Northern Folk

Preface

There are many people that have made and subsequently shaped history. In Northern Folk, Bernie McCormick explores just a few of these people and in doing so grants us a unique insight into their lives.

Through a series of mini-biographies we are introduced to a variety of folk beginning with the Pease family of Darlington and Joseph Pease, the 'father of Middlesbrough'. We go on to discover how another Darlington lad, Jeremiah Dixon, influenced an American civil war folk song. We learn about George Stephenson's perseverance in constructing both the Stockton and Darlington and Liverpool to Manchester railways, amongst others, and Richard Grainger's contribution to the architecture and development of the city of Newcastle; how George Hudson earned his title the 'Railway King' and yet suffered humiliation and financial ruin and then go on to witness the steely determination of Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe.

In the midst of all this industrial growth and engineering firsts, we are presented with the beauty and grace of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, when the author invites us to explore her life and her poetry, as well as the more humorous writings of Robert Smith Surtees.

Charles Algernon Parsons

1854 – 1931

Although born in London, Charles Algernon Parsons is fundamentally a ‘northern folk’. Parsons embarked and completed his life’s work in and around Tyneside, inventing the turbine engine and testing it successfully on the famous ship Turbinia. Not so long ago, any Geordie, asked whom he would want his son apprenticed to would undoubtedly have replied ‘Charles Parsons’, so esteemed was he in the North East of England.

Charles Parsons was born June 13 1854, at 13, Connaught Place, Hyde Park, London the youngest of six children to the Earl of Rosse, President of the Royal Society. It was from this London address in 1854 that he sent a letter to Sir John Burgoyne, who was Chief of the Engineering Department [TH1] for the British army, saying it was his dream to build an iron steamer, that could run at the enemy ships sinking them with one blow above the cut water. Three-in- one plate would be used, and the funnel would not appear above the deck. A 300 horse power engine would be required. It would take Charles Parsons thirty years to start to realise his father’s [l2] dream, first of all solving the propulsion method of such ships, and in the process finding other discoveries.

The family home was Birr castle, Co.Offaly, Ireland. There Charles and his five brothers enjoyed advantages that other people would envy. The months of May and June were always spent in London, July with their grandmother in Brighton, returning to Ireland in the autumn. A fire had destroyed the central part of Birr Castle.[TH3]  However, after restoration the Castle still retained its thick walls, and a forge and workshop were constructed in the old moat. A furnace was also added to melt brass. Another addition was an engine house with machinery for polishing specula for telescopes. There were also lathes for wood and ironwork. Every kind of repair was possible. According to Sir Robert Ball [TH4] Birr Castle was

…a noble place surrounded by a moat, situated in a park through which flowed two rivers, that there unite, about the Lake which was made by Lord Rosse, The waters of the lake operated a water wheel to drain the low lying lands. The telescope was supported by two parallel walls, situated between Birr Castle and the Lake, the tube of the Newtonian, sixty feet long and more than six feet across carried at its lower end the mirror and at the top the eyepiece.

The workshop was where Charles and his father spent all their spare time when Charles was a boy. Many projects were conceived and problems solved here, but mostly the brothers had an out door life, rowing, fishing and shooting. Lessons began at 7.30am, followed by breakfast at 8.00am, then more lessons from 9.00am until noon. They were out of doors until lunch at 2 pm, with lessons again from 5.00pm until 6.30.pm. During these days in Ireland there was much unrest; murders, and robberies were not uncommon. Charles’s father often went to his observatory with pistols in his belt. All shrubs were cut down to deprive intruders of cover but the family was always left alone.

During his spare time, Charles could be seen in the workshop making all kinds of machines. In     the Parsons brothers[l5]  kept a twenty-ton yacht at Ryde, Cowes, and sometimes at Southampton. The yacht wintered at Leamington[TH6]  or Dublin. They later bought Themia, an iron yacht of 150 tons. The brothers crossed the English Channel in her; they also visited Cherbourg, via Land’s End, prior to visiting Ireland. They then purchased Titania, which was 188 tons and also iron, but very fast. Titania had belonged to Robert Stephenson. They cruised in her from Dublin to Stornoway, Cape Wrath, and Wick, then to the east coast of England. They also cruised to Belgium and Holland and Amsterdam and the Zuider Zee where they visited the workshops of the diamond cutters. In 1867 they visited Cologne, Basle and Geneva. However, after the death of Lord Rosse in  ? [TH7]  family holidays came to an end. The brothers remained at the family home a year after their father’s death then took a house in Dublin, spending summer holidays of 1868 and 1869 at Birr Castle.

In[l8]  ? Charles and his brother Clere began their studies at Trinity College, Dublin, where their father had been Chancellor. Charles did very well, winning prizes for mathematics and German He proceeded to St. Johns College, Cambridge where he gained a distinction in mathematics and rowed for his college On graduating from Cambridge in 1877, Charles Parsons went to Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne on a three-year apprenticeship at the famous Armstrong Whitworth Works. This was the beginning of his long association with the North of England.

During Charles’s boyhood Lupu[TH9] s developed the torpedo. In 1870 the Whitehead torpedo had carried 18 pounds of dynamite and had been bought by the Admiralty for £15,000. In 1872 the famous Peter Brotherhood engine for driving torpedoes appeared. This impressed Parsons immensely; epicyclical engine and a steam turbine. From 1877 to 1884 Parsons’s research in this area kept him fully occupied. He built an experimental compound engine with four cylinders revolving at half speed on the crankshaft. He applied it to drive a Siemans dynamo at 7,000 revolutions a minute. At 10 horse-power, for a time it supplied the arc- light at Elswick jetty. The engine was put to work in a Millwright shop at an ordinance works. Later an Erith firm used the engine and it was so satisfactory for their needs they made more, with good results.

By now Charles Parsons had finished his apprenticeship at Armstrong’s works. The following letter was sent from the works and endorsed by William Armstrong himself:

Elswick Works,
Newcastle Upon Tyne,
June 3rd 1881

The Hon. C. A. Parsons,

Dear Sir,
In reply to your request for a recommendation from our firm to assist you in your search for a partnership in an Engineering establishment, pray make use of this letter in which we have pleasure of bearing testimony to your high theoretical knowledge, your constructive abilities, and your promising business qualifications. With this letter we hand you your indentures, which you will observe Sir William Armstrong has kindly certified. We are Sir

Yours faithfully
W. G. Armstrong & Co.

At this time Charles’s thoughts were constantly on turbines, rockets and torpedoes but it was also on marriage He met his future wife, Katherine Bethell, in 1882. The marriage took place on January 10 1883, in the Church of All saints in Bramham, Yorkshire. Their first home was in lodgings in Leeds. Parsons was so absorbed in the design of torpedoes that during his honeymoon he took his bride and also a mechanic to the local engine trials every morning. They arrived daily at 7am in bitter cold and frosty weather. It was during these cold mornings that Katherine caught rheumatic fever. By the spring she had fully recovered and they resumed their honeymoon, this time in warmer environments. In five months they visited America, New Mexico and California. In Chicago, as if Katherine hadn’t suffered enough, she was attacked by one of a herd of cattle and was pinned between its wide horns! Shortly after this they returned happily home.

In 1883 Charles joined Clark, Chapman & Co. of Gateshead as a junior partner and for a while studied electric lighting and steam turbines instead of torpedoes. He soon discovered that with a suitable dynamo, the turbine would power the electric lighting of ships.

Charles and Katherine started to turn their attention to a suitable home. Initially they decided on a house in Corbridge on Tyne. This meant that Charles had to leave for Gateshead at 7.30am returning at 8pm; this proved impossible and within a year they made their home at Elvaston Hall, Ryton on Tyne, County Durham. Rachel Mary Parsons was born on January 25 1885, followed by a son, Algernon George  born on October 19 of the following year– both at Elvaston Hall. The young family stayed happily here for ten years. From the home workshop, with his daughter Rachel by his side, he produced all kinds of toys. There was the ‘Spider’, a small spirit fuelled three wheeled engine which travelled around the garden chased by the dogs. There was also a steam pram for carrying the children, and even a small flying machine, this was also fuelled by spirit and was actually photographed in full flight.

While his family life offered peace and tranquillity, his career was forging ahead. In 1884 his first steam turbine was running successfully at Gateshead. The Chilean battleship Blanco Encalada arrived at Elswick[TH10]  for new boilers and armaments. This was the first warship to be fitted with a Parsons turbine and dynamos-set for electric lighting. By the time Charles Parsons was thirty years of age he was well on his way to a successful engineering career. In the same year, Clark Chapman and Co. fitted the ill-fated HMS Victoria with one of Parsons’s 12 kilowatt combined turbo generators. In May 1887 Parsons was making 4 Kilowatt ‘sets’, for the Suez Canal and he was also completing similar contracts for the Italian, Spanish and Chilean navies. His turbines were rapidly being improved and the relationship of the velocity of the steam to the velocity of the blades received careful attention to improve the efficiency. During 1884-1885 two small portable turbine sets were completed at Gateshead.

In January 1886 there was a severe frost and the swan pond near Sheriff Hill was frozen hard. The Chief Constable of Gateshead, Mr. Elliott, suggested that if the pond could be illuminated, skaters could be attracted and charged a small fee for admission, thus raising some cash for the local hospital. Clark and Parsons gladly loaned a portable turbine in order to generate the lighting. R.N. Redmane in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle of July 22 1931 described the occasion:

Elliott carted the Turbine up to the ground, where it was set up. Lamps were hung round the pond, and the Turbine was got to work. Mr. Joseph Swan supplied the lamps. It was a great success from Elliott’s point of view, because the place was so crowded, that few people could really skate. But every one paid to get in, to say that they had actually skated by electric light. As far as I can remember the frost lasted three days and the Royal Infirmary benefited by £100

In 1887 Parsons became known as the ‘Designer of Plant for the Generation of Electricity’[l11] . In that particular year, ten of his turbo generators, from 15 Kilowatts to 32 Kilowatts each, supplied most of the lighting for the Newcastle Exhibition by means of incandescent lamps, the turbo generator being made at Clark, Chapman & Co. at Gateshead. This was reported to be the most efficient exhibition of incandescent lighting at the time.

These were exciting days for Charles Parsons. He established the suitability of his turbo-alternator for town electricity supply, as well as building machines for Newcastle District Electric Lighting Company. It was mainly due to this wonderful period that Charles Parsons won the freedom of the City of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1914.

In 1889 the Partnership of Clarke, Chapman & Co. was dissolved. Prior to this, in 1889, Parson founded the firm C.A. Parsons and Co. at Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne. The works primarily manufactured steam turbines for use on land, as well as high-speed electrical machinery suitable for coupling straight to turbines. The works covered two acres. There was also a blacksmith’s shop, testing rooms and offices. At the time the total staff was 48. This was a sharp contrast to the works in 1931 when C.A. Parsons & Co. Ltd. of Heaton covered 20 acres and employed 2,000 people.

During 1895, Westing House Machinery Company acquired the American rights for installations on land in America. Messrs. Brown & Boveri, to enable the Parsons turbine to be built in America, mainly for Europe, obtained licences in 1901.[l12] 

By the 1920s, the Parsons name was certainly well known. However, not always for positive reasons: at one of the land stations in Shanghai, in November 1923, there was a terrible accident with a 20,000 kilowatt turbo alternator. At the time it was running unloaded at moderate speed. The turbine rotor shaft forging burst and some lives were lost. There had been a concealed defect in the interior of the forging. The shaft had been made in 1921 from a cold ingot of medium carbon steel of unknown history. An independent company, who accepted responsibility for the defect, had manufactured it. News of the disaster came when Parsons was attending a dinner in London of the British Electrical & Allied Manufacturers Association. Parsons was dining with fellow directors and had to sit right through dinner knowing about the accident. They convened a Board meeting at midnight that very evening and decided to cable Shanghai accepting responsibility as follows:

Deepest regrets at serious accident and loss of life. Sending immediately two chief experts to investigate. Keep all parts for evidence. Will replace turbine and recondition the whole of your plant, entirely at our cost.

