Spencer's Bridge, Hillsborough Road, Moira, Craigavon, Co Armagh

A triple-span masonry arch bridge which carries a secondary road between Moira and Hillsborough over the floodplain of the River Lagan. The bridge is of random rubble construction throughout except for its cutwaters and arch voussoirs. The former are of triangular profile and step up at both ends of the piers to just above arch spring level. They are of dressed sandstone blocks laid to regular courses and continue up to the tops of the parapets in the form of shallow rectangular basalt rubble pilasters. The arches are of equal size and of three-centred (‘semi-elliptical’) profile. Their voussoirs are of vee-jointed cut sandstone, with slightly projecting keystones. Their soffits have been rendered with cement, but random rubble is visible in places. Tie rods (two per arch) hold the sides of the bridge together. The downstream (N) elevation is identical to the upstream (S) one except that a lagged water pipe runs across above crown level. It sits on an RSJ which is supported on crude mass concrete columns rising from the sandstone cutwaters. The carriageway has a slight hump and carries two lanes. The parapets have drainage slits at road level and are coped with chunky undressed stones. Inserted into the road face of the upstream parapet, directly over the crown of the middle arch, is a finely dressed granite post (square cross-section and rounded top) carrying the inscription ‘1843’. Set into the stone, immediately above this date, is a small cast-iron plaque bearing a coronet and the letter ‘D’ (denoting Downshire, the principal land owning family in the area). The upstream faces of the long approach roads, walled to each side with random rubble masonry, have been strengthened at their bridge ends with random rubble buttresses; that on the east approach is relatively recent. A small segmental-headed flood arch with cut sandstone voussoirs is visible on the eastern approach. A similarly sized flood arch is also visible on the north side of the western approach (it is blocked or obscured by vegetation on the upstream side). However, it has split stone voussoirs and appears to be of earlier date. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoir (see historical), there were five flood arches in total. The three which were not observed during this survey probably exist but have been buried or hidden by vegetation