Eel House Bridge, Florence Court, Co Fermanagh BT92 1DB

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An elegant barrel-vaulted bridge with vousoirs traversing the Larganess River, 400 metres south west of the main house and just south of the sawmill. The Long Glade lies on the west side and the Pleasure Grounds on the east. The bridge carries an unsurfaced tract that was built for traffic travelling from the house yards into the southern area of the demesne through the Kennel Field.

The bridge, with semi-circular vault, is composed entirely of Carboniferous sandstone, and has a depth of 5.60m, a span of 3.70m and a height of 2.35m from the soffit to the bed of the stream. On both sides the bridge is embellished with rusticated vee-jointed sandstone voussoirs. The parapet of the bridge was originally composed of a single course of large upright stones between 50cm and 60cm high, which graduated very slightly at each end to a height of 40cm.. In 1998-9 it was rebuilt in in random courses to a height of c.60cm.

On the east side of the structure, immediately to the south of the bridge arch, lies a brick-lined barrel-vaulted chamber. This has a depth of 4.90m, a height internally of 1.75m and a span of 2.33m. While its soffit is of brick, it has spandrels of sandstone rubble and the sandstone voussoirs are undressed. The arch opening to the chamber is 0.94m high and lies 0.90 below the parapet base. Just inside the chamber there is a ledge with a cobbled surface 060m wide and 0.30m high.

Historical information

The brick-lined chamber in the body of this bridge was formerly filled with water to the level of the ledge and used to store eels that had been caught in the stream. The name 'Eel Trap Bridge', which is sometimes used, is misleading as storage was the only function of this chamber. Neither the bridge or the trackway are shown on Mulvihill's 1768 map, but they are shown on the 1814 map and 1834 OS map and subsequent OS editions. The bridge was probably built when the landscape park was laid out in the 1770s and the similarity of the rusticated voussoirs to those in the Laundry and Stable Yards would support this dating. However, the eel chamber itself is a later edition, perhaps made in the 1830s or 1840s when the Pleasure Grounds were laid out; the chamber bricks look 19th century and its arch opening does not have voussoirs to match the bridge.

Just prior to the mid-1980s the bridge was very overgrown with ivy, while laurel hedges had encroached on the stream edges, making the bridge all but invisible from the Pleasure Grounds. In 1985-7 this growth was cleared, and in 1998-99 the bridge was refurbished.

References
F. Mulvihill. Map 1768. PRONI T2094/2A
D. McKimm. 1814 Demesne Map. PRONI T2094/3A.
OS Map Sheet 32 (1834)
Reeves-Smyth T (1990) Florence Court Demesne. Three Volumes (Vol. 3, p133-34). National Trust: Unpublished.
Hamond, F. W. (1996) HB Inspection Report 8-9-1996.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Although conservation work on the parapet in the 1990s detracts a liitle from the bridge quality, this is nonetheless an elegant and high quality late 18th century demesne bridge with very good voussoirs. The eel house within the bridge body is a highly unusual feature with no obvious parallels.

General comments

The bridge was refurbished in 1998-99 by the National Trust, the work being carried out Derek Connor, consulting engineers, Enniskillen. The hardcore overburden was stripped from the bridge down to the structural arch stones and exposed structural arches waterproofed with 25mm thickness of mastic asphalt applied to the outer stone/brick faces. The parapet was rebuilt but does not appear to be an exact replica of the original (for a description of the original parapet see Reeves-Smyth 1990, p133)