Another setback was an explosion aboard King George V, on September 29 1927, when two ship’s firemen lost their lives. This greatly distressed Parsons. The cause, after some time, was traced to scale in the water. Later it was decided only to use distilled water in these high-pressure water boilers. The ship, after rectification, resumed service with satisfactory results.

After Charles Parsons parted company with Clarke Chapman & Co. along with the £20,000 he had initially invested in the company. However, leaving with the patents for his turbines was a little more difficult. For some years there was arbitration and litigation, all stemming from an agreement on individual patents taken out when a board of directors resigned his directorship. These became the property of the company. When Charles tried to regain these, he found that he would have to pay a very large sum, namely, the present day value of the patent. It did not seem quite right that he would have to pay Chapman and Clarke an inflated amount of cash just to work his own patents so Parsons decided to fight the action, which had been endorsed by the arbitrators. Another point raised at the time was that the patents would be virtually useless without Parsons himself. Litigation continued for years until it was decided that Clarke, Chapman & Company carry on with Parsons’ patents without Parsons; in effect develop them on their own. Parsons carried on with his turbines using a different design from the original. As for Clarke and Chapman, they never made any money out of the patents! Later, Parsons was able to regain the patents for a very moderate amount.

In 1897[l13]  a new Company was formed, the Parsons Maritime Steam Turbine Company at Wallsend, Newcastle. It had a registered capital of £500,000 divided into 5,000 shares, each of £100 with a first issue of £240,000. The original company transferred to this company all its powers under the Parsons patents. It took over the right to any future extension or improvements. The prospectus added: ‘…it is proposed forthwith to acquire the advantages of a site on the Tyne for manufacturing turbines and the equipment of Torpedo Boats, Destroyers, and vessels generally. The technical management of the undertaking will remain with Mr. Parsons as Managing Director.’

 Charles Parsons began to research the possibility of turbines being used in ocean going shipping, which included warships. He summarised the advantages of marine propulsion:

1. Increased speed.

2. Increased carrying power of vessel.

3. Increased economies in steam consumption.

4. Increased facilities for navigation of shallow waters.

5 Reduced initial costs.

6. Reduced weight of machinery.

7. Reduced cost of attendance on machinery.

8. Diminished cost of upkeep of machinery.

9.    Largely reduced vibration.

10.  Reduce size and weight of screw propellers and shafting.

Parsons had to prove these claims and decided to construct an experimental vessel 100 feet in length, to be propelled by a turbine of 1,000hp: the Turbinia[l14] 

The Turbinia had thirty one trials at full speed. Single, two bladed, single four bladed multiple treble propellers, with every modification fitted, the best results were obtained with treble propellers, twenty two inches in diameter which at 1,780 revolutions gave Turbinia 19 ¾ knots. It was an advance but it could do better. More experiments were needed.  Gerald Stoney, who took part in early trials with the Turbinia, said its reverse gear was imperfect. On one occasion they tried to turn about in the Tyne, they reached the side of the river but owing to the current could not go further round, and collided with a cargo steamer, The North Tyne. The Turbinia’s, sharp bow made an eighteen inch hole in the side of the ship Parsons and the crew did well with boat hooks, but the collision could not be avoided. The North Tyne put into dock for a new plate.

On another occasion when Lady Parsons and Miss Rachel were on board, the skipper sighted one of Armstrong’s twenty three knot vessels off the Tyne.They closed the Turbinia’s hatches and accelerating to twenty eight knots, overtook the vessel, leaving her far astern. She responded by a friendly blast from her whistle. One of the officers from Armstrong’s boat said that all they saw when the Turbinia, went past was a big wave, with a black bow emerging and a flame of fire shooting out from the middle. The bow wave of the Turbinia, swept the deck and all on board were drenched, including Miss Rachel, who stepped down into the forward stokehold to dry off with her brother.

There was a great deal of French interest in the Turbinia, and in 1900 the boat was an important part of the Paris exhibition[l15] . Arrangements were made to have speed runs on a wide part of the river Seine. Turbinia was taken there the day before the trial. The French Minister of Marine was there and small steamers from Rouen formed a lane, through which Turbinia sped, and the crowds cheered loudly. Later she proceeded to Le Havre. In the distance the Newhaven-Dieppe steamer was travelling towards England. Turbinia easily caught up with her and made circles round her, finally breaking off to make for Grimsby then the Tyne. The Paris trip took three weeks. The Turbinia’s success prompted Parsons to look towards expansion. Two further vessels Cobra and Viper were constructed both of which would unfortunately end in disaster. On August 3 1901, HMS Viper,fitted with Parsons turbines, floundered on Renouquet Island, near Alderney, and was a total wreck. On September 18 1901, HMS Cobra, fitted out exactly the same as her sister ship, broke in two off the Outer Dowsing Shoal, on the Lincolnshire coast. She was being navigated from the Tyne to Portsmouth.

There were many enquiries regarding the two ships and in December 1905 Parsons gave a lecture at Armstrong College, Newcastle. Although the Viper & Cobra, were lost through no fault of the turbines, he said it was apparent that the whole system was in danger of collapsing. This directly led to the building of the first turbine propelled merchant vessel, the King Edward, in the spring of 1900.[TH16] 

After the Turbinia and its sister ships it was well known what Tyneside could do to provide propulsion for war vessels. Nearly every navy, in the world adopted Parsons’s turbines. The speed required by navies averaged twenty five knots. The Royal Navy required even faster ships than this which was not achievable without Parsons’s turbines. In 1906 the first turbine driven capital ship HMS Dreadnought was built. That year Cunard got Lusitania and Mauritania, fitted with 70,000 hp. turbines. The Royal Navy ordered battle ships like Dreadnought, Invincible, Inflexible and Indomitable in 1908, 1909 all with speeds of twenty six knots. In World War Two, HMS Hood built by John Brown and Co. and propelled by turbines of 150,000hp, reached speeds of thirty two knots.

However, it was inevitable that some of Parsons’s turbine fitted ships would come under attack and they did. The best known of these vessels are probably the Cunard liner Lusitania, torpedoed without warning by a German submarine on May 7 1915 with the loss of 1,198 lives, and HMS Hood, sunk on May 24 1941by the Germanpocket battleship Bismarck.

Although turbines were his passion, Parsons also found time to develop other interests. In 1906, two trumpet shaped objects appeared at the Queens Hall, London. These were for increasing the volume and richness of tone, mainly of stringed instruments, and they were on trial at the hall. Charles Parsons had earlier taken out patents in various sound recorders which improved over the years from the initial gramophone recorders. In one of the earlier types of Auxetophone, the gramophone needle was fixed into a socket formed integrally with the valve cover. The needle ran in the groove on the face of the ‘record’ disc. Parsons used the Edison counter-weight lever and sapphire stylus for picking up and transmitting sound waves. Auxetophone gramaphone concerts were given in towns throughout the country as well as in Australia and New Zealand. By 1909 the fame of the Auxetophone had increased. Musicians, and especially Sir Henry Wood, received it very well.

Parsons was also bent upon digging miles below the earth’s surface, where unknown treasures may be waiting to be discovered. One reason for his idea of extreme mining was that it could yield oil and coal that could not have been envisaged from moderate depth mines. Parsons consulted Mr. John Bell Simpson, the eminent authority of the times on mining in the north of England. The shaft was sunk in stages each about half a mile in depth. It was estimated that at the time it would cost £5,000,000 to bore to a depth of twelve miles. Simpson observed that

…beneath our feet are unexplored coalfields.

He went on to say that,

…it would be most interesting Geological investigation of National and Commercial importance; if workable seams at moderate depths could be proved it would add another 200 years to the Great Northern coalfields.

[TH17]

 Parsons visited the Geothermal Power Plant of Larderrello,in Italy which was operated by the steam springs of Tuscany on the extreme northern border of the Maremma marshlands. Prince Ginori-Conti in July 1924, during the world power conference at Wembley, explained that these natural jets known as ‘Saffoni’ emit only steam, thereby differing from ordinary geysers that release steam and water. An engine successfully ran for fifteen years from this steam. Later three generating units were added using turbines. At a meeting of the Royal Society, at the time, Sir Charles proposed that the earth’s natural heat should be utilised by drilling a well of sufficient depth to reach high temperatures. The Prince said that Parsons idea had been implemented in their system in his country and was very effective.

Parsons was also greatly interested in astronomy and products related to the science, such as lenses for searchlights and other astronomical equipment. In 1882 Dr. Schott [TH18] joined forces with Abbe [TH19] in Jena in Prussia. They also became associated with Carl Zeiss (1816-1888) who, since 1846, had made scientific instruments in a factory at Jena. They came together to form a company. [l20] Schott and Abbe began experimenting on the improvements of lenses to obtain sharper definition, equal central and marginal magnification and absence of colour fringes, together with a maximum intensity of transmitted light. Their activities at Jena during the World War were amazing. They employed more than 10,000 people. Their findings caused Parsons much anxiety as he saw England dropping behind more experienced countries in the manufacture of optical glass. It had been estimated that prior to 1914 Jena produced about 60% of the Worlds optical glass, Paris 30% and Birmingham the remainder. In 1917-1918, Wood Brothers Glass Company of Barnsley had been asked to supply optical glass for the War Office and the Admiralty and the Ministry for Munitions

After 1920 the business was imperilled and it looked certain for collapse. Parson intervened acquired the shares, paid off all of the creditors, and allowed funds for cash flow, so that the company could continue. Charles knew he would have no financial gain whatsoever, but he was determined to save the company, as he knew that the industry was necessary for the scientific and industrial welfare of his country. By June 30 1929, the capital contributed by him for the project was £57,000. Later England perfected the art of optical glass manufacture and due to his perseverance, when all seemed lost, this industry was able to hold its own. Because of his father’s interest in astronomy and his own interest in lenses, Parsons was able to foresee this problem, and with his financial strength was able to avert a very serious catastrophe for England.

Parsons never had one day of poverty in his life. He was always a very active man; when he could he cycled to work. He rarely consulted a doctor but for others he would insist on the best specialists possible and any aids to make life tolerable. Most of his time was spent at his works office than anywhere else. He was slightly deaf and at times seemed deep in thought, but any visitors received a warm, even overwhelming, welcome.

Parsons always considered the future not the past. On November 6 1902, he received from Sir Michael Foster, the secretary of the Royal Society, the Rumford medal for his invention of the turbine and its extension into navigation. On March 5 1910, when he was living at Holeyn Hall, Wylam on Tyne, he was appointed Sheriff of the County of Northumberland. On June 10 1911, he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath, just prior to the Coronation and on September 13 1915, he was made chairman of the Tyne & Wear Board of Management under the Ministry of Munitions.

Parsons was a keen fisherman. He enjoyed trout fishing either in lochs or rivers; he always remembered that his best catch was at Lord Armstrong’s home. They were catching one after the other, forgetting that it was the first day of September [l21] when a water bailiff approached them telling them he was confiscating the fish and their rods as they were fishing illegally. Lord Armstrong intervened and the bailiff let them go. Meanwhile, Lady Armstrong was waiting to cook the trout that never arrived.

Like everyone else Charles Parsons had downturns in life. When he heard about the Cobra disaster he locked himself in his office and stayed there all day long. 1918 brought him sorrow beyond belief when he was informed about the death of his son, Algernon, killed in action on April 26 1918, in France. Algernon had been at the Front with the British Expeditionary Force in France from November 13 1914 until his death. His army career is too vast and illustrious to list in a small work such as this. His body is buried at Lijssenthoek Military Cemetery in Belgium, Plot 28, Row C, Grave 4. Charles’ss daughter, Rachel, was a godsend to Charles over this period. She had been educated at Roedean and at Newnham College Cambridge,where she studied mechanical science, entering Heaton Works when her brother went to do his duty in France. She competently filled the role of directorship of the works. From 1922-1925 she served as a member of London County Council and she had the distinction of being one of the three woman members of the Institute of Naval Architects.

