Marsh Bridge,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Disused railway bridge over the Comber River, sited a short distance to the E of Killinchy Street, to the SE of Comber town centre.
The bridge is mainly constructed of rough faced Scrabo sandstone with a large semicircular arch. Both sides of the bridge are now largely obscured by thick creeping plant growth, though both appear to have battered piers each side of the arch, with dressed voussoirs to the arch itself. The intrados is in dressed sandstone but with a lower portion (between a springing band and the base) in rock faced basalt.

Above, the railway track has been removed and the ground overgrown. The parapet is now missing and replaced on the S side by concrete posts with wire between.

Historical information

This bridge was built in c,1848-50 to carry the Belfast & County Down Railway’s line between Newtownards and Comber, itself opened in 1850. The line was abandoned in 1953.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858, Down 10.

Secondary sources
1 W.A. McCutcheon ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (HMSO 1980), pp.157, 175.
2 Desmond Coakham ‘Belfast & County Down Railway’ (Leicester 1998), pp.26-31.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Now disused railway bridge of c.1848-50, built to carry the BCDR line between Newtownards and Comber. Mainly constructed in Scrabo sandstone the structure is now largely obscured by plant growth and the parapet.