Road-over-rail bridge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This single-arch stone and brick bridge carries a minor road over the former single-track Lisburn-Banbridge Railway.

This bridge is of squared random rubble blackstone. Its abutment quoins are rusticated and margined. The arch is of segmental profile and comprises four header courses of brick. The parapets have margined ends and are coped with roughly-dressed sandstone blocks, chamfered and projecting to their outside faces. The end coping stone at NW has been slightly dislodged through vehicle impact.

The carriageway is only a single lane wide and rises up to the bridge in an artificial embankment.

The railway track has been infilled to the north of the bridge such that only the crown of its brick arch ring is now visible. There has also been some dumping of soil etc underneath the actual arch, such that only the SE wing wall is now visible. It is of random rubble blackstone, coped with sandstone blocks. The line of the track survives to the south of the bridge.

Much of the visible face of the bridge is covered with ivy.

Setting

Rural
setting. Farm buildings to the north screen from view.

Historical information

This bridge lies on the Knockmore Junction – Banbridge section of the Lisburn - Castlewellan line. This section was opened by the Banbridge, Lisburn & Belfast Railway (BLBR) in July 1863. Thomas Jackson, the BLBR’s consultant engineer, designed stations at Hillsborough, Dromore and Banbridge, and was probably also responsible for the design of this bridge.
Upon opening, the line was worked by the Ulster Railway Co, before being amalgamated into the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1876.

Although this section of line is shown on some 1860 OS six-inch maps, these are actually later (undated) revisions of the original plate. It is correctly shown on all OS maps from 1903 onwards.

The line eventually reached Castlewellan in 1906 under the auspices of the GNR(I) and was linked to Newcastle by the Belfast & Co Down Railway in the same year.

The Banbridge – Castlewellan section was closed in 1955, and the remainder of the line in 1956.

Primary sources:

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2. Second edition OS six-inch map, Co Down sheet 27 (1860).
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4. Third edition OS six-inch map, Co Down sheet 27 (1903-18).

Secondary sources:

1. W.A. McCutcheon, Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland, p.161 (Belfast: HMSO, 1980).
2. S. Johnson, Johnson’s Atlas & Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland, p.101 (Leicester: Midland Publishing, 1977).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A single-arch stone and brick road bridge of c.1862 over the former Lisburn-Banbridge Railway. Although partially buried, this bridge appears to be intact. However, it is of no special architectural interest and better examples probably survive elsewhere along the line. Moreover, the historical presence of the line is already manifest in the nearby listed Dromore Viaduct (HB17/15/027).