Bridgetown, County Wexford

Education

The local co-educational secondary school, Bridgetown College, draws students from southeast County Wexford. Originally opened in the 1960s, an extension to the school was opened by then Minister for Education Mary O'Rourke in 1984, and a further modern extension was opened in 2008.

Transport

Railway

Bridgetown railway station opened on 1 August 1906. The rail service consisted of a solitary train each way between Rosslare Europort and Waterford (Plunkett) with no service on Sundays. This railway service ceased after the last train in September 2010 but the line remains maintained. Reopening plans for the line were announced in 2024.

Road

The rail service was replaced by a revised Bus Éireann route 370 service. Wexford Bus operate a shuttle bus that services Bridgetown, the Wexford town - Kilmore Quay route 390. Other bus services include a TFI Local Link service that operates to Wexford and Kilmore Quay.

Nearby villages include Ballycogley, Duncannon, Duncormick, Kilmore, Kilmore Quay, Murrintown, Taghmon, and Wellington Bridge.

Industry and economy

The village of Bridgetown has a supermarket/filling station, garage, post office, bookshop, cafe, take-away, pubs, hair salons, a tailor, an upholster, an interior design business, a doctors' surgery, pharmacy, a fish monger, and a nearby apple farm. There are also two play school/creche facilities.

An eighteen turbine wind farm, capable of producing 27MW and powering approximately 17,000 homes, was commissioned in Richfield, near Bridgetown in December 2006.

Festival

An arts, literature music and crafts festival, the Kathleen Browne Arts & Literary Festival, was held in Bridgetown in September 2018 and September 2019. The festival is named in honour of Kathleen Browne, a former senator who was born in Bridgetown in 1876.

Developments

The population of Bridgetown increased from 183 residents as of the 2002 census, to 462 people in the 2016 census. While, as of the late 1990s, there was only one housing development in the village, owing to the proximity of Wexford town, the short commute to Waterford, and the corresponding increased in population, a number of new private housing developments have been built.

References

References

1. (April 2016). "Sapmap Area - Settlements - Bridgetown". Central Statistics Office.
2. "Baile an Droichid/Bridgetown".
3. "About Us - Our History". Bridgetown College.
4. "Bridgetown station". Railscot - Irish Railways.
5. (21 September 2010). "End of the line". Independent News & Media.
6. (7 June 2021). "Encouraging recent developments on the Wexford-Waterford rail line".
7. (20 December 2022). "Wexford Bus enhance the Kilmore Quay bus service".
8. "Local Link Wexford Timetables".
9. "Richfield Wind Farm". SSE.
10. (29 September 2018). "Brownes gather for Bridgetown festival". Wexford People.
11. "Festival Schedule 2019".
12. "Bridgetown (Ireland) Census Town".