Green's Bridge

Background

At the centre of Osraige, Kilkenny grew from a monastic settlement, now St Canice's Cathedral on the hill above the bridge, to a thriving Norman merchant town in the Middle Ages. The location of a slow-moving and relatively easily fordable point on the Nore which had used from at least the 10th century. Three important roads forded the Nore and Bregagh, including from Old Leighlin and Rosconnail (south of Ballyragget).

Later the area was converted to a mill pond associated with the Augustinian Priory of St Johns and so new bridge was needed. Settlers from Flanders may have built the first bridge in the 12th century. The late medieval bridge has been recorded as "the Bridge of Kilkenny" in c.1178 and "the big bridge of Kilkenny" in c.1223. Described as "Grines Bridge" in 1623, the origin of Green's Bridge is unknown, a Greene family "acquired the land in this area on October 21, 1631.", however, merchant John Rothe, of Rothe House, in his will of 1619, bequeathed to his son John: "All my messauges in the Greene Street of the Irishtowne".

The bridge has been rebuilt many times due to constant floods, including the great floods of 1338, c.1443 and 1526. Sir James Ware the historian mentions the Bishop of Ossory Oliver Cantwell O.P. rebuilding "the great bridge of Kilkenny, thrown down by an inundation about the year 1447". By 1623 it was a '"decayed state"', Kilkenny Archaeological Society has two unnamed depictions from 1655 and 1708. It was recorded as 'out of repair' in 1710, the older late medieval bridge is recorded on Rocques' 1758 map.

An archaeological excavation of part of the structure was carried out as part of the Kilkenny Flood Relief scheme. One arch of the former bridge spans the Greensbridge mill‐race on the east and four‐five of its central pier abutments are visible in low water.

Great Flood of 1763

The Great Flood of 1763 (October 2, 1763) washed away Green's Bridge and John's Bridge the other main bridge in the city. the current bridge was rebuilt 120m to the south. Bishop Pocoke estimated the cost of the loss of the bridge to be £2828. The Bishop of Ossory Richard Pococke estimated cost of the cleanup from Great Flood of 1763 at £11,381, Parliament of Ireland granted £5417 for the rebuilding of Green's Bridge and John's Bridge, neighboring Churches collected £273, the lord lieutenant Earl of Northumberland gave £200, and the rest was raised by a tax on the county, some £4967.

Design

George Smith, from Kilkenny and the Nore navigation engineer was appointed to design the new bridge. Smith had worked under George Semple durning the building of Essex Bridge (now Grattan Bridge) in Dublin. Within three years of the Blackfriars Bridge competition Smith had three notable stone bridge designs in County Kilkenny. At Inistioge Bridge (1763), the nearest bridge to the mouth of the Nore, Smith used a design derived from Robert Mylne's design for Blackfriars Bridge. In the city of Kilkenny, Smith designed two notable new bridges John's Bridge and Greene's Bridge.

For the larger of the two bridges in the city, Green's Bridge, Smith designed almost a true copy of Bridge of Tiberius (Italian: Ponte di Augusto e Tiberio) in Rimini, as described by Andrea Palladio's (1508–1580) in I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura (1570) (The Four Books of Architecture). Built with rubble limestone, Smith's design incorporated five elliptical arches with cut-limestone Gibbs surrounds and dressed squared limestone soffits. With three central arches and two smaller arches it is decorated with pedimented aedicules and doric columns. It has tooled limestone ashlar triangular cut-waters. Renovated with two random rubble limestone parapets with coping were added in 1835. As well as the five arches there is also a pair of elliptical arches over culvert (one blocked-up with concrete block infill).

It was temporally remodelled in 1969, where the missing parapet on the north (upstream) facade of the bridge was removed, a cantilevered steel walkway and services were added. These alteration works have not had a positive impact on the composition of the bridge.

After severe flooding in 1763 had destroyed several bridges in the County, Smith designed a number of bridges including Castlecomer Bridge (1763) on the Dinin (Dinan, Deen) River, Thomastown Bridge (post-1763 and 1792) on the River Nore, Graiguenamanagh Bridge (1764-7) on the River Barrow, and Inistioge Bridge (1763) on the River Nore.

Construction

The task of building the bridge went to William Colles (August 30, 1702 - March 8, 1770). Colles was a building contractor and entrepreneur from Kilkenny. He owned a marble works at Millmount about 1.9 miles (3 km) downstream of Kilkenny and a quarry Archersgrove Quarry situated on the outskirts of the city. Archersgrove Quarry was a quarry of fine-grained Lower Carboniferous limestone (Butlersgrove Formation), which has become known as "the Black Quarry" due to the colour of the final product. It is thought to be the first location where the "Kilkenny Black Marble" was quarried in Ireland. This site is included as a County Geological Site as it is of historic and geological significance.

Colles is credited as the inventor of machinery for sawing, boring and polishing limestone using water mills, tasks which had previously been performed by hand. A weir on the river provided water to drive reciprocating cross-cut steel bands saws (with sand as an abrasive) to cut the larger blocks.

The river Nore was used to transport large blocks from the quarry by means of horse-drawn floats and/or barges.

As well as in several local buildings like the The Tholsel, Kilkenny Black Marble was used in the Cobh Cathedral, the plinth of the tomb of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral, and the headstone of Daniel O'Connell in Glasnevin Cemetery. Some fossils can be observed on the visible rock faces, mainly solitary corals and occasional brachiopods.

Green's Bridge complex

Green's Bridge complex also includes a late medieval bridge, a medieval mill stream, and watermill. Between the current bridge and the late medieval bridge a watermill is depicted on Rocques 1758 map, and the Civil Survey also describes a watermill "standing upon Grene's Bridge".

As part of the Kilkenny Flood Relief scheme, an archaeological examination of the late medieval bridge was undertaken. This revealed two piers, two sections of collapsed masonry, and a bridge abutment from the 16th century bridge. A post‐medieval mill building with associated river bank revetment walls were also found. A small section of the millstream was re‐opened at Greensbridge mill during the archaeological examination.

The medieval millstream was a part of the medieval watermill at Green's Bridge and for the Maudlin mills, evidence suggests, it was constructed in the 12th century and associated with the Augustinian Priory of St Johns. It ran along the eastbank of the river Nore from an inlet at Friar's Inch, under Noremount, and re-entered below Green's Bridge.

A lower section flowed as far as the Maudlin mills to the south. Included on Rocque's 1758 map and the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map, of the 0.68 miles (1.1 km) of millstream much of the upper section can still be seen, however most of the town section has been filled in and built upon. In John Street much of the mill‐stream was walled and was crossed by the "Little Bridge".