Text and photographs copyright of Jim Shead.
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Text and photographs copyright of Jim Shead. |
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Engineer son of a famous father. Son of John Rennie and brother of George Rennie.
1822 | He and Thomas Telford were asked for revised plans for the river outfall and its passage through Wisbech. | |
1824 | He was consulted and reccommended that the works specified by his father should be completed and that the river should be widened and deeped to double its capacity. | |
1824 | He was employed to survey a route for a proposed London to Birmingham railway in direct competition to the canal. | |
March 1825 | He proposes, with his brother, "a ship canal from London to Portsmouth, capable of conveying Line of Battleships and the largest Merchantmen" 86 miles long, 300 feet wide and 24 feet deep. The route was to be via Guildford, Loxwood and the Avon Valley. The cost was estimated at £7 millon. They were later asked to survey alternative lines. | |
26 October 1826 | He wrote to the clerk to the commissioners about the lack of a person to control accounts and measurements and recommended the apointment of a Mr Atkinson to assist the engineer Thomas Bradley. | |
1827 | His single-segmental arch stone bridge near Yarborough Mills in Brigg was completed at a cost of £2,524 replacing an earlier structure. Also completed this year was his re-constructed Harlam Hill Lock with the upper gates replaced by a guillotine gate at the cost of £2,027. | |
1827 | He and his brother were consulted by the Admiralty on a proposed canal to be called the Grand Imperial Ship Canal but they thought the scheme was not financially viable. | |
1827 | He and Thomas Telford are appointed as engineers for the Wisbech cut. | |
1827 | Reporting jointly with his brother he said that some of the Ford to Huston section of the canal had only been partially puddled, and part not at all, though it ran through soil 'incapable of holding water'. This lead to salt water damaging farmland. They also estimated it would cost £28,333 for the various works required on the navigation. | |
Late July 1827 | He reported with his brother on the Portsea Canal saying " there was no water in it , nor has it, we understand, been used to any considerable extent on account of the very defective manner in which it has been executed, as it is incapable of holding water." | |
1828 | He has consulted and considered three possible sizes of navigation: one 10 foot deep to take sloops and small briggs of 120 to 140 tons, which he considered lager than was needed; one 8 feet deep to take 40 to 60 ton coasters that worked the Bristol Channel; or a 5 feet deep barge canal, which would mean transhipment at Highbridge. He recommended the second with 64 by 18 foot locks at an estimated cost of £28,720. | |
1830 | Jointly reporting with his brother he blamed the shoals in the river on the admission of tidal water through Scots Float sluice into the upper Rother. | |
1834 | Denver Sluice was reconstructed to his design. | |
28 February 1834 | He and Thomas Telford certify the completion of the new outfall cut, which cost £200,716. | |
1836 | He proposed the removal of the stone bridge at Wisbech and the adjoining houses so that the sectional area of the river could be doubled. He also recommended impovements to permit vessels with a 7 foot draught to reach Peterborough and a back cut in Wisbech to avoid the S bend through the town. He ageed that no permanent solution to flooding on the river could be found until the obstructions at Wisbech were removed. | |
1837 | He was still owed £367 from his bill of £567 even though he had often asked for payment. | |
1837 | He surveyed a route for a canal 16 feet deep from Liverpool to Warrington that could without difficulty be carried on to Manchester. | |
4 October 1841 | He attended a meeting of the commissioners to discuss the reconstruction of South Ferriby Sluice and new lock. He thought the work should be done as soon as possible and estimated the cost as £16,533. | |
March 1842 | Work started on the construction of his South Ferriby Sluice. | |
1844 | He made a survey and proposed two alternative routes. | |
1844 | He was retained by the Teignmouth Harbour Commissioners to ensure that the embankment proposed by the South Devon Railway did not affect their navigation and that the bridges at Newton over the river and canal were large enough. | |
22 May 1844 | His South Ferriby Sluice was formally opened. |
Of Ketley works Coalbrookdale. Invented an inclined plane used on the Ketley Canal.
Engineer and surveyor who worked under Telford on the Caledonion Canal until 1822.
