Survey Data
Reg No
15602015
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Scientific, Technical
Original Use
Bridge
In Use As
Bridge
Date
1700 - 1777
Coordinates
291359, 156922
Date Recorded
14/06/2005
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Five-arch road bridge over river, extant 1777. "Improved", 1875, producing present composition. Part creeper- or ivy-covered coursed rubble stone walls centred on lichen-spotted granite ashlar triangular cutwaters to piers having pyramidal capping (west) or granite ashlar piers having stepped capping (east) with margined rock faced cut-granite coping to parapets centred on cut-limestone panel in lichen-spotted cut-granite surround ("1938"). Series of five segmental arches with lichen-spotted granite ashlar voussoirs (west) or margined rock faced granite ashlar voussoirs (east). Sited spanning River Slaney with unkempt banks to river.
Appraisal
A bridge erected by the Maxwells of Woodfield [Newtownbarry House] representing an important component of the eighteenth-century civil engineering heritage of County Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, one illustrated by Taylor and Skinner (1778 pl. 154), suggested not only by the silver-grey granite dressings demonstrating good quality workmanship, but also by the elegant "sweep" of the arches making a pleasing visual statement at a crossing over the River Slaney: meanwhile, aspects of the composition, in particular pronounced masonry breaks and superimposed concentric arches, clearly illustrate the near-total reconstruction of a bridge condemned as a 'miserable bridge which is a disgrace to the progress of the age [and which] the people cross with constant risk to their lives' (Duffy 2006, 77).