Parsons was a sincere man, always having an air of refinement about him; he greeted friends warmly and with a smile although his handshake was curiously limp. A good conversationalist, he was also a good listener. Parsons loved the sea, being ever in the engine room or on the bridge. On cruises, he visited Canada, South America and the West Indies.

In January 1931 he and Lady Parsons travelled to the West Indies on board the Duchess of Richmond and then on to Venezuela going by car to Caracas where he fell ill.  It was thought that the climate did not agree with him. He returned to the ship and spent the following day in his bunk thinking that he had a customary chill. There was apparently some problem with his circulation, but it was thought that it would improve with rest. Sadly, in Kingston Harbour on February 11 1931, as the sun was setting, Charles Parsons slipped silently away.

Robert Stephenson

1803 - 1859

Robert Stephenson (young life)

Robert was a weak and sickly baby; he was christened at the schoolhouse at Willington (Tyneside). Because of his mothers Consumption problems people predicted Robert would not last long. Robert actually did have his mothers weak chest all of his life; but the strong Stephenson blood overwhelmed the weakness and he later grew into a tall slim wiry boy. He was very strong and full of energy, mischief with a little bit of humour.

            As soon as he was able, George arranged for him to attend Tommy Rutters village school at Long Benton, Newcastle a mile and a half away from the village. He loved his aunt Nelly and she took him harvesting and also to visit his mothers sister. George his father for some reason never encouraged these visits. Hannah finally married the Inn Keeper at Ryle and Anne married a farmer Mr Burn of the Red House, Wolsingham. Anne regretted once jilting George his father and treated Robert with as much respect as she possible could; feeding him buttered eggs and other fresh farm produce.

            Robert was soon helping his father at the Colliery and could be seen most mornings prior to going to school laden down with picks to get sharpened at the local Blacksmith’s shop. It was said that George his father was a hard taskmaster but later their relationship showed love and a good relationship between father and son.

            When he was old enough George his father took him away from the Village school and installed him in a middle class school at Newcastle; this was Doctor Bruce’s school. Robert had to walk ten miles each day and eventually his father felt it too far so he bought him a Donkey, (Cuddy). Roberts Northumberland dialect betrayed Roberts claim that his parents were rich; his clothing further gave this away. Robert actually at times was a laughing stock for the other boys with his freckled face and clothing. It did not take long before Robert lost his accent and Northumbria speech. After returning home from school Robert still had a great deal of work to do; there was just no restvite for him. His father often questioned him on lessons that he had been doing that day; he also got him to read from books that he had loaned from the library on Science & Inventions. Robert was a member of the Library of Philosophical and Literary Society at Newcastle. On other days Robert and his father repaired clocks and watches and worked on the Perpetual Motion Machine; at times such as this they made the famous Sun Dial that was on the door of the family cottage. More went in to this dial as was first thought. Robert’s brain was used to the full in this venture. Longitude and Latitude of Killingworth had to be calculated before calibrating the sun Dial correctly on the door.

            One interesting point in Roberts’s early life showed that George did not have to scrape to find the money for Roberts school career. George was by this time relatively well off and in any case the fees never exceeded £40 for the four years Robert spent at the Bruce school. Even the Stephenson cottage had been extended to what can be seen today; Robert had plenty of space to do anything that he wished. When Robert left school His father George took another wife this was Elizabeth Hindmarsh from his courtship days. Amazingly she never ever married again; now her father welcomed his father as a successful Engineer instead of a machine brakesman. Roberts’s aunt Nelly also got married and left West Moor Cottage. This was the basis of Roberts’s young life.

In the early 1820s, the most popular method to ‘get rich quick’ was to find gold or silver and many companies were formed for this purpose, particularly to look for gold in South America. In these early days of gold and silver exploration though, there was a scarcity of good professional men to manage the projects, and so young mining engineers with limited experience were made very tempting propositions by big companies. One such company was the Colombian Mining Association, who had interests in two mines named Santa-Anne and La-Manta, these mines were situated about twelve miles from Mariquito, a fine old city in South America. At this time it was deserted and run down, but still showing signs of being a noble city. Very near to the mines was the village of Santa-Anne.

In October 1823, George Stephenson was approached by the directors of the Colombian Mining Association to act as their consultant, in Columbia, engaging miners and inspectors, as well as shipping iron. However, it was Robert Stephenson that their confidence really lay in and it was soon made known to George Stephenson that they wished Robert to be Engineer in Chief for the project.

At the same time, the Stephenson’s Forth Street works in Newcastle was quickly expanding with the growth of the locomotion; Robert Stephenson had shown strength of character and perseverance as manager of the works and it had obviously not gone unnoticed. Indeed, the works seemed as if it would not run without him, even so, romantic travel at the time fascinated Robert and he agreed to take the job.

George Stephenson strongly opposed Robert’s venture to Santa-Anne, he even questioned it on medical grounds, because of Roberts’s constitution, but Robert’s physician said he would thrive, especially with the change of climate. George Stephenson reluctantly gave his consent, and after an emotional departure, Robert sailed from Liverpool on the 18 June 1824. The voyage lasted thirty-five days and after a pleasant trip Robert docked at La-Guayra on the north coast of Venezuela. From Venezuela he travelled to Caracas, fifteen miles inland and stayed there for two months, which he spent investigating the strata in the area.

As the roads were in a very bad state he was not able to travel immediately. It was not until October that he commenced his journey to Bogotá. The route was through very rough terrain and there was known to be outlaws in the area who preyed on unfortunate travellers. Robert rode on a mule and progress was very slow but he did make sure that he was well armed. He took with him an interpreter, and a black servant. Robert checked on strata and ground conditions whenever he could while travelling, and the guide pointed out old mining shafts that had at one time yielded deposits of gold.

Robert appeared to have enjoyed the mule journey very much, in fact, everything about the journey fascinated him – the local dress, the beauty and panoramic scenery; he found it all breathtaking. Nights were spent in the open air with his mosquito net hung from the branches of a tree. Robert always wore an under garment of white cotton with a cloak of blue woollen material, which doubled as a blanket at night. On his head he wore a high hat of plaited grass which was circled with a wide brim. He certainly did not look anything like an engineer’s son from the north of England.

Robert Stephenson carefully logged the route taken on his journey, paying particular attention to the best possible route for the machinery, which he knew, would have to follow. He carried out his observations very carefully. In 1825, his party finally reached their destination. Before them were two long abandoned mines, La-Manta and Santa-Anne, they had become lost in vegetation. They were previously Spanish owned and worked. Robert soon got to work on opening the mines and his unstoppable energy meant the mines would be ready for the Cornish miners already on their way from England.

Roads had to be cut to the mines and overgrowth removed, good workers were hard to come by in the area. Many obstacles were put in his way, especially from rival companies. Robert longed for the arrival of the Cornish miners, whom he knew he would get a fair day’s work from. Unfortunately, when they did arrive, the Cornish miners were nowhere near as good as those he was used to from north of England. They were always under the influence of alcohol and would not respond to any kind of discipline. To add to the disappointment, the machinery he had ordered from England was far too heavy and awkward to get to the mines at Santa-Anne. Robert had to make do with lighter machinery, and then send for machinery in England which he knew could be transported and still carry out the work required.

By October 1825 there were enough men in Santa-Anne to do the work required. However, it was thought that the wages for the contract were far too high and some miners even returned home because they had made enough money. It was also thought amongst the miners that the youthful Robert Stephenson would not be capable of carrying out this difficult project and his connections with the northern coal fields caused Robert to be treated with contempt by the Cornish men.

One night early in December 1825, Robert retired to his house totally exhausted. As he drifted into a deep sleep, he suddenly heard loud yelling; the Cornish miners had entered the front room of his house, and were shouting abuse. Robert lay for a while working out what his approach to the miners should be. He wanted to avoid an all out stoppage. The miners insulted Robert in their drunken stupor to such an extent that he knew he would have to confront them or they would think he was afraid. Robert was taunted further by the men, ‘let’s put this clerk in his place’, he heard just as he decided to finally confront them. He strode directly into the room and keeping as calm as possible approached the ring leaders of the mob saying that it was unfair, on his part, to fight at this time as they were drunk and he was sober. He challenged them to come back the following day. They could not believe their eyes, here was a young clerk confronting hard Cornish miners in a calm and collected manner.

The following day Robert had further trouble with the miners. He contacted London and the Columbian Mining Association, checking on his authority in disputes. An urgent message was returned confirming that he was in overall control of the miners’ interests, and informing him to demand prompt obedience. Robert let this be known to the miners, but tried a new approach with them. He had always been good at games such as throwing the hammer, quoits and lifting weights, he suggested to the men that they would have a better social life doing these things and he challenged them to contests. This led to friendly rivalry among the men, as well as having the desired effect of keeping them temporarily away from alcohol. Robert had now spent a full year on the project in Mariquita-Santa-Ana, striving to make it a success for the Colombian Association. Unfortunately, some of the directors of the Association were putting extreme pressure on him to get better results. Robert, aged only twenty two, took these experiences in his stride, knowing he would have similar situations on his return to England.

Letters from his father and other directors informed him that the Columbian Association had lost a great deal of money on this venture. As soon as Robert reached the end of his contract period, July 1827, he suggested the Association appoint another engineer in his place. Robert felt that he should return to Newcastle so that he could face any criticism that may be circulating at that time. The company, in retaliation, requested Robert t stay on the project. Ultimately, he rejected the offer and made ready to return home. Robert Stephenson left Santa-Anne and made his way to Carthegena where he thought he would find a ship heading for England. Unfortunately, he was disappointed; instead he found a ship making ready to sail for America, docking at New York. He booked a passage on this hoping to get a connection from there to England and home. On arrival at Carthagena, Robert met up with Trevithick the Welshman who invented the first passenger locomotive; he joined Roberts’s party travelling to America. On the voyage the ship was hit by a hurricane before arriving at New York. From New York the party travelled to Montreal, Canada, where Robert changed into European Costume and mixed with the best in society. Finally he returned to New York where he boarded a ship for Liverpool. On returning home in 1828, he found his father doing very well and laying his second public railway.

Robert’s spell in South America did him the world of good, as his physician said it would, making him self reliant, and broadening his mind. Whilst in Columbia, Robert met some eminent people such as Dr. Rouelin, a mathematician and M. Boussingault a chemist and geologist. On his return, he was bronzed and looked extremely well for his trip and, if anything, the experience had refreshed and strengthened his resolve ready for the work that lay before him - the development of the railways in this country.

Robert Stephenson had many downturns in his life, but he also had many great and successful periods, especially in bridge building and politics, when he served many years as MP for Whitby; he was returned as their representative on the 30 July, 1847.

Prior to leaving for Santa Ana, Robert met Fanny Sanderson, the daughter of Mr John Sanderson of Broad Street, London. In 1828, Robert proposed and they lived, before getting married, on the outskirts of Newcastle, 5 Greenfield Place. They married 17 June 1829 at Parish Church, Bishopgate.

The year 1842 was a terrible year for Robert, his wife, Fanny, died of cancer, 4 October and was interred at Hampstead church yard. In the same year he was also threatened with insolvency.

The Stanhope and Tyne Rail Company was formed to develop and manage the areas where the railways were destined to operate. Robert took payment of ten shares in the company, when acting as a consultant, not realising the implications. When the company was making losses the creditors could come to him for payment of anything over and above these shares – this very nearly ruined him. Luckily, this was the expansion time for the railways and another company Pontop and South Shields Company, bought all of the shares in the troubled company. A further upheaval came in 1848, with the loss of his father, George Stephenson. Robert and George had been more than father and son, they had also been partners in business and life, and they loved each other a great deal.

On 12 October 1859, aged sixty-seven, Robert Stephenson died. He had been visiting the opening of the Norwegian Railway, and was returning home in his yacht, Titania. His health deteriorated on board the yacht, and his friends feared for his life. Robert rallied and managed to get home to Gloucester Square, London, where he eventually died. The cause of death was aggravated jaundice followed by dropsy of the whole system.

