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Weavers Green, BANBRIDGE, BT32 4WG

See Image By 1981 the abutments of the bridge which carried the Knockmore Jct – Castlewellan line were still intact but the piers had been removed. The old Scarva line Image (left) had still to become overgrown.

Storm drain, under the path along the old Scarva railway Image, flowing into the Bann (background).

Banbridge was once an important railway town though more for the output of its linen industry and locally bred cattle than for passengers. It was a junction on the GNR(I) where the lines from Knockmore Jct to Castlewellan and Scarva to Banbridge met. The lines closed in 1956 and 1955 respectively although it was a few years before they were lifted. There is very little left in 2006 to show that there was ever a railway in the town. The photograph is of the overgrown remains of the bridge which carried the line from Knockmore Jct to Castlewellan over the River Bann.

The trackbed of the old railway from Banbridge to Scarva has been converted into a path. The photograph shows the path looking towards Scarva. Banbridge station was a few hundred yards behind the photographer. Continue to Image

Banbridge takes its name from the bridge over the River Bann. This is the river (looking downstream) from the Water Bridge at the bottom of Bridge Street. The houses just to the right at the top are in Church Street.

Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier, the son of a local solicitor, joined the navy and served on Franklin’s ill-fated expedition in search of the North West passage. He was born in 1796 and died in the expedition in 1848. This monument, in Church Square, was erected in 1862 to the design of WJ Barre. His birthplace was Avonmore House (the large house on the right of the photo). It is now, appropriately, a solicitor’s office.

See Image Crozier, surrounded by polar bears, is looking to the north west.

See Image This is the plaque on Avonmore House – Crozier’s birthplace.

See Image Cowdy’s has long since closed and the buildings are used by a number of businesses. This view is of the old waterwheel and its successor, the chimney, after conversion to steam power.

The GNR(I) line from Banbridge to Scarva closed in 1955. Shortly after leaving Banbridge the line crossed the River Bann by a bridge at Huntly before continuing past Cowdy’s mill to the level crossing at Millmount. This is the site of the bridge, now part of a riverside walk. The line of trees in the foreground shows the course of the railway clearly but it is not clear on the other side. Indeed, anyone not familiar with the area would find it hard to believe that a railway ever existed. Continue to Image