Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Road and rail bridge,
Ballygowan, Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Bridge
- Date of construction
- 1840 - 1859
- Address
- Road and rail bridge,, Comber Road,, Ballygowan,, Co. Down, BT23 6HA
- Townland
- Ballygowan
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.50205, -5.79147
- Date of survey
- 19 January 1999
- HB reference
- HB24/16/004
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 Libraries
Shown on 3 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
Road (and formerly rail) bridge, carrying the Comber Road over the Ballygowan River at an angle, just where the road culminates in a roundabout at the centre of the village of Ballygowan.
The N face of the bridge is in semi-coursed basalt with two semicircular arches with sandstone voussoirs. This face is now largely obscured by greenery. Recent stone built parapet to N side which now also acts as the rear wall for a small war memorial.
The S face of the bridge is of recent construction with a square arch formed in concrete and parapet as before.
The road is covered in tarmac and the railway track has been removed.
Historical information
This bridge was probably constructed 1856-7 to carry the new BCDR railway line between Comber and Downpatrick (officially opened in March 1859) and the recently redirected Comber Road. The bridge is indicated on the OS map of 1858. With the closing of the railway in 1950 the bridge became the sole preserve of the road which itself appears to have been widened with the insertion of the roundabout to the west side [?c.1970]. Presumably this entailed the rebuilding of the south face of the bridge.
References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60 Down 16.
2 EHS OS map 167-9 (1:2500) 1973.
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), p.41.
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
Not listed
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Evaluation
Road (and formerly rail) bridge over the Ballygowan River, partly original to the north side but rebuilt in recent times to the south.
Nearby in the register
- Davidson’s Railway Hotel,Public Houseunder 1 mi
- Ballygowan Bridge,Bridgeunder 1 mi
- Ravenbank,Houseunder 1 mi
- 4-18 The Brae,House - Terraceunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.