So ended the life of one of the greatest engineers of all time, who together with his father left an infrastructure of bridges, engines and a railway system for which England will always be indebted to. Unfortunately, Robert always regretted having no children to pass on his worldly possessions.

Hi Moira,

As promised a few pages on Robert Stephenson; first of all on his most exciting project in my opinion ‘The Menai Britannia  Bridge’ I am also doing a piece on his very early life and a piece on the Birmingham Railway Company where he was Chief Engineer. This particular story will fit in page 131 at the end of the first paragraph.. With the other extensions with a little luck it will all fall into place. I actually have a photograph that will be usefull for the Manai, Britannia Bridge<

Regards

Bernie

Robert Stephenson

The Great Tubular Bridge

At this time the rail route to Edinburgh was under construction. At the same time the London to Dublin was also progressing. In 1838 George Stephenson had made a survey of the Menai Straits and at this time two alternative Railheads were under consideration; Holyhead in Anglesea, or the new Harbour at Porthdynlleyn on the Lleyn Peninsular. George Stephenson decided at this time on Holyhead. Taking everything into account this offered better facilities and a more level line. There was one big problem and that was the ‘Menai Straits’. Telfords famous bridge over the Straits was just not meant for modern trains and George Stephenson in his report suggested a one track line with the Engine pulled by a horse; this would save Telfords suspension bridge. Although overall it was a good report everyone new that in the age of the train this was not feesable. No discredit to Telford his bridge had been the marvel of the period but the years had now advanced. The Captain Brown Bridge at Stockton was also in this category and Robert Stephenson had to replace this that he did with success.

            An act was finally passed for the Chester and Holyhead Railway in June 1845 and Robert Stephenson was appointed Chief Engineer. Robert was faced with Telford’s problems of twenty years previously. The Suspension bridge was just not now feasible in this present day and they left Robert Stephenson to complete a new bridge over the Straits to everyone’s satisfaction.

            Robert toiled with the project in his head for hour after hour bringing his vast experience of bridges into play looking for ideas to solve the problem. At first Robert thought a cast iron bridge but then abandoned the idea; finally coming up with an idea that would be his greatest achievement; but later would be his greatest professional failure. The Chester end of the Railway was completed first; this included a bridge over the River Dee, just outside the city. Robert intended putting in a five span brick bridge, but reduced it to three span brick built because of doubts because of its Pier foundations. The rest of the river was spanned with cast Iron girders spanning 98 feet; four to each span, twelve in all. Robert was not that pleased having to use the cast girders but at this time did not have many options and his replacement bridge that was working perfectly well at Stockton also with cast Iron girders, lastly up to that date cast iron had always been used on bridges succsesfully.

            The Dee Bridge was completed September 1846; on 20th. October it was inspected and passed for Traffic by Major General C.W. Pasley who was the Board of Trade Inspector General. Passenger trains began using the bridge immediately and the bridge continued as normal until the 24th. May 1847. This was a terrible day for everyone having anything to do with the bridge; there was a passenger train bound from Chester to Shrewsbury and it met with a terrible disaster. The train reached the last of the three spans when the outer of the three girders directly below broke into three pieces. The  Locomotive driver sensing trouble accelerated the engine forward; this saving his life, but his fireman was killed outright. The coupling had parted and the rest of the train cascaded into the river; killing a guard and two coachmen and one passenger and injuring sixteen others. It was remarkable how the rest were saved.

            Engineers throughout the world looked in to the accident with curiosity and quiet caution and waited of the result of the inquest. Robert Stephenson was the most eminent civil Engineer of the day. The inquest was held at Chester and it became a Cause Celebre. One good thing that actually came out of this horrible disaster and that was Robert and Joseph Locke were again reconciled after years of not being on the best of terms. Some years ago Roberts father had had a dispute with Locke and Robert had taken his fathers part. Locke was a brilliant Engineer who for the last few years had been working in France. Joseph Locke, Brunel, Charles Vignoles, Tom Gooch, Tom Kennedy all respected Engineers had arrived to give evidence on Roberts behalf. After this Locke and Robert were reconciled and again firm friends all of their lives. Others the likes of Robertson the Engineer of Shrewsbury & Chester Railway actually said that Roberts’s design was at fault and said that he should be charged with Man Slaughter that was certainly an option at this time. Major General Pasley who had checked the safety of the bridge and issued the certificate could hardly speak with fear; Robert looked drawn and pale.

            Robert had been persuaded by the Solicitor of Chester and Holyhead Company to defend the action; in that the girder had fractured after receiving a heavy blow. This was caused by the train becoming de-railed; due to the wheel breaking. The argument was strengthened by Roberts’s similar bridge at Stockton that spans the Tees. This functioned very well. The jury returned a verdict of Accidental death but they added that they considered the bridge unsafe and recommended a Government enquiry into the safety of similar bridges.

            Other bridges using cast iron girders were immediately strengthened. Cast Iron girders were superseded by the use of wrought Iron. Even though this was the first time any accident had been recorded by the use of this type of girder. The Dee Bridge disaster had far reaching implications. The Railway Companies demanded urgent checks of all cast iron bridges.

            Robert Stephenson escaped serious problems after the Dee Bridge disaster by the skin of his teeth. The Stephenson name would have been very seriously damaged in engineering circles. It did infact cast a shadow in Roberts direction for a short period but Robert had inherited his father’s gift of perseverance and was determined to put this right. The bridge he chose to do this was his present Menai Bridge. He intended to show the world just what he was made of.

            Robert selected a point about a mile to the West of Telfords Suspension Bridge. Here the Britannia Rock was a good foundation for a Pier. He intended to erect a bridge of two cast iron arches; each being a 350 feet span with a roadway height of 105 feet above high tide. The Admiralty rejected this. Immediately Robert introduced a completely new type of Suspension Bridge. This would not be a platform like other Suspension bridges but a deep-trussed girder construction. Trelliswork on the bridge would be vertical and its members would be made out of wrought iron Plates. Stephenson explained it would be like a box without a lid on it; this would increase the bridge strength enormously and would be progressed in stages and when finished would look like a great wrought iron tube. This would be so large that trains could pass straight through.

            Robert contacted his father’s old associate and also Professor Eton Hodgekinson FRS. Who was an expert on iron beams? Both gave different reports but both recommended the use of Wrought Iron for strength. Fairbairn went further saying that if the correct thickness and  was properly riveted it would withstand any pressure. It was as if it was called for,  a report of a happening at the Docks  that the Iron Ship ‘Prince of Wales’ had slipped its launch chains at Blackwell and its hull had not been warped, damaged or strained in any way even though its overall length was 110 feet. The news of the ship greatly encouraged Robert Stephenson convincing him that he was on the right track. Robert Stephenson admitted to Tom Gooch that for weeks the bridge and its tubes had been constantly on his mind; at times he even dreamed of the bridge.

            Stephenson proposed the same type of bridge for over the Conway which would consist of a single 4000 ft. span of two tubes. Having settled on the design the next problem was how to build them. The first idea was prefabricate the tubes in small sections at the Iron Works; this could not be done because of the amount of handling problems. They decided to build the tubes on staging near to the site and float them into position between the two Piers on Pontoons. They were to be lifted by means of a powerful Hydraulic Press housed on the Pier. Brunei had used the same system with success at Chepstow and Saltash. Twenty years ago Telford had actually floated the chains for his Menai Suspension Bridge. The difference was Telfords chains were 23.5 ton the main tubes for the Britannia Bridge was 1500 tons and the Conway 1000 tons. Stephenson appointed Edwin Clark his resident Engineer for both bridges; Edwin later wrote a definitive account of the two bridges, which was extremely informative.

            By the end of February 1847 the first of the two Conway tubes were ready for floating. The plan was to float them on the Spring tide on 20th. February. There was a delay and it was put back to the 6th. March. The six Pontoons were moved into position. In charge of the Pontoons was Captain Claxton; Brunels old friend. Brunel was actually there with his hands in his pockets and cigar hanging from his mouth. On the day the weather was good. The floating went ahead until one of the Pontoons slewed slightly and fouled a rock. The tide on the Conway began to ebb before the tube could be freed and floated  safely into position. The job had to be completed the following day. There was repeated attempts that week and many near accidents; some pontoons were swept out to sea. Finally on 11 march the Tube was put into place. On the 8th. April the Hydraulic Presses began to lift. After the initial lift the work was progressed with speed and the first Locomotive passed through the Tube with Stephenson on the footplate. On the 1May 1847 the Bridge was open for single traffic. The second Tube was floated then lifted into place without a hitch on the 12th. August. A terrible accident was narrowly avoided when the Tube was within two feet of its height when a crack was noticed on the Cross Head of one of the Lifting Presses.  The Tube was quickly chocked up and the Press lifted slowly with caution. Gradually it came into place. Robert and other visiting Engineers watched in awe fearing a catastrophe. The atmosphere was full of anxiety and tension; gradually the Tube came into place. The crack on the Press had increased a further three inches

            Having completed the task Evans the Engineer responsible for the floating of the Tubes; now brought the pontoons and tackle round to the Menai straits. The only difference this time; there was four tubes to be floated over treacherous waters of the Menai and raised to a height of over a hundred feet above high water. Arrangements were made to float on the Anglesey side of the Britannia Tower on the 19th. June 1849. The decks of the remaining three Tubes were full of spectators watching the brilliant spectacle of Engineering. There were some delays but at last the crowd were rewarded with the tube gliding smoothly into the tide. The Britannia Bridge being the central Pier now was at the height of 230 feet; the two side piers being slightly lower. The additional height was necessary to house the hydraulic gear for lifting. On the 19th. June 1849 it was arranged to float the first tube. Again spectators lined the decks of the other tubes; Brunel again stood side by side with Robert Stephenson. Locke was also there to offer encouragement; all waited in anticipation. Late afternoon the tide lifted the Pontoons and the long awaited signal was made at 6 pm. One of the Pontoon’s gave way and the operation was cancelled until the following day. On the 20th. June Stephenson decided to float; the spectators held their breath. There was a period when it looked as if the Engineers were losing control and that 1500 tons of iron would be swept away.

            The success of the operation depended mainly on guiding the Anglesey end of the Tube so it would butt against the Anglesey Pier; once lodged it could be swung into place. At one point supporters helped to steady a Pontoon. All kinds of problems and near calamities were somehow just avoided. Finally amid deafening cheers the great Tube struck the base of the Anglesey Pier and the battle was over; the Caernarvon Capstans went quickly into action. Within minutes the other end of the Tube was drawn in safely under the Britannia Tower. Bands struck up and crowds cheered loudly. Robert Stephenson heaved a sigh of relief and remarked, “Now I can go to bed”

            Early next morning Sir Francis Head one of the many distinguished visitors strolled at leisure down Lian Fair village; reaching a good vantage point he gazed at the new wonder of the age and the work that was completed on the previous day. He sensed someone else was already there gazing at the sight. It was Robert Stephenson. Head remarked, “This great work has made you ten years older”. Robert had not slept soundly for three long weeks and now the tension was at last receding. The present success meant so much to him after the terrible disaster of the River Dee Bridge.

            The success of the Conway and Menai bridges encouraged Robert Stephenson to design other Tubular bridges. Two of these were built for the Alexandria & Cairo Railway; one to span the Damietta branch of the Nile at Benha and the other the Karrineen Canal at Birket-El-Saba. One of the largest of Robert Stephenson’s bridge projects was the Victoria Tubular Bridge over the river Lawrence at Montreal:

John Smeaton

1724 - 1792

John Smeaton was making important discoveries very early on in the Industrial Revolution. He was born in 1724 at Austhorpe Lodge, nearLeeds, the son of William Smeaton, a very eminent and prosperous lawyer, who never thought for a moment that his son John would become a great engineer, a builder of lighthouses, bridges, canals, and harbours and eventually a Fellow of the Royal Society.

