Railways were the ‘churches’ on 19 th century says historian

Report Paul Murphy

A “walk and talk” lecture on the history of the railway in Navan brought out a sizeable audience when a historian conducted a guided tour of what is left of the station and its buildings at Railway Street. The walk for members of the Navan and District Historical Society was part of a number of events to mark 175 years of the railway in the town. A lecture is being delivered at the Solstice this evening and an exhibition on the history of the railway is going on at the same venue.

Architectural historian Dr Siobhan Osgood said Navan railway station was built 150 years ago. She said it was very easy to take railway buildings for granted, especially when they were closed down. They tended to be seen as “useless utilitarian buildings” when in actual fact they were a monument to the skill and craftsmanship that went into the design. “These are fantastic pieces of architectural engineering and really valuable, not just from a heritage point of view but from the architectural point of view.

She said that architectural historians are “quite snobbish”. When she was doing her Phd on railway architecture at Trinity College people laughed at her and “thought I was a bit ridiculous”. “The railways are the churches of the 19 th century”, she said. They should be respect in the same way as we would respect medieval architecture. The present railway station was not the first station built there. The first station was built in 1850. There were no records or architectural plans available.

Clare Ryan and Paschal Marry of the historical society with Dr Siobhan Osgood and members of the historical society.

However, it probably looked very similar to Kells station, Balbriggan railway station and Drogheda railway station. They were all designed by a man named George Papworth. He was resident architect for the Dublin and Drogheda railway. A branch line was opened from Drogheda to Navan in 1850 and it went on to Kells where it opened in 1853 and on to Oldcastle in 1863. The Oldcastle station was of a completely different design, Dr Osgood said. Papworth’s railway station were all red brick and looked like small Roman villas where you had a central entrance and portico with two wings either side.

Navan Station was opened in 1850

“They are beautiful, fantastic little villas”. The station at Navan was built by the Great Northern Railway. From 1877 they started investing in infrastructure at Navan. The town was an important industrial one and the small existing station was too small and needed an upgrade. The large yards would have been filled with trucks, cows, people and full of hubbub and noise.

The railway station at Navan was designed by the chief engineer of the Great Northern Railway William Hemingway Mills, a Yorkshireman. He trained under William Barlow, who was responsible for the enormous train shed at St Pancras London. There were 140 railway stations in Ireland and every single one of them was of an exact standardised design.