Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Bridge,
Ballynichol, Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Listed building, Grade B2
- Grade
- B2
- Type
- Bridge
- Date of listing
- 27 February 2004
- Date of construction
- 1840 - 1859
- Address
- Bridge,, Ballynichol Road,, Ballynichol,, Comber,, Co. Down, BT23 5NW
- Townland
- Ballynichol
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.53061, -5.75808
- Date of survey
- 20 January 1999
- HB reference
- HB24/16/037
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 bridge on the Ballynichol Road (c.1.5 miles S of Comber), over a former railway line.
The bridge is set at a slight skew and is in basalt rubble and sandstone. There is a single elliptical arch with sandstone voussoirs and a brick intrados springing from a sandstone course. The S face has curved abutments. There is a sandstone course above the arch on both faces. Sandstone coping to parapets.
Much of the bridge is covered in greenery. The road is covered in tarmac.
Historical information
This bridge was probably constructed 1856-7 to carry the [present] Ballynichol Road over the new BCDR railway line between Comber and Downpatrick (officially opened in March 1859). The bridge is indicated on the OS map of 1858. The railway closed in 1950.
References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS map 1st rev. 1858-60 Down 10.
2 EHS OS map 167-2 (1:2500) 1972.
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
A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
Criteria for listing: historic interest
X. Local Interest
Evaluation
Road bridge of c.1856 over a now disused railway cutting, in rubble and sandstone.
Nearby in the register
- 55 Old Ballygowan Road,Demolishedunder 1 mi
- ‘Horned Cairn’,Standing Stoneunder 1 mi
- Bridge,Bridgeunder 1 mi
- Ballywilliam House,Houseunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.