William Smeaton wished his son to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, an occupation that had provided him with a very prosperous life. The difference between John Smeaton and those who followed him like Stephenson, Brunel, Telford, Fairbairn, Rennie and Brindley, was that they had a constant struggle with adversity, having to educate themselves, and scraping by, earning money even to nourish themselves. Brindley, for instance, was more or less illiterate all his life. Whereas Smeaton was different, having education and finance at his disposal, all he had to do was to overcome the pressures put on him by his father to become a lawyer.

Austhorpe was a beautiful house, built by Smeaton’s grandfather in the parish of Whitkirk and where John Smeaton was born on June 8 1724. A brother born in 1727 died at five years and a sister born five years later survived for only one year, making John an only child .There were no other children where John grew up, consequently he acquired many older people’s habits. From a young age he designed and made things. As early as six years old he studied a local windmill then constructed a smaller version of his own, climbing to the top of his father’s barn so it got the maximum wind in its sails. Machinery fascinated John.

William Smeaton eventually gave in to his son’s obsession, thinking that if the boy was so keen on engineering he should have a workshop and every tool imaginable to further his interest. John used the tools to great effect, making other and better tools for all kinds of uses and complicated functions. He was given tuition in reading and writing and showed an interest in mathematics from an early age. When he was old enough, he attended Leeds Grammar School where it was found he had a natural aptitude for mathematics, in particular geometry. He was also very good at drawing. When he was sixteen John left school. Knowing fully that his father wished that he followed him in the family legal business he eventually joined the firm, although his love for mechanics and engineering far outweighed his interest in the legal profession.

There was a coal mine very near to the Smeaton home, at Garforth, and it was here that John Smeaton first saw a steam engine. One of the main problems with early coal mining was that after rain most of the mine would be flooded .At about this time Thomas Newcomen invented a primitive steam engine for this purpose of[l1]  ……… This engine attracted John’s interest. He sketched it from every angle, then went home, and produced a working model of the engine. To test the capabilities of the machine he tried it on his father’s fish pond. It did so well it killed all of his father’s fish! William Smeaton was not amused, but marvelled at his son’s genius in constructing the engine just on sight.

Solely to please his father John attended the office in Leeds, where his tasks were mainly copying legal documents and learning general law. In the evenings he worked until late at night in his workshop. His father began to feel that John would never learn law in Leeds so arranged for him to go to London where he could attend the courts at Westminster Hall – well away from his workshop.

John Smeaton left for London in the autumn of 1742. He loved his father tremendously and no one could say that he didn’t give his father’s profession a try, working hard in legal circles during the day. But in his own time in the evenings, he attended libraries, reading endlessly on the subjects that interested him – mostly mechanics. Smeaton missed his workshop so much that he wrote a well-presented letter to his father informing him that he wished to give up law and follow a career as a mechanical engineer. William Smeaton showed that he was a reasonable man and that he also loved his son. He admired the way his son had tried in London and, though disappointed, gave him permission to follow his own interests. He also awarded him a very generous allowance which carried on for the rest of John’s life. William Smeaton played a very important part in furthering his son’s career. Without his help John Smeaton might never have achieved the marvels he did.

John was overjoyed at his father’s support, quickly resigned his lawyer’s position and entered the service of an instrument- maker to learn the trade. He also began to attend meetings of the Royal Society and through it met many famous scientists. As early as July 26 1750, Smeaton read his first paper to the Society, in which he described improvements to the mariner’s compass. In 1751, he invented an instrument for measuring the speed of ships at sea. Other papers read to the Royal Society included one on air pumps, another one on pulleys and tackle and yet another on steam engines. 

In 1754, when he was thirty, Smeaton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, a high distinction for one so young and an indication of the esteem other members held him in. This was also the year that he began learning French, mainly to read French books on mechanics

Smeaton also began to take a keen interest in the civil engineering of docks, canals, harbours and drainage and navigation safety. Belgium and Holland were more advanced than England in these fields, so, John travelled cheaply on foot and by canal barge, noting and sketching Dutch dykes and canal systems. He thought the docks and harbours of Amsterdam were amazing. In London, ships had to wait for the tides to go alongside the wharf and set out to sea In Amsterdam the tides could be ignored; the docks were kept full by means of locks. The notes and sketches Smeaton made were of immense use, not only to himself but also to the country in general and he used these effectively later in his career.

John always had a great respect for the sea, realising that dock and sea walls had to be constructed with great strength to withstand storms, tides and the enormous power of the sea. This appreciation was to be vital to the success of what is undoubtedly his greatest achievement, the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse.

If you look at a map of the English Channel and draw a line between The Lizard in Cornwall and Start Point in west Devon, it will pass very near to the infamous reef known as the Eddystone Rock. Most of it lies some twelve to fourteen feet below water at low tide and it is covered completely at spring tides. The Eddystone Reef lies across the course of channel shipping, especially those ships heading for Plymouth. It was responsible for the wreck of hundreds of ships with valuable cargoes, not to mention the lives of thousands of seamen. .A lighthouse had been built on the rock as early as 1698. Prior to this, ship owners could only place warning lights on the nearest cliffs, scarcely a reliable method. Lighthouse-owners could collect dues from the passing shipping; it was a lucrative business which first attracted the attention of a colourful character called Henry Winstanley, nicknamed ‘Whimsical’ because of his love of practical jokes. Henry was granted permission to build what was thought to be impossible, a lighthouse on Eddystone itself. However, he defied the sceptics; his lighthouse, completed in 1698 and built of wood and iron and reaching seventy feet high, was regarded as a wonder until it blew down in great storm on November 23 1703.

The second Eddystone Light appreared in 1709, designed by John Rudyard, a Cornishman who owned a silk shop on Ludgate Hill. This lighthouse was made of wood but, unlike Winstanley’s, was conical in shape and offered more resistance to the waves. It was built of stout timbers, like ocean-going vessels and withstood storms and buffeting for fort six years, when it suddenly burnt down on 2 December 1755. How the fire started was not clear. A team of keepers worked in shifts too renew the candles used to produce the light. It was thought that the heat from the candles had caused the wooden roof area to become completely dry and combustible. A boat was put to sea to rescue the three keepers. On reaching the shore one of the keepers took to his heels and was never seen again. Another, an old man of ninety-four, insisted that, as he had looked up at the flames in the roof, some molten rock had poured down his throat. Fourteen days later he died, a flat piece of lead weighing seven ounces was found in his stomach.

Mr. Weston[TH2] , mainly to collect the dues, financed the building of a new lighthouse which he wished to be re-built quickly. His first enquiry was made to the president of the Royal Society, the Earl of Macclesfield who strongly recommended John Smeaton for his great knowledge of mechanics and his record of high quality work. The Earl’s recommendation was good enough for Weston who sent a message to Smeaton, who was working in Scotland at the time, insisting he build the lighthouse. The message took a month to reach Smeaton. Thinking it was a re-build job he wasn’t very keen. However, on finding he was to build a completely new lighthouse, he took up the challenge and hurried back to London.

.Smeaton set to work studying the problem of the third lighthouse. He made a lengthy study of the previous ones then decided that this one would be built of stone, a thing no one thought possible He studied the London curb-stones, which, because they were interlocked with each other, never moved and decided to dove-tail his stone accordingly. The base of the building would be weighed down with heavy rocks. No stone would be able to move on its own; each would be firmly held by every other one. Smeaton experimented with cement until he found one that set quickly and was not affected by salt. He then made a complete drawing of the building even before going to see the Eddystone Reef.

It was March 1756 Smeaton set out for Plymouth from London the journey took him six days. In Plymouth, he called to see Josiah Jessup, a foreman shipwright Jessup doubted that it was possible to build the lighthouse of stone but agreed that if it could be done, stone would withstand the greatest of storms. Jessup later gave Smeaton much help with his construction.

Due to strong winds around the channel, it was not until April that John attempted a visit to the Reef. The breakers were battering right over the rock and it was impossible to land due to the ferocity of the sea. Three days later he returned and this time managed to land, staying for two hours. On three other occasions he tried to get back on but found it impossible until the weather changed, when he was finally able to take measurements and make sketches. One evening, he worked by candlelight until 9pm. Eventually he had a working knowledge of every inch of the Reef.

Back in Plymouth at a place called Mill Bay, Smeaton started shaping and storing his stones. He directed the making of a modification to the landing area on the rock, and then set out for London to report to his employer Weston. When he arrived Smeaton constructed an exact model of the proposed lighthouse, making adjustments as he went along. When he showed it to Weston and the Lords of the Admiralty, all were completely satisfied. Smeaton again set off for Plymouth, on the way ordering the Portland stone that would construct the lighthouse. He engaged workmen, hired transport to and from Eddystone, and finally, bought all the provisions and tools; Josiah Jessup was appointed his first assistant.

On the August 31 1756, Smeaton began work. Landing again on the rock, he marked out the centre of the lighthouse. Some days, because of the tide, no work could be done. On other days they managed about six hours, cutting a base into the hard rock where the Portland stone would fit. All had to be done quickly by hand- hammer and chisel, before the start of winter. It was hard work but the dovetails had to be completed exactly. These would be vital to the strength of the base. By November they had completed the first phase and returned to Plymouth. It took them four days and many on the shore thought they were lost, as an almighty gale had blown them as far as the Bay of Biscay It took tremendous courage and seamanship to get back to Plymouth. The rest of the winter was spent at Mill Bay, dressing the rest of the Portland stones to the exact size. Each one weighed upwards of two tons. Over the winter four hundred and fifty tons of stone was cut to size and fitted into the next, as they would be on Eddystone. Finally, each stone was numbered, ready for transportation to the rock.

On the June 12 1757 the first stone was laid on the rock. It weighed two and a quarter ton. Next day the first course of four stones was laid, taking into account the slope of the reef .The subsequent courses allowed for this, the second course having thirteen stones while the third had twenty-five and so on. Eventually a perfect, circular course was completed containing sixty one stones. Work progressed well because of Smeaton’s planning, especially in the stone yard where every stone was first tried in sequence then, within that sequence, transported to the rock, and cemented after fitting within the dovetails. Two holes were bored in each stone and oak tree nails driven to the stone below, nothing being left to chance. After six courses, there was a level platform above the waves.

One day when Smeaton was testing the platform he fell over on to the rocks, painfully dislocating his thumb. He bravely jerked the thumb back into place, there being no medical help, then carried on with the work as if nothing had happened. Nine courses were laid before winter 1757. Before returning to Plymouth a converted boat was left to shine a warning to shipping which more often than not had to seek shelter because of storms. The weather was a good test for the part - finished lighthouse.

It wasn’t possible to get to the rock until May 12 1758. Smeaton and his men found the building had not moved even a fraction of an inch and the cement had set completely. By September, twenty four courses were finished, bringing the height to thirty-five feet. The base being complete they started on the walls of the storeroom and living area which were twenty six inches thick. That particular winter was a good one and before retiring they had completed the lower storeroom up to the roof on which they put a temporary cover. The following year, 1759, was very stormy and they did not get to the rock until July 5. By August, the masonry was finished: there were forty-six courses of stones, and the height was seventy feet. The iron work, balcony and lantern came next, ending with the fitting of a gilt ball to crown the whole edifice – which Smeaton fixed himself. He did not leave until everything was complete, including the windows which he fixed himself.

On the October 16 1759, the light shone for the first time and Smeaton breathed a sigh of relief and satisfaction. Inscribed round the upper wall were the following words: ‘Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it’[l3] .

Ninety years later, in 1848, the Harbourmaster of Plymouth making an annual inspection of the lighthouse found it had leaned one quarter of an inch towards the northeast. Feeling apprehensive that even a quarter of an inch from the perpendicular was important, he referred to Smeaton’s journal of 1759 and found the following entry:

This day the Eddystone Lighthouse has thank God been completed, it is I believe perfect, except that it inclines a quarter of an inch from the perpendicular to the north east.

Ninety years after Smeaton had completed the lighthouse, it was still standing, as he built it, as a tribute to his skills.

In 1877 it was found that the Reef had been affected by erosion and seawater. Accordingly another tower had to be built 120 feet away which was completed in 1882. Smeaton’s tower was taken down stone by stone and re-erected on Plymouth Hoe. The solid stone base still stands on the rock, unaffected by weather and the strong waves of the Channel.

