Former Railway Viaduct at 10 Knockduff Road Jerrettspass Newry BT35 6LU

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three span (originally four span) semi-circular arched squared-stone viaduct [IHR 00231:057] dating from 1862-3 carrying the Newry and Armagh Railway over a river that was formerly dammed to form a mill pond [IHR 00484:003:00(a)], the driveway to No.10 Knockduff Road (the former viaduct is now within private grounds) and formerly over Knockduff Road itself.

Located to the W of Jerrettspass, which is approximately 5 miles N of Newry, Co Down, the viaduct is now isolated due to the former railway line no longer being extant.

Squared, random-coursed, rock-faced stone walling, parapets and retaining walls. Cut stone voussoirs and coping.

From the NE side, the arch on left spans across the driveway and the two arches on right span the dam.

A fourth which laterally spanned over Knockduff Road is no longer extant, with only a small section of pier remaining on the opposite side of Knockduff Road.

The deck/former railway line is now covered in grass.

Materials: rock faced stone

Setting:
Three arched viaduct is located within the grounds of No.10 Knockduff Road and is accessed via electric gates. Remnant of the fourth arch pier is extant on the N side of Knockduff Road and is abutted by modern stone boundary wall of No. 11 Knockduff Road.

Historical information

The current bridge/viaduct dates from 1862-3 and was designed by noted railway engineer, George Willoughby Hemans. The bridge/viaduct carried the former Newry and Armagh Railway over a road to the W of Jerrettspass, also crossing a river and a mill pond associated with a former flax mill. Originally constructed 200m to the E of its present location, the bridge had to be moved when the route of the line was altered in the early 1860s.

The 21-mile Newry & Armagh Railway was constructed between 1845 and 1864 and was subject to numerous delays, often due to difficulties in raising funds. The section of the line between Newry and Goraghwood was the first to be built and was completed some years before the rest of the line, in 1854. The current section of the line between Goraghwood and Armagh was constructed between 1858 and 1864, the engineer-in-chief being George Willoughby Hemans and the contractors, initially William McCormick and subsequently John Watson and James Overend. The resident (assistant) engineer on the line was Richard Hassard.

An Act to construct a railway line between Newry and Enniskillen, to be routed via Armagh, was passed in 1845, on the eve of the Great Famine. The first sod was cut on 17th August 1846, but works were suspended in September 1847, due to difficulties in raising funds, with only the earthworks between Newry and Goraghwood completed.

The railway languished incomplete for some years, and the project was relaunched as the ‘Newry and Armagh Railway’ in 1853, the original ambition to build a railway as far as Enniskillen having been curtailed. Completion of the section of line between Newry and Goraghwood was prioritised and the formal opening of the line as far as Goraghwood took place on 1st March 1854.

Welshman George Willoughby Hemans was employed by the Newry and Armagh Railway to survey the line from Goragh to Armagh in October 1856. In February 1858 Hemans reported that ‘drawings of bridges and culverts &c are well advanced and will very shortly be fit to place before contractors’. Hemans was the son of a celebrated poet and as a young man was employed on surveys of various railways in Scotland and Ireland. Around 1840 he was appointed resident engineer on the Dublin and Drogheda railway and was responsible for erecting the first major wrought-iron lattice girder railway bridge over Dublin’s Royal Canal. Following this, Hemans worked on the Great Southern and Western Railway between Dublin and Cork, the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland and several other Irish railways. Hemans proved himself an innovator when it came to designing railways that could cross bogland and is said to have constructed more railways In Ireland than any other engineer of his time. The resident engineer, Richard Hassard of County Cavan, was an assistant to Hemans on several railways around Ireland.

The contractor initially engaged to build the line from Goragh to Armagh was Donegal-born William McCormick (and his partners Henry Greene and King of Birkenhead), who had made his name in England organising Irish labourers on railway and public works and on his return to Ireland, worked on the Coleraine and Enniskillen lines in the late 1840s (Hume). Work began on the Goragh to Armagh line in the closing months of 1858 and was progressing ‘speedily and satisfactorily’ by January 1859. However, by February 1860, work had been suspended due to lack of funds and McCormick and his colleagues took no further part in the project after this time, the railway company subsequently having some difficulty in engaging a contractor.