The following information was obtained from Nick Wilson. He is the great, great grandson of Thomas Wilson, who married Thomas Rhodes' daughter, Mary. She died young leaving him two young sons to care for and in 1856 he married Barbara, one of the daughters of James Rhodes, Thomas Rhodes' brother.
Thomas, born April 5th 1789 and his younger brother, James, was born January 7th 1791. They were the sons of James Rhodes of Apperley Bridge, near Bradford and on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal. His father was a carpenter and his sons both followed in his footsteps.
When they were still quite young they went to Hull where they worked as ship's carpenters. Later they decided to move to Scotland and start working on the Caledonion Canal. On February 9th 1815 Thomas married Lucy Barton, a Devonshire girl, in Liverpool. Their first child, Thomas William Rhodes, was born in Inverness the next year.
It is said that the poorly educated Thomas, and possibly James as well, were later tutored by the sympathetic Rector of Inverness Academy in mathematics and technical drawing, and managed to work their way up to managerial positions under Thomas Telford. James ended up a canal superintendent in Invergarry and one of his sons, canal superintendent in Inverness. Thomas went on to other canal projects in England and across the Irish Sea.
James Rhodes died at Invergarry in 1865 and his older brother, Thomas, died in Devon in June 1868 at the age of 79.
Many thanks to Nick Wilson for the above information. Was recommended by Thomas Telford.
1831 | As engineer of the proposed Severn Navigation Company he proposes weirs across the two branches of the river at Gloucester with a lock in the east channel, a second lock near Upton and three more between Worcester and Stourport. He estimated the cost as £200,000 for a 12 foot depth up to Worcester and 6 foot to Stourport, £168,248 for a 10 foot depth to Worcester or £111,544 for a sufficient depth to take existing craft efficiently. | |
January 1834 | He was called in on Thomas Telford's advice and wrote that the lack of steam traffic on the river was due to the size and shallowness of Naburn Lock and of the river below. He estimated it would cost £33,354 to make York accessible to 200-250 ton vessels. Over half the cost was for a new 140 foot by 36 foot lock with a 7 foot depth over the cill, estimated at £18,261. | |
1837 | He surveyed the river and recommended improvements that were carried out. |
Engineer from Dudley.
Late 1838 | About this time he was appointed engineer. |
Engineer.
1789 | He gave evidence to the parliamentary committee on the canal Bill and may have been the company's first engineer. | |
1791 | He was appointed engineer at the first company meeting. | |
September 1793 | He was found 'not to have acted in the Execution of his Duty with proper discretion and Oeconomy' and was dismissed as engineer. | |
May 1794 | About this time he became engineer for the canal assisted by Thomas Sheasby senior then junior. | |
January 1795 | About this time he left his post of engineer. |
Surveyor and engineer.
1730 | He was appointed surveyor-general. | |
1735 | He ceased to be surveyor-general. |
Engineer.
June 1758 | As engineer to the commissioners he did an estimate for extending the navigation to New Bridge. |
Engineer.
1881 | He was appointed engineer and general manager. | |
17 August 1893 | As consultant engineer he attended the official opening of the new Winterburn reservoir and presented the Chairman with a silver key in a silver box, with which to perform the opening ceremony. | |
1898 | He reported that a second reservior above Winterburn reservior could be built for £126,000 and some trial borings were made but it was not built. |
Engineer.
April 1802 | About this date he was appointed engineer. |
Engineer.
1804 | As canal engineer he was instructed to make out 'the allotments and alterations of the Wharfs and communication with the Tramroad required by the Oystermouth Tramroad Act'. |
Engineer.
25 February 1769 | Was appointed assistant to Thomas Yeoman at a salary of £80 a year and was given £21 for removal expenses from Portsmouth. |
Engineer.
1872 | He bcame engineer to the Weaver trustees. He started a programme of lock and river improvements. |
Came from Fladbury near Evesham on the River Avon. MP and improver of the Avon navigation.
1636 | He received an Order in Council authorising him make the river navigable. He began work on this but it seems did not do any work on the River Teme, which he was also authorised to improve. | |
1639 | He finished making the river navigable by building 13 flash and pound locks so that 30-ton barges could navigate from Tewkesbury to Stratford. |
Engineer of the Weaver Navigation from 1885.