John Smeaton was awarded the Royal Society’s gold medal (the highest award possible)in 1759. He built forty improved water mills and four windmills in various parts of England, as well as four bridges, three of them in  Perth, seven- arch bridges at Coldstream and Banff and one at Hexham in the north of England, the latter being his only failure[TH4] . Later in his life he wrote extensively about his work, the main piece [TH5] being The Eddystone Lighthouse. His drawings of the lighthouse are exquisite.

Like most people who put work before health, Smeaton was afflicted with stomach ulcers which may have contributed to his stroke[TH6] . What is certain about John Smeaton is that over the many years that Eddysone Lighthouse stood on the rock, it saved thousands of lives. Now standing on Plymouth Hoe it is a tribute to a great engineer[l7] .

Joseph Whitworth

Joseph was barely twelve when his father Charles deserted him and the rest of the family to become a clergyman [TH1]- Joseph later characterised his father’s decision to foster him and his brother as ‘utter selfishness’. Even worse, Charles Whitworth sent his daughter Sarah, to a Bristol orphanage, an extraordinary act for the man of religion he claimed to be.

Charles Whitworth and Sarah Hulse had married when Charles was twenty-one and Sarah twenty-three, at Stockport parish church in Cheshire, on 14 March 1803. The first child, Joseph, was born on 20 December 1803. Their home was a two bedroom dwelling house at the top of stone steps leading from a place called Fletcher’s Yard.[TH2] Later this house was renamed 13 John Street.

Joseph was scarcely fifteen months old when Orchard Street Congregational Church accepted his father as a Sunday school class leader. Even at this relatively early stage of his life it may have entered Charles Whitworth’s mind that a full time position could be an escape route from his fatherly responsibilities. The man most to blame, it could be argued, for Charles Whitworth’s journey into faith, was the Reverend William Evans, a charismatic preacher who had set out to find young men to spread the faith. Whitworth was waiting to be found and was attracted to Bill Evans like metal to a magnet.

These were dangerous times in Stockport and Manchester. There were regular mill fires and machines were vandalised. In 1812, eight ‘machine vandals’ were taken to Newcastle and executed. Irish immigrants were taking weaving jobs for low pay. Charles Whitworth was a reed- maker. If the mob had smashed local looms, people like Whitworth were watched in case they repaired them. The Whitworth family was in constant danger of having their windows smashed or even of being assaulted.

In March 1813, Sarah Whitworth gave birth to a daughter whom Charles, baptised Sarah. The baby, though sickly, survived, but her mother died early in 1814 aged thirty-four. The two [TH3] boys grieved the loss of their mother tremendously, to the point of utter despair. Their father was at a loss as to what to do. His best friend, the Reverend Bill Evan’s had died three years previously. Charles Whitworth took the extraordinary decision to point the family in four different directions, after deciding to take on a post as a full time clergyman. Sarah went to an orphanage at Bristol where she stayed for ten years. The task of finding foster homes for the boys was hard. John went to live in Queensland, Australia, where, in 1830, he married. Joseph was fostered by a middle class family[TH4]  He was so desperate to make something of his life that in July 1820, he ran away.

When he approached W. J. Crighton & Company in Manchester for a job, Joseph added a year to his age. He was given a job and stayed there fourteen months. From Crighton’s Joseph moved a short distance to Marsdon & Walker at Water Street, a firm well known for textile machinery. He stayed there for the same length of time. He was already doing the work of a skilled tradesman[TH5]  and he would not be twenty-one for another two years. He made a further move, this time as a skilled millwright to Houldsworth & Company, an internationally renowned cotton mill in Lever Street. Later he said that the happiest days of his life were when he was a journeyman at Houldswoth & Company[l6] .

Whitworth left Manchester for London on his twenty first birthday in December 1824. Heading for London via canal, sleeping wherever he could, he met a young lady. She was twenty-four years of age, a bargeman’s daughter from Tarvin, Cheshire. Her name was Frances Ankers. It was love at first sight, and soon they eloped, making their way towards Nottingham, having first of all called at Ilkeston to get a priest to marry them; on 25 February 1825, Fanny Ankers married Joseph Whitworth. Not being able to read or write Frances, marked the register with a cross. The couple endured some very bumpy years together but Frances ended her days reasonably well-off, living near her sister’s home in Cheshire. At the time of this strange marriage, neither Fanny’s father nor her sisters ever thought it would survive thirty, mostly happy, years, but it did.

Joseph Whitworth commenced work in London, May 1825, at Henry Maudsley’s Machine- Tool Engineering works, as an ordinary bench fitter He was one of a hundred and twenty employees. He remained there for three and a half years, where he impressed all with his engineering skills. The company was in the forefront of engineering. Maudsley himself had experienced the cut-throat competition in machine- tool engineering when he had worked for Joseph Bramah. Maudsley’s was the company where illustrious engineers such as Isambard Kingdom Brunel, James Nasmyth, William Muir and Bryan Donkin later worked.

Whitworth remained in London for eight years. After Maudsley’s he went to Holtzapffel, then to Wright’s & Sons then Joseph Clements; at each company learning new skills with machinery. However, he longed to go into business himself and could see the potential of mass production, especially in the north of England. The time he spent in London had been invaluable. He had made the best possible use of London libraries and learned societies and he was now prepared to put his knowledge to the test. He and Fanny packed their bags and booked two outsider seats on the Manchester-bound Lancashire Express Mail Coach. Fanny and Joseph had one thing in common: they lived for the future and hoped for better times, which they both knew would definitely come.

Joseph was now twenty-nine, back in Manchester after some eight years, with a wife. It was the start of the cotton boom and Manchester was growing into the engineering capital of the world. Before Christmas 1830, Whitworth began searching for suitable premises for a small workshop. He had little money and wanted a place with one or two simple machines. He found what he was looking for in Port Street. He took over the premises and proudly screwed his name above the door: Joseph Whitworth, Toolmaker from London.

For some reason Whitworth could not get the business off the ground even though he worked from dawn to dusk so he moved on, after only six months. He found new premises in May 1833, at 44 Chorlton Street. Again he screwed his name above the door. Here he sensed he was going to have success. He hated credit either for his own use, or when selling machinery and this slowed down his early progress. He would not allow machinery to leave the premises unless it was paid for in full.

As well as being centre of the cotton boom, Manchester was fast becoming a locomotive centre of importance and for a short time equalled the north- east of England for production. By now Whitworth was working closely with James Nasmyth, who had opened a workshop close to his own. Fairbairn [TH7] got on very well with Whitworth but he distanced himself from Nasmyth for some reason. In 1847 Fairbairn’s Thames Shipbuilding collapsed. By this time Fairbairn was drained physically, financially, and mentally. Later John Scott Russell and I. K. Brunel used part of Fairbairn’s yard to construct the famous Great Eastern . [l8] 

Whitworth talked openly of the need to standardise precise measurement. People said that it would require new machinery, improved skills, higher wages and it was generally thought that many small engineering shops would go bankrupt. It was at Maudsleys that Joseph had first seen a bench micrometer [TH9] in use. Maudsley claimed that his micrometer gave him absolute truth and humorously called it his ‘Lord Chancellor’. Whitworth’s early measuring techniques progressed during 1834-36 and it was then he built his first comparator[TH10] . Knowing fully he would also need accurate length gauges, he set about designing these. His measuring system was fully in use at his own premises before the Board of Trade became interested in them. The simplicity of his system was easy to see, but manufacturing the apparatus took three hard long years. In later years people asked just how accurate was Whitworth’s 1860 gauging. The answer was almost as good as that of 1910 precision grinding and lapping machines.

Each stage of development from templates to drawing practice slotted in to the working practice: the plane surfaces and measurement, then the gauges, and finally the drawings to co-ordinate the whole thing. Towards the end of 1842 Whitworth was producing fifty tons of machinery a week. The number of his employees increased from 277 in 1848 to 636 by 1851. Output increased to over two hundred tons a week. It was during the early 1860s that Joseph first had some contact with William Armstrong[TH11] . For some time now Whitworth had wanted to abolish the use of cast iron for making gun barrels. He wanted to introduce his own breech- loading guns made from solid fluid- compressed mild steel. After 1875 the Bessemer and Siemans-Martin methods would make Whitworth re-think the steel question[l12] .

On 11 June 1855, a Select Committee recommended that Whitworth’s standard yard measurement (the same length as that [TH13] of the Royal Commission) be legalised as the secondary standard for comparisons with local standards of measure throughout the country, and that his standard ‘Whitworth’foot and inch should have the same sanction attached to them. Whitworth became a member of the Small Arms Commission. He insisted on including in the Commission’s report a proviso that all government contract work be checked against templates and gauges and that each gauge should be numbered on each drawing. By 1856 his workforce went a little further when they worked to three-dimensional drawings (First Angle). [TH14] They further checked each machined piece against Whitworth’s ‘Go, No-go’ gauges[TH15] .

Like Fairbairn, Whitworth often walked to work through Manchester in the early days and was constantly appalled by the dirt that had built up in the streets. In 1847 he produced a horse-drawn road-sweeper. He costed the invention against the hard labour of sweeping the streets. Whitworth attempted to apply mechanical aids to as many operations as possible, thus lessening the burden of physical labour.

Following the British success with the 1851 Great Exhibition, the Americans decided to go ahead with an industrial exhibition in New York, which eventually opened on 10 July 1853. This effectively set British industrial techniques against those of the United States of America. Two years previously Britain had appeared to be ahead of America especially in armaments. A trio of people was asked to attend the American exhibition and report back to England; they were, George Wallis, Principal of the Birmingham School of Art (which included the only school of rifle design in Brtiain), Professor John Wilson [TH16] and Joseph Whitworth

The three commissioners left the Thames on the 10 May 1853, on the steam sloop The Basilisk. The frigate Leander accompanied them across the Atlantic. They landed at New York two days late after a bad crossing. Charles Dickens described just such a crossing to Boston he and his wife had made earlier:

The noise, the smell, the closeness, was intolerable, the sea was stupendous wet, and the decks were rolling.

Dickens’s description of this trip probably deterred more British engineers from going to the exhibition.

The Basilisk docked at New York on 26 May. Whitworth and the others quickly went ashore and boarded a train to Washington D.C. On the way Wallis and Whitworth visited some factories at Philadelphia and Baltimore. Whitworth’s observed that technology and ideas in repetitive production were far in advance of those in England, although England’s tool- making was by far in advance of that of the United States. The proportion of hand-slide lathes was found to be greater in America than England and most had powered cross- slides that were suspiciously like Whitworth’s designs. The machine shops were tooled very much as Whitworth’s was in England.

As early as 1835 Whitworth had been exporting lathes and other machines to Francis Lowell, the largest textile manufacturer in the United States. Whitworth had also sold machines to companies in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The machines which Whitworth saw were the offspring of his own quick-return lathes, worm driven machines. All the machines were in common use in factories he visited. Whitworth was very confident of his own engineering skills yet he wondered just how long it would take America to overhaul the lead he himself had given England. Whitworth applauded American management for running the industry as it should be run.

When Whitworth left America after the exhibition in 1853, he was showered with awards and hailed as England’s greatest mechanic and gun-maker. In 1857 Whitworth was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. But others in America called him a humbug and self-seeking publicist. The reason was that the Whitworth’s guns were superior to those of the inferior guns of the American government. Because of this the generals abused Whitworth mercilessly.

