Sugar Island Bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This bridge spans the Newry River and links the town centre with the main Armagh road. It is of random granite and Silurian rubble construction throughout (including the soffits) with four equal sized segmental arches. The voussoirs are of dressed granite with slightly protruding keyblocks. There are triangular cutwaters in finely dressed granite on up- and downstream sides, both of which terminate at arch spring level. The string courses and parapet copings are also in finely dressed granite. Markings on the parapets suggest the former presence of a lamp standard at each end, both now removed. A pipe is carried across the outside face of the upstream parapet.

Part of a fifth arch is just visible at left on the upstream side; the remainder of it and all its downstream face are now hidden by road widening. This arch carried a headrace under the bridge to the former corn mill in Mill St. Although the race is now infilled, the arch appears to be still open to facilitate the discharge of floodwater. An arched culvert is let into the walled riverbank immediately above and below the bridge to allow floodwater to pass through this arch.

Historical information

A wooden footbridge was erected across the Newry River at this spot in the early 1700s. It was subsequently replaced with a 10-arch masonry structure named Mudda Murphy's bridge, after the erector of the earlier bridge. This bridge is depicted on Rocque's 1760 map of Co Armagh.

By the earlier 19th century it had been replaced by the present five-arch bridge, of which Bradshaw, writing in 1819, notes: "It is a good bridge of five arches. Formerly these were ten arches; but five of them being of no use for venting the water, it was thought unnecessary to retain them." The bridge is depicted in an 1829 view of the town. This shows the river section to comprise four spans, with a smaller fifth arch over a mill race (now infilled) at the east end. The 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoir goes on to state: "It is built of granite, is in length 80 feet and including the parapet walls 26 feet broad." It takes its name from a sugar refinery which formerly stood in the locality.

Secondary Sources

1. T. Canavan, 1989, 'Frontier town: an illustrated history of Newry', p.76 (Belfast: Blackstaff Press).
2. Thomas Bradshaw, 1819, 'The General Directory of Newry, Armagh etc. for 1820', p.viii (Newry).
3. The 1829 view is reproduced by Canavan, Op.Cit, p.96.
4. Ordnance Survey Memoir, Newry Parish.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The bridge is the oldest surviving bridge in Newry Town. Its plain style and basic construction contrasts with the more elaborate bridges of the mid and later 19th century (eg. Ballybot Bridge and Armaghdown Bridge).