Road bridge and screen

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small picturesque sandstone bridge of c.1850 by Charles Lanyon, spanning a stream on the main drive within Ballywalter Park. The span is oblique to the stream.

The bridge has a segmental arch c.1.5m wide with vermiculated voussoirs. The base walls around the arches are in snecked rubble. There are sturdy panelled end piers, with vermiculated quoin bases, and a cornice runs from the piers over the crown of the arch. The balustrade forms the parapet and has a decorative balusters between the end piers and a smaller centre pier. Inner and outer faces of central piers have shell motif. End piers have blocking stones above cornice.

There is a similar arched screen roughly 45m to the NE of this bridge, where the stream flows underground. Both the bridge and screen are based on the designs of the two bridges by Charles Lanyon on west side of the estate. Both have small sections now covered in ivy.

Historical information

This bridge and screen are virtual copies of the bridge designed by Charles Lanyon at the western side of the estate, and were probably constructed c.1850s at the same time as (or shortly after) Lanyon’s extending and remodelling of the main house for the estate’s new owner, Andrew Mulholland.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/12/1 OS maps, Down 12, 1834
2 PRONI VAL/1B/39 First valuation, Ballywalter, c.1834-38
3 PRONI VAL/2B/3/9 Second valuation, Ballywalter, c.1859
4 PRONI OS/6/3/12/2 OS maps, Down 12, 1860
5 PRONI VAL/12B/23/6a-f Annual valuation revision books, Ballywalter, 1866-1929
6 PRONI VAL/12E/84/1 Valuation plan, Ballywalter, 1902-35

Secondary sources
1 Lord Dunleath et al, 'Ballywalter Park' (Belfast, UAHS, 1985)
2 Alistair Rowan, "Ballywalter Park, Co. Down- I, II" in 'Country Life', vol.CXLI, No.3652, 2nd March 1967, pp.456-60: No.3653, 9th March 1967, pp.516-20
3 J.A.K. Dean 'The Gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer', pp.11, 23, 63, 74
4 Derek Patton, "The Village of Ballywalter- A brief history" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.14' (1990), pp.10-15
5 A.J. Hughes and R.J. Hannan, 'Place-Names of Northern Ireland Vol. Two, County Down II- The Ards', (QUB, 1992) pp.71-73

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

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Small picturesque ‘oblique’ sandstone bridge of c.1850 by Charles Lanyon, spanning a stream on the main drive within Ballywalter Park.

General comments

The screen element was previously separately recorded as HB24/04/098.