Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Road and rail engineer. John Godwin, who was born in Swansea, trained with and then worked for James McAdam over a period of five or six years from the age of fourteen. After holding a series of posts in England,(1) in 1836 he was appointed engineer to the Ulster Railway Company, a position which he held until 1862. He was also engineer to the Belfast and Co. Down Railway, 1847-1857, to the Newry, Warrenpoint & Rostrevor Railway, 1847-1859, and resident engineer on the Newry & Enniskillen Railway, 1847-1859. He was professor of civil engineering at Queen's College, Belfast, from 1850 until 1858, at about which time he resigned several of his appointments. According to the memoir in Min.Proc.Inst.CE, he died on 15 January 1869 at Tamnagharrie, Co. Down, 'having lived but three years in the residence which he purchased on his retiirement'.(2)

The memoir records that Godwin had a taste for the fine arts and was 'a ready and accomplished draughtsman, and a very good painter in oil and water colours, for both of which he had considerable talent'. He was also 'possessed of great kindness of heart…ready and anxious to help the industrious, and to assist those in distressed cirumstances'.

Inst.CE: elected member, 24 June 1845.
ICEI: member by 1849;(3) council member, 1859.

Addresses: Cliftonville, Belfast, 1841;(4) Wellington Place, Belfast, 1847;(5) Woodhouse, Rostrevor, Co. Down, 1852;(6) Tamnagharrie, Co. Down, 1866c-1869.

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the memoir of Godwin in Min.Proc.Inst.CE 30 (1869-70, Pt. II), 434-435, and from Thom's, Pettigrew & Oulton's and the Post Office directories (or from Jones's transcripts from these).

(1) For these, see memoir, as above.
(2) A John Godwin, CE, was living at 13 Burlington Rd, Dublin, from 1858 until at least 1863.
(3) TICEI 3 (1847-49), list of members.
(4) Martin's Belfast Directory for 1841-42.
(5) Thom's Directory (1847), 443; according to Marcus Patton, Central Belfast: an historical gazetteer (UAHS, 1993), 335, Godwin lived at no. 14.
(6) Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory for 1852.


5 work entries listed in chronological order for GODWIN, JOHN


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Building: CO. ARMAGH, LURGAN, RAILWAY STATION
Date: 1840-45ca
Nature: Probably built by Dargan to Godwin's designs, for Ulster Railway Co.
Refs: McCutcheon, 'Ulster Railway Architecture', Ulster Journal of Archaeology27 (3rd Series), 159

Building: CO. DOWN, MOIRA, RAILWAY STATION
Date: 1840ca
Nature: New station for Ulster Railway. Attribution to Godwin suggested by Green.
Refs: E.R.R. Green, The Industrial Archaeolog;y of Co. Down (1963), 80; Ulster Journal of Archaeology27, 160 (illus. fig. 4, Pl.21b); Jeanne Sheehy, Jeanne Sheehy, 'Railway Architecture - its heyday', Journal of the Irish Railway Record Society 12, no. 68 (Oct 1975), 131; C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of North County Down (UAHS, 2002), 258-9(illus.)

Building: CO. ANTRIM, BELFAST, GREAT VICTORIA STREET, RAILWAY STATION (GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY TERMINUS)
Date: 1846-48
Nature: New station replacing earlier one designed by Thomas Woodhouse. Opened 1848.
Refs: Perspective view in Linenhall Library, Belfast, see Hugh Dixon, Ulster Architecture 1800-1900 (UAHS, 1972), 26, no. 133(illus.); Brett, 32; Marcus Patton, Central Belfast: an historical gazetteer (UAHS, 1993), 165

Building: CO. ARMAGH, PORTADOWN, BANN RAILWAY VIADUCT
Date: 1847
Nature: New viaduct over River Bann, for Ulster Railway Co.
Refs: B 5, 6 Nov 1847, 534

Building: CO. ARMAGH, PORTADOWN, RAILWAY STATION (OLD)
Date: 1847ca
Nature: 'probably by Dargan to Godwin's design'; replaced 1861-2. Tenders invited for erecting engine and carriage shed (also to Godwin's design?), Aug 1852
Refs: Armagh Guardian, 21 Aug 1852; Ulster Journal of Archaeology 27, p.159 (B. of I.).