1888 | He said that there were only 146 tides a year when vessels drawing 15 feet of water could reach Weston Point docks from the Mersey. | |
1912 | He attended a conference of local authorities at Stoke-on-Trent to press for the extension of the Weaver to the Potteries. | |
1934 | Left his post of manager and engineer. |
Engineer.
1850 | As engineer to the trustees he was asked to prepare plans for an additional dock at Weston Point with a separate entrance to the Mersey. |
Engineer.
November 1761 | He and John Gwyn were appointed as surveyors. | |
January 1765 | He was dismissed when Brindley took over responsibility from Smeaton. |
Engineer.
1733 | He surveyed the river and warned that, unless drastic action was taken immediately, not only would the navigation fail but also the lands between Lincoln and Boston would be lost for want of draining. |
Engineer.
1796 | He was appointed engineer and completed the two Oulston Moor reservoirs and the line to Strensall. | |
1802 | He suggests that the cut along the line of the river above Strensall, planned by William Jessop, should be replaced by a straight cut from Strensall to Sheriff Hutton. |
Engineer.
1795 | He became engineer for the canal. | |
1820 | As company engineer he produced an estimate of £25,302 for a cut from Doncaster to Stainforth. |
Engineer and architect who was also secretary of the (little) North Western Railway.
1845 | He attacked the plans for a new dock at Thornbush, Lancaster, and pressed for the ship canal scheme on behalf of the North Western Railway. |
Surveyor.
1817 | Together with James Green he surveyed the line for the canal. |
Engineer and contractor. Son of Thomas, senior Sheasby.
1794 | Around this date he was employed as assistant to Charles Roberts. | |
Late 1809 | He was engaged as resident engineer. | |
1811 | His was taken on as resident engineer. | |
August 1811 | He resigned his post as resident engineer and went to the Severn & Wye Railway & Canal Company as clerk and engineer. |
Canal Engineer and Contractor. Father of Thomas, junior Sheasby and worked with Thomas Dadford senior.
After June 1785 | He was appointed engineer to build the canal extension from Atherstone to Fazeley. | |
30 June 1790 | Was engaged as joint contrator with the Thomas Dadfords, father and son, to make the canal for £48,288 exclusive of land. The company did not appoint an engineer so the contractors were controlled by committee members. | |
Mid 1792 | He was employed as engineer-contractor and undertook to build the rest of the canal, from (and including) the Ynsbwllog Aqueduct to Glynneath by 1st November 1793 for £14,886, of which £2,800 was to be retained at interest for three years after the completion of the canal against any work found to need rectifing. | |
Early 1793 | He was called in to survey a canal from Pen-coed to Llandovery. There were to be two branches one from Pontardulias up the valley of the Gwili to Myndd Marw and the other from Kidwelly up the Gwendraeth. | |
April 1793 | He was asked to survey up the Tawe valley as far as Devynock. | |
1794 | Around this date he was employed as assistant to Charles Roberts. | |
After December 1794 | He and his fellow engineer-contractor Thomas Dadford senior were in dispute with the canal company over money they were due and stopped all work on the canal. The company had him arrested and held on bail for £10,000 that they alledged they were owed. | |
After October 1800 | He was appointed engineer. | |
1804 | He left his post of engineer due to ill-health. |
Surveyor.
1695 | About this time he assisted John Hadley with a survey of the Calder. |
Surveyor.
1792 | He produced a map showing proposals for the Selly Oak line with a 3,330 yard Lappal Tunnel, a 2,078 yard Netherton Tunnel and a communication to the Birmingham Canal at Oldbury. | |
Mid 1793 | He carried out a survey of a line for the canal. |
Engineer of the firm Bateman & Sherratt of Salford.
1797 | He watched the trials of John Smith's steamboat on the canal between Runcorn and Castlefield. | |
1799 | His engine was used in a steamboat tried by the Duke of Bridgewater at Worsley. |
Engineer, surveyor and one of Brindley's assistants. Assistant to James Brindley.