By January 1862 the works had resumed and were being carried on ‘with energy by ‘Mr Watson the new contractor’ (London railway contractors, Messrs John Watson and James Overend, who subsequently worked on the mid-Wales railway) and progress was being made on the Lissummon tunnel, the ‘main difficulty of the line’. A newspaper description of progress on the line in July 1862 reports that stone was being recovered from a redundant stretch of line that included an ‘immense railway bridge of several arches’ at Jerrettspass, approximately 200m to the E of the present bridge/viaduct. The former bridge, constructed during the 1858-60 works, had to be moved in 1862 as the railway now took a slightly different route to that originally planned. The redundant stretch of line is visible as an earthwork on the 2nd edition map of 1861 (railways were retroactively added to 2nd edition maps, and this explains why the 1861 map shows the revised route of the line).

G W Hemans reported in February 1863 that of the 29 bridges between Goraghwood and Markethill, 19 ‘are complete or nearly so’. 1,500 men were working on the entire line between Goraghwood and Armagh at this point. A large number of workers on the line were brought over from England, often bringing their families with them, and accommodation was provided for them in temporary wooden ‘cottages’ near the track.

By December of 1863 the bridge/viaduct had been completed and was described in a newspaper report as, ‘a fine stone bridge of four arches which spans what once was a mill-dam, together with the public road which runs past it. Immediately adjoining the South side of this bridge and far below the level of the adjoining road, stand the ruins of the old mill [the old mill, now gone, was in fact located to the E side of the bridge], situated…in the midst of a deep and most romantic ravine.’

The line from Newry to Armagh opened on 25th August, 1864. However, the construction of the railway had been ‘protracted and difficult’ (McCutcheon), and the railway did not subsequently bring in the hoped-for revenues. The directors were therefore easily persuaded to merge with the Great Northern Railway in 1879 (as the Armagh, Newry and Warrenpoint Branch). The line was closed in 1957 and by 1974 (large-scale OS map), the northernmost arch of the bridge had been demolished, leaving the remainder in place.

References:
Primary Sources:

1. PRONI OS/6/2/22/1 First edition Six Inch OS map (1835)
2. Newry Telegraph, 22nd July 1845
3. Newry Telegraph, 18th August, 1846
4. Saunders’s Newsletter, 29th September 1846
5. Belfast Newsletter, 6th August 1852
6. Belfast Newsletter, 13th September 1852
7. Morning Chronicle, 4th March 1854
8. Dublin Evening Packet, 28th October 1856
9. Newry Herald, 27th February 1858
10. Newry Herald, 24th July 1858
11. The Irishman, 8th January 1859
12. Belfast Newsletter, 24th August 1860
13. Newry Telegraph, 1st July 1862
14. Newry Telegraph, 20th February 1863
15. Newry Commercial Telegraph, 23rd December 1863
16. Armagh Guardian, 26th August 1864
17. PRONI OS/6/2/22/2 Second edition Six Inch OS map (1861)
18. PRONI OS/6/2/22/3 Third edition Six Inch OS map (1906)
19. PRONI OS/6/2/22/4 Fourth edition Six Inch OS map (1955)
20. Large scale OS maps 1906, 1955, 1975 (https://shop.centremapslive.co.uk/)

Secondary Sources:

21. Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie)
22. Dictionary of Irish Biography (www.dib.ie)
23. Hume, John (2002) Derry beyond the Walls: Social and economic aspects of the growth of Derry 1825-1850 Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation
24. McCutcheon, W A ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’ Belfast: HMSO (1980)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Three span (originally four span) semi-circular arched squared-stone viaduct [IHR 00231:057] dating from 1862-3 carrying the former Newry and Armagh Railway over a river that was formerly dammed to form a mill pond [IHR 00484:003:00(a)], the driveway to a private dwelling, and formerly over Knockduff Road. Located to the W of Jerrettspass, the viaduct is now isolated due to the former railway line no longer being extant.
Despite this bridge having an interesting social history, it has lost its significance with the loss of the fourth arch over Knockduff Road, reducing its special interest and it does not therefore meet the criteria for listing. However, it is a good example of a historic building of local interest.