Historical information
The 1834 OS map notes "intended road and bridge" at this location. It is cited as "wooden bridge" on the 1857 edition, having been erected c.1836 to access a newly-built walled garden on the island. This bridge measured 105m long and stood 2m high. It was rebuilt three times - in 1862 (when the present cast-iron balustrade was probably added), in 1914-18, and again in 1939. The present concrete structure dates from 1961, but incorporates the balustrades of the earlier structure. That it is now shorter and lower than the earlier bridge is due to the fact that the water level in the lake was lowered in the 1880s. The balustrade was restored by the National Trust in 1987.
Primary sources:
1. OS 6" map, 1st edition (1834), Co Fermanagh sheet 39 (PRONI OS 6/4/39/1).
2. OS 6" map, 2nd edition (1857), Co Fermanagh sheet 39 (PRONI OS 6/4/39/2).
Secondary sources:
1. Terence Reeves-Smyth, Crom Castle Demesne, vol.2, pp158-159 (National Trust, 1990).
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
Not listed
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Evaluation
This bridge is of some architectural interest on account of its balustrade embellishment and structural system. The bridge is also an interesting landscape feature and has some group value in the context of the estate as a whole. The main structure of the bridge is concrete and dates from 1961. It is not of special architectural or historic interest.
General comments
This record was previously numbered HB12/02/008.
Nearby in the register
- Old Boat HouseBoat Houseunder 1 mi
- Bridge CottageHouseunder 1 mi
- Summer HouseEstate Related Structuresunder 1 mi
- Boat Houseunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.