Early 1766 | Did the survey for the Act with Hugh Henshall | |
Mid 1766 | He and Thomas Dadford senior worked as James Brindley's assistants on the canal. | |
1768 | He and Robert Whitworth worked as James Brindley's assistants on the canal. | |
Early 1769 | He was appointed as James Brindley's assistant. | |
June 1769 | He and James King, the clerk of works, were told to set out the canal from Longford "in as Strait a Line as the Ground will permit". | |
14 January 1771 | Together with James Brindley he denies that the canal was built with many windings to increase tolls. They said that the canal winding enabled it to serve more people. | |
Autumn 1772 | He was appointed engineer at a salarly of £200 a year. | |
1779 | He and Robert Whitworth surveyed the line for the canal form Banbury to Oxford. | |
1786 | A Bill was presented to Parliament which included the proposition that he, Samuel Weston, and four others should build the canal from Banbury to Oxford for £29,000 on codition that they were given exclusive carrying rights and two-thirds of the profits. This was not accepted. | |
Mid 1786 | He was sent to Cambridgeshire to study the use of windmills for pumping water. One was ordered to be built at Hardwick Lock. | |
Late 1788 | He, Samuel Weston and James Barnes made surveys for narrow and barge canals from Newbury to Bath. | |
1792 | He surveyed a route, with Samuel Weston, for a canal from Hampton Gay, six miles north of Oxford, to Thame, Wendover, Amersham, Uxbridge and Maylebone (later changed to the Thames at Isleworth). The 60-mile canal was also to have a branch to Aylesbury. |
Engineer. Builder of the Eddystone lighthouse and founder of the civil engineering profession in Britain. Employed William Jessop and assisted by Joseph Nickalls.
Autumn 1756 | He was asked to survey a navigation between Wakefield and Elland but was too busy with work on the Eddystone lighthouse. | |
June 1757 | He was again asked to survey a navigation between Wakefield and Elland and agreed to come in the autumn, requesting a scale plan of the river in preparation. | |
21 November 1757 | He reported to a meeting at Halifax on his proposals, based on his recent survey, for a 23½ mile navigation to take 20 to 25 ton craft with a draught of up to 3 feet 6 inches. This was to run from Wakefield to Salterhebble bridge. | |
7 July 1758 | He was appointed part-time superintendent (or engineer) at £250 a year. | |
1759 | He appeared in Parliament supporting the bill that became the Wear Act and was asked to make a survey and prepare a plan for buildinf 12 locks and a number of short cuts. | |
25 November 1759 | His pay for work as engineer began and it is believed that construction started after this date. | |
1760 | He was engaged on the extension of the navigation from Guildford to Godalming. | |
18 February 1760 | The town clerk of Louth wrote to him asking for assistance. He replied five days later requesting more information and adds "P.S. Is the expense and practicallity the chief point, or the getting the Bill through Parliament on account of expected opposition?". | |
1 March 1760 | The town clerk of Louth wrote saying that little opposition was was expected and that it was desireable to get the canal Bill into Parliament in the next session. However, the promoters were not willing to proceed until he had confirmed John Grundy's report. | |
11 March 1760 | He replied to the letter of the 1st advising them to hasten slowly and explained that he was busy and would no wish them to delay their Bill because of him.He also wrote | |
7 August 1760 | He met John Grundy and went through Grundy's report and confirmed that Tetney Haven was the proper outfall to provide communication with the Trent so that flat bottom barges could navigate into Yorkshire without going to sea. He estimated the cost as £15,590 for a 'Two Barge Canal', £13,686 for a "One Barge Canal" and £10,884 for "Lighter drawing 2 feet". | |
1761 | He reviewed James Brindley's 1758 plan for a canal from Stoke-on-Trent to Wilden Ferry and suggested that the canal could be extended "to join the navigable river that falls into the west sea" at a cost of £77,939. | |
1761 | He said: "the present navigation is much obstructed by shoals and scours, insomuch that in several places, in the common state of the river in dry seasons, there is not above 8 inches depth of water, and that at such times, without the aid of flashes from King's Mills upon the Trent, and the lowest mills upon the Derwent, the navigation would then be impracticable". | |
