Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Cherryvalley Bridge
Cherryvalley, Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Bridge
- Date of construction
- 1840 - 1859
- Address
- Cherryvalley Bridge, [south of Newtownards Road], Comber, Co Down, BT23
- Townland
- Cherryvalley
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.54913, -5.73312
- Date of survey
- 10 June 1998
- HB reference
- HB24/14/004
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1794 "Sheet 55. (Cary's England, Wales, and Scotland)." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
Disused railway bridge over a road on the western side of Comber.
The bridge is built in snecked sandstone with a single semicircular arch with voussoirs and brick intrados with a ‘spring’ band.
On each face of the bridge the arch is flanked with piers and outer curved retaining walls, but the N face is almost totally obscured by greenery. There is a course above the arch on the S face (an presumably on the N face also). The parapet to the S has lost much of its coping and has a modern concrete fence post places against it, whilst that to the N is smothered in greenery.
The railway line itself has been removed and the track is now overgrown.
Historical information
This bridge was constructed as part of the railway line (Belfast & Co. Down Railway) linking Belfast, Comber and Newtownards, which opened in May 1850. The line was abandoned in 1953.
References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 10
References- Secondary sources
1 E.M. Patterson 'The Belfast & County Down Railway' (Lingfield: Oakwood Press 1958).
2 E.R.R. Green 'The Industrial Archaeology of Co. Dow'n (HMSO 1963), p.62.
3 W.A. McCutcheon 'The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland' (HMSO 1980), pp.95-222.
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
Not listed
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Evaluation
Sandstone built railway bridge (over a road) of 1848-50, now abandoned, neglected and partly damaged, but seemingly still structurally sound.
Nearby in the register
- Kennedy’s BridgeBridgeunder 1 mi
- New cemetery lodgeHouseunder 1 mi
- Marsh Bridge,Bridgeunder 1 mi
- Former railway watch houseFire Stationunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.