Railway Bridge, Churchill Road, Katesbridge, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32

Railway Bridge, Churchill Road, Katesbridge

This twin-arch stone and brick road bridge carries an accommodation road over the former Banbridge–Castlewellan Railway. Built in the late 1870s by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland), it is an unusual example of a railway bridge with two arches, despite the line being single-track and requiring only one.

The bridge is constructed of roughly-dressed rubble blackstone throughout, except for the arches. The abutments and piers are embellished with rusticated, margined quoins. The arches themselves are of segmental profile and comprise three header courses of brick. The parapets are coped with out-projecting rock-faced granite blocks, topped flat with margined edges. A similarly detailed string course runs around the bases of the parapets' out-projecting terminal piers, which are capped with chamfered granite copings. Angled wing walls retain the artificially-raised road embankment and merge with the parapet's end piers. These walls are coped with rock-faced blackstone blocks; those to the north-west wing are now missing. The carriageway carries a single-track road with a slight hump.

The bridge shows evidence of later adaptation. Corrugated metal sheeting has been affixed to the west face of each arch to enclose the spaces within. The former track beds inside the arches have been floored with concrete to form rudimentary animal pens, with drinking troughs across their east ends. The north-east end is obscured by ivy. Beyond the bridge, the railway track bed has been reclaimed for agricultural use.

The bridge lies on the Banbridge–Ballyroney section of the Banbridge–Newcastle line. This section, known as the Banbridge Extension Railway, received parliamentary assent in 1861 and was intended to continue to Rathfriland. Although construction began, the line was never completed. The Great Northern Railway (Ireland) purchased the bankrupt undertaking in 1877, and the line finally opened as far as Ballyroney in 1880. The bridge is presumed to date from 1877–80 rather than the initial 1860s phase. The GNR(I) extended the line to Castlewellan in 1906. That same year, the Belfast & Co Down Railway Company opened a line from Castlewellan to Newcastle, enabling through traffic from Lisburn to Newcastle via Banbridge. The line closed in 1955.

The bridge stands in a rural setting with historic farm buildings and a modern bungalow to the north.