The Crimean War (1854-1856) created a demand for military and naval engineering. Whitworth came up with a hexagonal-bored weapon. The more Whitworth perfected his arms, the more competitions he won - and the more he was castigated. By 1857, after two years experimenting, Whitworth was producing guns which easily out-performed all of the rest and yet the British Army were still using the French designed Enfield-Minnie rifle. A Select Committee was set up to examine why the [TH17] British army had not been supplied with a more efficient weapon than the Enfield. Mr. Hussey Vivian, Member of Parliament for Glamorgan asked why Whitworth’s rifle had been rejected and declared ‘Mr. Whitworth’s rifle beat the best rifles in the French army by two and three to one.’ Mr. James A. Turner MP said on 25 June 1861, that Joseph Whitworth ‘ended by producing the very best weapons ever invented’.Whitworth went on to receive congratulations from Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France. On 23 April 1867, The Times reported that the Enfield rifle had been completely beaten by the Whitworth, in accuracy of fire, penetration and range. Using only half a charge (35 grams of powder) its lead alloy bullet penetrated through seven inches of elm at a reduced distance of twenty yards. A steel bullet went through a wrought- iron plate 0.6 inches thick. The War Department representatives were amazed; it was the first time that a rifle bullet had gone through an iron plate.

During the1860s, Whitworth constructed many field guns with steel barrels designed to act as both muzzle-loading and breech-loading. All were high quality weapons suitable for the defence department including the navy. Although negotiable, the prices were higher than Armstrong’s. A 4.5 bore 32- pound gun cost £400, a 5.5 70 pound gun was £700, his new 7 inch 120 pound gun with a hexagonal barrel, cost £1350. General George Hay wrote in the May[l18]  edition of the Mechanics Magazine, that there was no other gun in England that functioned as well as the Whitworth rifle.

Whitworth was becoming a little fretful. He became quarrelsome and said he was not well. Doctors [l19] advised him to rest more but he took no notice. Fanny seemed to get the brunt of all of his troubles. They had now been married thirty-one years but for the last ten, Joseph had spent most of his time at work or travelling. They were now lonely people, looking for companionship which apparently they could not find in each other. They lived at The Firs [TH20] with its long drive and its fifty-two acre estate and farm. Fanny never enjoyed living in the house at all; in fact she never felt right there. Joseph and Fanny grew more and more estranged. Regular invitations to civil functions arrived addressed to ‘Mr. & Mrs. Whitworth’ but more and more Joseph went on his own. Prince Albert himself sent an invitation for Joseph and Fanny to join him and the Queen at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight, in December 1856. Albert wished to try Whitworth’s rifle; Whitworth attended on his own.

Fanny never experienced any financial problems [TH21] at all and settled into a new home, Forest Hall, [TH22] supported by an adequate income from Whitworth. In April 1871, Mary Louisa, Hurst, Whitworth’s second wife[l23] , became mistress of Stancliffe Hall; Whitworth had moved from The Firs. Stancliffe Hall was set in a beautiful estate in the Derbyshire countryside, costing £33,850. At first, Stancliffe stood on a bare hillside without any attractions other than magnificent scenery but with the advantage of a bracing atmosphere. Whitworth transformed this bleak setting into one of the most beautiful landscaped garden estates in England. Shrubs were ingeniously planted for effect. The Chronicle [TH24] newspaper described the result of his work:

The main roads are bordered with wide shrubbery borders filled with a profusion of choice rhododendrons, azaleas and other flowering trees and shrubs, intermixed with spiny conifers, bronze retinas pores and elegant birches. The rocks themselves are light fawn verging into rich chestnut brown and are captured with pernettyas and vacciniums. Of the larger plants occupying pockets on the rocks are glorious masses of white and yellow blooms, gorgeous bushes of gorse, thickets of rhododendrons, dauphines[TH25] and hollies, conifers are everywhere, mostly flame like or pyramidal in outline.

Whitworth and his new wife, Mary, shared a common interest in educational issues. Mary was the daughter of Daniel Broad Hurst, onetime Manchester City treasurer. Mary Louisa had remained unmarried for twenty-one years before meeting Whitworth, almost as though she had been patiently waiting for him. Life with Joseph suited her down to the ground. In later years the couple spent their days seeing to the affairs of both the estates, The Firs, and Stancliffe, as well as travelling a great deal abroad.

When Whitworth reached seventy-three he appeared to relax more and enjoy Stancliffe. The celebrated gardener Edward Mimer and the architect T. Roger Smith rebuilt the house between 1871and 1872. Whitworth was particularly interested in his stud farm and trotting ponies. He also collected paintings, mainly watercolours. His favourite water-colourist was William Etty but he also liked Thomas Creswick and landscapes of the Lake District and Derbyshire.

Whitworth’s health was deteriorating and realising that his latest heart palpitations [TH26] were a warning, he started to attend the Saxon church of St. Helen, in Dailey Dale but rather unfortunately he had a disagreement with the vicar about village education.

Whitworth devoted only a small part of the last twenty years of his life to engineering. He set out his Articles of Association in 1874. These were amazing in their philanthropy and include the following provisions:

The establishing, managing and assisting of schools, libraries, banks, dispensaries, infirmaries, provident societies and clubs for the benefit of persons employed by the company.

By these Articles he wished to supply education for his employees and apprentices. He also wanted to supply the services of a works doctor and medical room. The Articles were passed in the spring of 1874 when Whitworth employed 780 people. His company was also one of the first to issue shares to employees; the £25 shares could be paid for from wages. If, because of sickness, workers were forced to sell the shares, or if they were leaving, then the shares could be re-sold to the company plus interest, at the price they originally paid.

Sir Joseph Whitworth died on Saturday evening of 22 January 1887, at the English Hotel in Monte Carlo. Whitworth was a great benefactor; in his will drawn up in December1884, it was clearly indicated that he wished the bulk of his estate to provide an educational foundation capable of carrying forward eligible pupils, both male and female, to become superior workmen or teachers The amount left by Whitworth and his wife [l27] was £1.8 million sterling, estimated today at £95 million. Taking into account the undervaluation of the two estates, it exceeds even Lord Nuffield’s magnificent legacy.

It was generally thought that on the death of Whitworth and his wife, his company would be gobbled up by his old rival, William Armstrong [l28] of Elswick. This proved to be the case, as on the death of Lady Whitwort[l29] h in 1896 the firm became Sir William G. Armstrong Whitworth and Company Limited.

Joseph Whitworth was buried in the churchyard of Darley Dale, Derbyshire, near a great yew tree which some say is a thousand years old.

Robert Smith Surtees of Hamsterley

1805 - 1864

Robert was born in Milkburn, near Hamsterley, in 1805. His father was Anthony Surtees, the original foxhunting squire of the nineteenth century. Charles James Appleby (1779-1843) the sporting writer who used the pseudonym ‘Nimrod’, said of him, ‘he was as good a judge of a horse, hound, a bottle of port, or an oak tree, as any man in England.’

Having settled in Hamsterley Hall, Anthony Surtees kept his own hounds and hunted both hare and fox; Robert was raised with the horse and the hounds. Initially, when he was old enough he hunted, with the South Durham foxhounds, the Master at this time being Mr. Ralph Lambton, who was Member of Parliament for Durham and uncle to the first Earl of Durham. Roberts’s early life consisted of writing and hunting.

In 1815, when the war with France was at its height, Robert started school for the first time; he attended a private school at Ovingham run by Reverend James Burkett. All his life Surtees closely observed peoples’ characteristics which he would adapt and use in his later novels; the characteristics of Reverend Burkett would become one of his fictional characters.

Burkett was a man of many occupations, as well as being a schoolmaster he farmed, dealt in cattle, and was involved in horse breeding. At the time Robert attended his school, Burkett’s particular hobby was carving ‘Gibby Sticks’. Made from ash plants or blackthorn, one end of the stick was carved with the head of a famous person of the day. Later, in Roberts’ book Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour (1853), it is easy to recognise Reverend Burkett in the characters, Mr. Jogglebury Crowdey and Slooman. The schoolmaster of Hillingdon Hall (1845) is also a portrait of Reverend Burkett.

Ovingham School was not bad, as far as schools went in those days. The washing arrangements were primitive, four roller towels for the use of the whole school, and the soap just refused to lather. There were also no tooth or nail brushes and no facilities for changing the water, so the last one to wash used dirty water. The food however, was amazing, home fed beef from the farm, fresh milk from the dairy, and fruit from the garden. The boys, as well as learning and attending lessons, were also expected to work on the farm or in the garden and earn their keep; all in all, Surtees was well looked after and treated fairly. He never referred to bullying, which was commonplace in those days, and something Dickens frequently mentioned.

Robert Surtees stayed at Ovingham until 1818, when he left to attend Durham Grammar School; he stayed for only one year. This was more or less the end of Robert’s education, he never claimed to have learned anything at all while attending school, but it was apparent that he must have learned at least some Latin or Greek and was well-read in Shakespeare (evident from his books). Ultimately, his family was not much interested in education; their main interests were, rearing horses and hunting. In fact the real scholar of the Surtees family was the other Robert, of Mainsforth, who became the antiquary and historian, of Durham. There is no record to suggest that the two Roberts ever met, but they seemed to have something in common in that at Hamsterley Robert wrote novels while at Mainsforth Robert wrote Border Ballads – which apparently fooled Sir Walter Scott.

Robert of Hamsterley was the second son to Anthony so would not have a positive claim to Hamsterley, but he did succeed some years later when his older brother died. Prior to this inheritance though, it was necessary for him to make a living. At this time, careers for the sons of gentry were usually confined to the church, law, or the services – unless there was an obvious special talent. Often, gentry would work their own farm, or even a small estate. A lot of upper class men were articled to solicitors, where they learned the law of trespass and also became acquainted with the general law of the land. This proved useful when carrying out duties of the Justice’s bench.

In 1822, Robert Surtees was articled to Mr. Robert Purvis a solicitor in Newcastle, where he remained for three years. He was later articled to Mr. William Bell, of Bow Church Yard, London; in the spring of 1825, he left Hamsterley and set out for London. Surtees travelled on the famous Highflier coach, as the railway was not available, other than some narrow track lines which were in use at some mines and the occasional passenger train. Surtees was not keen on railways at the time, yet later he spoke out in favour of the system. He remarked in 1825 that the dirty appearance of the system reflected the passengers who travelled on it.

The Highflier worked between Newcastle and The White Horse Inn in Fetter Lane, London; a single fare costing six pounds. London was entered by the never ending Tottenham, which today is Tottenham Court Road, ending at the White Horse. Robert was forever complaining about Coaching Inns in some of his books, and it was the White Horse that made him think in this way. He always complained bitterly of dirt and discomfort, but on his first day in London, he arrived at the White Horse in style; the horses wearing the Hollyhock flowers, which were always added for decoration in the final leg of the journey. Robert arranged lodgings at Lincoln Inn’s Field and two days later reported at Mr. Bell’s Solicitors, Bow Church Yard, London as promised.

As well as Robert there were other articled people learning law, and there seemed two categories ‘saps’ or working pupils, and gentleman pupils - who were learning very little. It is not certain which category Robert fell into but, on reading his later novels, it is apparent that his knowledge of general law was certainly pretty good. One example of this was ‘The case of Doleful and Jorrocks’s’, in Handley Cross (1843), this was known as one of the most amusing court scenes, anyone had ever read, and certainly the best in literature at the time.

In 1825, Croyden was the southern hunting centre. At the time, Surtees was given the chance to ride with the harriers, stag hounds or fox hounds. As in most hunts the fox was taken to the country in a horse box, and set free, this was a little unfair in that the fox would not know the lay of the land. Hunting was nothing like hunting in Hamsterley, but Robert enjoyed it anyway, and it gave him extra insight into characters he would use later. It was on one of these hunts that he found an ideal character for Mr. Jorrocks MFH, grocer and tea dealer. In a lot of ways it was sad that the original inspiration for Jorrocks was not known, he would certainly recognise himself from the book because Jorrocks was such a strong character. Jorrocks would become increasingly famous for his creator, and actually survive him as one of the immortals of English literature.

John Leech, who did most of the illustrations, for Surtees’ books, used as one of his models a coachman who he saw asleep in church one Sunday morning. Indeed, Leech’s pictures of Jorrocks would become familiar to most people at the time and were the chief means of ensuring the lasting popularity of such a humorous character.