1761 | Together with John Grundy and Langley Edwards he presented the results of their survey of the river between Lincoln and Boston. | |
1762 | He carried out a survey and estimated the cost of a navigation as £16,697. | |
15 November 1764 | He claimed no salary after this date and was replaced by James Brindley in the following January. | |
1765 | He was asked to prepare proposals for the navigation but was too busy to accept. | |
1765 | About this date he was asked to advise on making the upper river navigable for keels to Driffield. He proposed a 1¼ mile cut with one lock from the river above Wansford to Driffield Beck at the cost of £2,586. | |
5 August 1765 | He was asked to make a survey "so as to settle the navigation on a new plan as will be most conducive to the good of the public". | |
1766 | He surveyed the river at Lynn with regard to the shifting sands that were proving a hazzard to navigation. He rejected the idea that Denver Sluice had harmed the navigation and recommended confining the channel to solve the problem. | |
16 July 1766 | He was asked to survey the navigation with Thomas Yeoman as his assistant. | |
September 1766 | He reported the results of his survey of the navigation, which was developd before the use of pound-locks. He found eighteen flashes at weir and staunches, as well as a lock at Ware and tide-gates at Bromley. He recommended that new cuts should be made (including from Bromley to the Thames and Limehouse, and at Hackney, Edmonton and Waltham Abbey) and the replacement of flash-locks with pound-locks. | |
After December 1766 | He surveyed the Ouse and Ure, using the earlier surveys of William Palmer and Richard Ellison, and proposed a lock at Linton and a canal from the Ure at Oxclose to Ripon. | |
After December 1766 | He surveyed the Ouse and Ure, using the earlier surveys of William Palmer and Richard Ellison, and proposed a lock at Linton and a canal from the Ure at Oxclose to Ripon. | |
Early 1767 | He gave evidence to parliament for the Ure and Ripon Canal Act. | |
Early 1767 | He gave evidence to parliament for the Ure and Ripon Canal Act. | |
1768 | He reported on the outfall and the drainage of the North Level and estimating a cost of £20,695 for his proposed solution. | |
1768 | He suggested land drainage improvements and that there should be a lock at Piddinghoe but the lock was not built. | |
Spring 1768 | He surveyed the river following the February floods which he reported as "higher than any flood in man's memory, of of which there is any tradition". | |
1769 | He supported the Bill in parliament which became the Act giving powers to extend the navigation to Sowerby Bridge, raise extra capital and change the name of the waterway to "The Company of Proprietors of the Calder & Hebble Navigation". | |
December 1770 | He surveyed the newly openned line to Sowerby Bridge and found "the River now put into as good a State of Security as could possibly be expected in the Time and is indeed in the General in a very defensible Condition". | |
1771 | He was asked the best way to supply water to the summit at Sowerby Bridge and advised the construction of a "Tunnel made in the way of an Adit or Sough, such as those made for draining Collieries" from Hollis Mill through the high ground. It was started in June 1772 and was completed in March 1774. | |
28 December 1771 | He reported on the state of the navigation saying "the original projectors.. ., not having had any notion of the extensive trade that was likely to be carried on by means thereof. . . formed their plan upon too diminutive a scale, and particularly with respect to depth. . . of water". There were many shallow lock sills giving only 2 ft 6 in depth at normal summer water and there was shoaling below the locks, which he Thought due to "endeavouring to save locks in point of number, and to save length of cutting". Of the lack of water in the tideway below Haddlesey lock, he said that in ordinary dry seasons "there will not be two feet of water up to Haddlesey lock at high water neap tides". At Weeland, about a mile below the limits of the Aire & Calder, there was another shoal "over which, though the neap tides sensibly flow, yet they do not make, in the whole, above two feet depth of water". In dry seasons when little flow of fresh water, flashes had to be provided but, perhaps only two a week due to millers' requirements and of the need to keep pounds up, "wherefore, vessels will be frequently from Stock Reach to Leeds or Wakelield, a week or more in making good their passage, that otherwise would be performed in fifteen hours". This he considered resulted in was underemployment of boats and men, delays and expense. | |
