Church Bridge, Sloughan Road, Drumquin, Omagh, Co.Tyrone, BT78 4PF

Church Bridge

A double-span road bridge built around 1790, carrying Sloughan Road over the Black Water River near Drumquin, County Tyrone. The bridge is constructed of random rubble stone, well-built and carefully detailed, with particular architectural interest in its V-shaped cutwaters.

The structure consists of two segmental-headed arches with rubble voussoirs and a random rubble arch soffit. The abutments are splayed random rubble, with random rubble parapets and spandrels fitted with varying styles of cast-iron wall-ties. The parapet is capped with rubble coping and extends beyond the bridge at both east and west ends to form a boundary wall between road level and the river bank. The carriageway is approximately 5 metres wide. Access to the river is provided at the north-east corner, adjacent to a house on the river bank.

The bridge appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, uncaptioned, positioned beside the parish church. It was formally named Church Bridge in subsequent editions. The survival of the structure in a relatively unaltered state is notable; it represents a fine example of late-eighteenth-century bridge engineering of this type.

Historically, the bridge is closely associated with West Longfield parish church, which stood nearby. The old church, described in Ordnance Survey memoirs as a small plain building 65 feet long with no steeple and capable of accommodating 300 persons, was largely attended. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1854), the old church had fallen into ruin and a new church had been constructed on the opposite side of the river, built in 1848. The site of the old church subsequently became a graveyard. The bridge sits in a rural agricultural landscape.