Thomas Brassey 1805-1870 was born near Chester and not only built railways across Britain but throughout the world.
Thomas Brassey was born in Bruera near Chester in 1805 and was educated in Chester. His first job was managing Storeton Quarry, on the Wirral, where stone was provided to George Stephenson’s Sankey Viaduct on the Liverpool-Manchester Railway. He later was assistant to Thomas Telford surveying the alignment of the A5 in North Wales.
He became a prominent railway builder and during his lifetime he built one third of Britain’s railways, three quarters of those in France and even 5% of all the railways in the world at the time.
He not only built railways across the world but also major civil engineering works such as the Thames Embankment and Birkenhead Docks. He even built a railway at breakneck speed in Crimea to provide the British and French armies with food and ammunition to assist with the fall of Sebastopol in 1855.
At his busiest times he was employing as many as 80,000 men requiring significant managerial skills. He died in 1870 having accomplished a phenomenal amount of construction across Britain and the world.
John Violet BSc MIStructE
He has had a wide experience of the structural design of both buildings and bridges. He has worked in both private practice and Local Government finishing his career as Chief Bridges and Structures Engineer at Cheshire County Council.
Hot & cold buffet will be served from 6pm for a meeting start at 6:30pm.
Please note that there is ample free parking at the hotel.