Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Railway 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
- Railway Bridge,, off Saintfield Road,, Ballygowan,, Co. Down, BT23 6HB
- Townland
- Ballygowan
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.50070, -5.79633
- Date of survey
- 19 January 1999
- HB reference
- HB24/16/009
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
Railway bridge set at a slight skew over the Ballygowan River, to the N of the Saintfield Road, W of the centre of Ballygowan.
Due to the closure of the railway, the apparent widening of the road, and the building of modern housing around the site, this bridge is almost totally invisible and largely inaccessible.
The N face is hidden behind a mass of greenery to the E of a fairly recently constructed dwelling. This face is constructed in basalt rubble with a semicircular arch with sandstone voussoirs. The arch is flanked by large buttresses.
The S face of the bridge faces directly into a steep bank (the course of the river turns 90o to the W at this point) and is inaccessible due not only to this bank but thick hedges which border it.
Historical information
This former railway bridge was built in 1856-7 as part of the new BCDR line between Comber and Downpatrick (which was officially opened in March 1859). It is shown on the OS map of 1858. The line closed in 1950 and the bridge is now largely inaccessible due to the construction of houses around the site and the widening of the near by Saintfield Road.
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
Railway bridge of the 1850s in basalt rubble and sandstone, now almost totally invisible and largely inaccessible due to building around the site.
Nearby in the register
- Orr’s Bridge,Bridgeunder 1 mi
- Former Railway freight store,Storeunder 1 mi
- Ravenbank,Houseunder 1 mi
- Ballygowan Bridge,Bridgeunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.