Surtees never divulged the name of the man whom he saw while hunting with the ‘Old Surrey’ and who started the trail, which led to Handley Cross and Hillingdon Hall. Surtees did not think much of cockney hunts, and he started to go further a field to involve him in the sport. In those early days this wasn’t difficult as hunting was just as popular as football is today. Every village seemed to keep its own hounds; there were very few other sports. Manchester and Birmingham had their own pack of hounds; one Epping Forrest hunt was said to have had attracted hundreds of horsemen, with four thousand foot followers.

After some time Surtees chose Brighton for the centre of his hunting activity. Coaches ran regularly from London, and he hunted with both the Southdown Foxhounds and also Brookside Harriers. Brighton was also the place ‘to be’ outside London and it was where the Prince Regent regularly attended the hunts. Robert met the Duke of Wellington out with his hounds on one of these occasions. Hamsterley still remained the hunt he enjoyed most but he always spoke of Brighton and attended their hunts whenever he could.

Whilst in Brighton, Robert always stayed at the ‘Bedford Hotel’ and spoke very highly of the care and service he received whilst staying there. He also stayed at the ‘Mutton’ although alas, this would be the place of his death, shortly after which it closed; the ‘Bedford Hotel’ survives into the present century. Brighton supplied Surtees with a host of characters, which he later used. The master of the Southdown hunt was one Captain Eld. The self-styled master of ceremonies of Brighton, who re-appears in Handley Cross as Captain Doleful – with his seedy militia coat and white hack, which ‘went up and down like a yard and a ‘alf, of pump water’.

In 1829, Surtees visited France he went to Bologna[l2]  for a holiday and succeeded in getting mixed up with a pack of hounds, and in fact ended up owning them. They had been the property of Mr. Sackville Creswell, who had just been arrested for debt. This gentleman gave the hounds to Robert – so at the tender age of twenty four, he became Master of the Hounds. The French didn’t have much idea about fox hunting, and the French farmers were not amused when their lands were invaded, subsequently Surtees received more summonses for trespass, than his hunts killed foxes.

Robert’s companion in these experiences in France was Colonel Charitee. One day they came across a French hunt and decided to join forces with them. Obviously, not happy with the encounter, the following day the French turned up with muskets, blunderbusses, and all kinds of strange instruments; bullets were flying all over the place. Robert felt that he was lucky to get away with his life. Another incident happened when on one of his hunts; the fox ran to ground in the shed of an old soldier of Napoleonic times, who defended his property with a broom.

In 1829, Surtees returned to England never to go abroad again. It seemed an odd coincidence that his return to England coincided with the opening day of the South Down hunt! Unfortunately, this particular year suffered an exceptionally harsh winter, keeping Robert indoors and preventing him from attending any hunts and so he turned to his talent for writing. There was of course the option to return to Law, but he did not feel like doing this. A few months prior he had begun a novel based on his hunting journal. After completing a few pages he showed them to two friends who laughed at the result, not the reaction Robert had hoped for. Later he tried again, this time taking advice from an editor of the Sporting Magazine, Mr. Shury. The editor liked Roberts work and gave him the opportunity of writing a series of articles on the Hunting Scene. It was quite fortuitous for Robert that he should seek Mr Shury’s advice at this particular time because the magazine had only just parted company, with its hunting correspondent, Mr. Charles James Appeley (‘Nimrod’). Everyone, at this time, was family with the work of Nimrod, even people outside hunting circles, read his column. Nimrod was without equal, as a hunting correspondent, but he was also headstrong, and always in debt. He constantly pressed his employers for increases in his salary and expenses. His salary at the time was one thousand five hundred pounds a year, with the additional cost of five hunters being kept for his sole use.

After the magazine proprietors refused ‘Nimrod’ any further money, Surtees stepped into his position. This started an all out quarrel with Nimrod, with apparently, all of the spite coming from Surtees. When they met, ‘Nimrod’ treated Robert with respect and courtesy – which was not returned by Surtees, and for some reason Surtees hounded ‘Nimrod’, even when he went abroad. Surtees taunted him through his column and in his novel, Handley Cross. Some people feared that this would undoubtedly lead to a libel action or even a duel, his taunting was so vicious, but the untimely death of ‘Nimrod’ put an end to it. ‘Nimrod’ was flamboyant, self-opinionated, and a snob, but it did not warrant the attack by Surtees. In a book on the life of John Mytton, Surtees wrote the preface in an attempt to correct this wrong but it was far too late for that.

Surtees spent the following year, 1830, working as a sporting correspondent of the Sporting Magazine; whilst still managing to follow the hunt in Brighton. Cockney hunts and the Hounds of Bologna hunt were both used to inspire Surtees in stories in the Jorrocks’ series. In 1838 Mr. Jorrocks was born. The Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities are nothing compared to some of Surtees’ later work; this was the material that the Sporting Magazine was getting and the readers enjoyed. Unfortunately, he never enjoyed working for anyone and did in fact try to buy into the magazine, thus having a say in the policy, but this was refused.

Surtees liked his own way and ultimately resigned his position with Sporting Magazine. In 1831, after making an arrangement with a printer, Ackerman, they launched the New Sporting Magazine. Mr. Jorrocks continued to run riot through its pages for the following five years. Surtees acted as his own correspondent, and started to hunt in the Midlands. ‘Editing’, Robert wrote, ‘is very good fun for a time’ but after five years with the magazine he tired of it, and in 1836 put the New Sporting Magazine up for sale. After it was sold he continued to contribute to the magazine for a number of years, but he grew tired of the endless travelling, and poor inns, about which he never stopped complaining. Indeed, it was at this time that he embarked on a vicious attack of the Lemington Inns. The proprietor of one of the inns brought an action against him, which was heard at court. Surtees lost the case, but the damages were assessed at only one farthing.

In 1831 Robert’s brother, Anthony, died at Hamsterley and he became heir to the Estate. Both of his parents were in poor health and he returned to Hamsterley in 1836 just in time to be there when his mother died. His father died the following year and he succeeded to the Hamsterley seat at the age of thirty two. Robert formerly adopted the roll of ‘country gentleman’; he also sat as a magistrate and was for a time an officer in the Yeomanry. In 1856, he became Deputy Lieutenant, for the County of Durham, where he made a reduction in the expenses for the post, which was very welcome. Gradually Surtees contented himself with Hamsterley and he began to keep hounds and hunted the country around his estate. Previously, Mr Ralph Lambton had hunted here, but he had been crippled after a fall and the area had been neglected as far as hunting goes. However, for no apparent reason, two years after putting together a good set of hounds, Robert gave them up without any explanation. He continued to hunt with the South Durham Hunt, and some time later he was offered Mastership when Lambton could not ride, but he had to decline this because he had the estate to run.

After being approached by Mr Lambton, in 1838, Surtees ran for Parliament; this was more or less an exercise to split the vote of the two Liberal candidates. Mr. Lambton was Conservative MP for Durham, and he persuaded Robert to stand in the Gateshead constituency. Robert Surtees did well and attracted good backing, which would have undoubtedly upset the Liberal vote in the area, but Robert thought it was all a farce and withdrew from the contest before the election. However, like most of his life experiences, he captured this event in one of his novels; when Mr. Jorrocks in Hillingdon Hall stands as a candidate himself. However, unlike Surtees, Jorrocks is elected.

Surtees initially entered politics to help a friend, but ultimately never intended getting himself elected; Hamsterley was more than enough for him. He continued writing sporting columns, one in particular, Bells Life, and still attended hunts for this purpose. He did change his opinion on the railways, because trains were able to transport him and his horses to distant meets and he was spared having to use coaching inns. He also, eventually, turned his attention to getting his novels published. In 1838, Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities was published, followed by Handley Crossing 143and Hillingdon Hall in 1845. The first editions of the novels were illustrated by Hablot K. Browne, under the name of ‘Phiz’. Surtees never put his name on any novels; the early novels he signed as ‘A Durham Sportsman’, and when Jorrocks’ trilogy came out he insisted on being anonymous. Surtees was obsessed by not adding his name to anything except legal documents and horse sales.

On 10 May, 1841 Robert Smith Surtees married Elizabeth Fenwick, daughter and co-heir of Field House, Co Durham, and also of Pallion Hall. They had three children, two daughters and one son, Anthony, who succeeded his father in 1864, but died in 1871, passing Hamsterley to the eldest daughter, Eleanor, who married the fifth Viscount Gort. Their other daughter died unmarried at Brighton in 1916. At this point the Surtees line, descendant from Robert, ceased; the present owner of Hamsterley Hall is Viscount Gort, who also married a Surtees but of the Dinsdale line.

Initially the Jorrocks series of books were not all together successful. Yet, when serialised in the Sporting Magazine, it was a complete success. In Handley Cross Jorrocks is at his best, together with James Pig, the North Country Huntsman, and there was ‘The Boy Benjamin’. Mr. Jorrocks was a marvellous character.

After a while Surtees wrote some hunting articles called Analysis of the Hunting Field (1829) he also wrote a further novel Hawbuck Grange (1847); Phiz was still illustrating for him. However, he met John Leech, following an introduction by Thackeray, whom he knew from his London days. Leech started illustrating Roberts’s creations, and carried on doing so until his death. Surtees and Leech became great friends, and very much enjoyed working with each other. Their first book together was Mr. Sponge’s Sporting Tour and it was an enormous success. The hunting public loved it, and the change of illustrator was just what Mr. Jorrocks had been waiting for; the early novels were re-marketed with Leech’s drawings. Everything in Surtees’ life was rosy, but alas could not last.

At the end of 1829 Robert had a very unpleasant quarrel with Harrison Ainsworth. At the time, Ainsworth was an author in his own right, as well as editor of the New Monthly Magazine and accepted Mr. Sponge, as a two year serial. After this had run its time, Surtees offered him a further novel, Young Tom Hall, to take its place. Ainsworth liked the story immensely, and immediately starting advertising it, with Surtees as the author. Initially, Ainsworth was given Mr. Sponge on condition that Surtees’ name was not divulged as author, which, at the time, Ainsworth accepted.

Surtees had managed to keep his name out of his writing all of his life, so when his name was divulged to the public by Ainsworth, Surtees was understandably deeply upset. He wrote to Ainsworth asking him to withdraw the advertisement, but Ainsworth, known for getting his own way just as much as Surtees was, refused. After all the fuss he later asked Surtees to wind down the Tom Hall story; this was a complete and utter shame, as it may have been one of Surtees’ better stories in the series. Surtees ceased writing about the character in disgust; he put Tom Hall away and he would not be re-introduced until after Surtees’ death.

The incident with Ainsworth seriously affected his work because his next books were not quite up to the standard people were used to. Some material he intended using for Tom Hall was used for other books like Ask Mama (1858) and Plain or Ringlets (1860).Surtees spent more and more time managing his estate at Hamsterley, he always found the estate and farming more important than his novels, he wrote a short book on farming during this period, but did not bother to get it published. He was busy at the time with his memoirs, for an autobiography, and his farming book was going to be combined with his autobiography in one book called Sporting and Social Recollections, and published under his own name, for once, but he broke off to write Mr. Facey, Romford’s Hounds (1965), which sadly was to be the last book he and Leech would ever write together.

Leech died prior to the publication and ‘Phiz’ had to finish it. The publishers, Bradbury and Evans, had decided to bring out the first volume in 1864, but it was very sad that Surtees would not live to see it. Surtees and his wife had gone to Brighton after an exceptionally hard and cold winter. They stayed together until May, just before Mr. Facey was due to be published. Robert went to bed early, not complaining about being ill but, during the night, he complained of a pain around his heart, and then passed gently away. Surtees never claimed to be the greatest of authors, but he was a brilliant novel writer. His Characters were so alive and vivid. His Characters will keep Surtees immortal forever

The Works of Robert Smith Surtees

Jorrocks’s Jaunts and Jollities (1838)

Handley Cross (1843)

Hillingdon Hall (1845)

Hawbuck Grange (1847)

Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour (1853)

Ask Mamma (1858)

Plain or Ringlets (1860)

Mr Facey Ramford’s Hounds (1865)