1772 | He was suggested as consultant engineer for the canal but the idea was rejected on grounds of cost. | |
January 1772 | He reports that he has aimed "to procure the essential of a navigation, the means of keeping vessels always afloat" and proposed improvements that would give 3 ft 6 in to ft of water, to take craft carrying 30 to 45 tons. These included dredging, rebuilding some mill locks, new cuts, especially a by-pass canal, to avoid low water and shoals, from just above Haddlesey lock to run on the south side of the river to Gowdall above Snaith with two locks or a similar one on the north side from Chapel Haddlesey to Newland beyond Rawcliffe. There was to be a second by-pass with one lock from Brotherton on the north side nf the river below Knottingley because "the Water is in general so shallow, that it becomes necessary, not only to raise the Water higher by temporary Boards placed on Beal Dam below, but to let down Flashes from the Mill Dam to carry the Vessels over the Shallows; and, for want of suflicient Water for the Purpose, the Vessels are often detained there in their passage many Days together". He also recommended cuts at Leeds (¼ mile, with a lock to replace the old one), Knostrop (7 furlongs, with two new locks to replace three old ones at mills), Woodlesford (1½ miles, with two new locks to replace two old ones), Methley (¾ mile, with floodgates and a lock to replace the old Methley lock) and floodgates and a lock on the mile cut to Castleford. Finally, he advised the undertakers to obtain powers to remove obstructions and build a towing path right to the Ouse. | |
December 1772 | He appeared before the parliamentary committee to support the navigation improvement plans and to oppose the rival Leeds & Selby Canal project. | |
1773 | He directs William Jessop in preparing proposals for the new route from Bank Dole to Selby. | |
1775 | He surveyed John Varley's proposed line and recommended five locks with a 5 foot fall instead of three with 8 to 9 foot fall. He estimated the cost at £5,952 of which £2,500 was for the locks. | |
1775 | He and Richard Walton, his fellow Receiver for the mining rights to Alston Moor, prepared a report for the Commissioners of Greenwich Hostipal who were the owners of the land. They proposed a 3 mile drainage tunnel intersecting a number of lead ore veins which would have been uneconomical to work without drainage. | |
1778 | In his report he re-estimated the authorised line at £119,201, saying that "the county of Cornwall... seems but ill-adapted for the making of canals across the country, being so very frequently intersected with valleys, that to preserve a level for any considerable space between two given points, it becomes necessary to go through a vast meandering course". He proposed that instead the River Bude should be locked for 3½ miles; that 6 miles of canal with three planes should be built to the River Tamar, and then 15½: miles of river navigation with ten locks to Greston bridge, from where more locked river could carry the navigation to Calstock, or a branch canal could take it up to Launceston. His estimated the cost to Greston bridge as £46,109. He suggested that a less satisfactoy alternative would be a canal from Bude to Launceston only, but shortened to 34 miles, with five planes. | |
1778 | He was asked by John Parker, proprietor of the Cann slate quarry, to survey for a canal from there to the new bridge over the River Plym at Marsh Mills, from where barges could reach Plymouth on the tide. He considered a 2¼ mile canal was practicable but recommended a railroad on economic grounds. | |
1778 | He was called in to adjudicate between two routes for a canal from Kingston on Thames to Ewell. Nothing further was done. | |
1778 | He briefly surveyed the river from Stella (four miles above Newcastle and a little below Newburn) up to Wylan with a view to making a cut but it was never built. | |
1779 | He surveyed the navigation and suggested changes including the replacement of the staircase pair of locks that James Brindley had installed at Salterhebble plus the single Brooksmouth lock by a new set of three single locks. | |
1784 | He was engineer for the canal. | |
1784 | He was engineer for the canal. | |
1791 | He said "in the time of King Edward VI it is said there was an attempt to make a Harbour from Sandwich into the Downs, and that the evident traces of a canal, which still subsist in the level grounds, between Sandwich and Sandown Castle, are the remains of that attempt." |
Text and photographs copyright of Jim Shead.