Sir Charles Richardson (1814–1896) was the resident engineer of the

Bristol and South Wales Union Railway The Bristol and South Wales Union Railway was built to connect Bristol, England, with south Wales. The route involved a ferry crossing of the River Severn but was considerably shorter than the alternative route through Gloucester. The ferry wa ...

. He was also the instigator and first engineer of the

Severn Tunnel The Severn Tunnel ( cy, Twnnel Hafren) is a railway tunnel in the United Kingdom, linking South Gloucestershire in the west of England to Monmouthshire in south Wales under the estuary of the River Severn. It was constructed by the Great Western ...

Early life

Richardson was born at Capenhurst Hall in Cheshire. He was educated in England and France. His father, Richard, died when he was six. Despite an early sporting talent for

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

, it was now clear that he would need to make his own living and so, encouraged by his mother, he followed his other talent for engineering. He attended

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted ...

from 1833, reading Mathematics.

Early career

He was taken as a pupil by

Marc Brunel Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (, ; 25 April 1769 – 12 December 1849) was a French-British engineer who is most famous for the work he did in Britain. He constructed the Thames Tunnel and was the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Born in Franc ...

, working with him on the

Thames Tunnel The Thames Tunnel is a tunnel beneath the River Thames in London, connecting Rotherhithe and Wapping. It measures 35 feet (11 m) wide by 20 feet (6 m) high and is 1,300 feet (396 m) long, running at a depth of ...

. From then he worked with the Brunels on a number of railway projects, particularly involving tunnelling. These included

Box Tunnel Box Tunnel passes through Box Hill on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) between Bath and Chippenham. The tunnel was the world's longest railway tunnel when it was completed in 1841. Built between December 1838 and June 1841 for the Great We ...

and Sapperton Tunnel. Richardson was noted for his interest in

. This led to some conflict with Brunel over disruptions to his work, although equally it was encouraged by other contractors as an alternative to the evils of drink. In 1858 Brunel appointed Richardson as the resident engineer of the

. This work involved railway lines and tunnels, but also two large

pier Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...

s at

New Passage New Passage is a hamlet in South Gloucestershire, England, on the banks of the Severn estuary near the village of Pilning. It takes its name from the ferry service which operated between there and South Wales until 1886. Ferry History New Pas ...

and Portskewett. These piers included floating pontoons to cope with the enormous tidal range of the

Severn estuary The Severn Estuary ( cy, Aber Hafren) is the estuary of the River Severn, flowing into the Bristol Channel between South West England and South Wales. Its high tidal range, approximately , means that it has been at the centre of discussions in t ...

Severn Tunnel

During the completion of the ferry piers, around 1863, Richardson began to advocate an underwater tunnel as a better means of joining the Bristol and South Wales lines. Plans for bridges were also afoot at this time, a long viaduct from Oldbury, never built, and also the

Severn Railway Bridge The Severn Railway Bridge (historically called the Severn Bridge) was a bridge carrying the railway across the River Severn between Sharpness and Lydney in Gloucestershire, England. It was built in the 1870s by the Severn Bridge Railway Co ...

further upstream. In November 1871, the first plans for the tunnel were deposited with Parliament. The Act was obtained in 1872 and work began in 1873. The consulting engineer for this project was

John Hawkshaw Sir John Hawkshaw FRS FRSE FRSA MICE (9 April 1811 – 2 June 1891), was an English civil engineer. He served as President of the Institution of Civil Engineers 1862-63. His most noteworthy work is the Severn Tunnel. Early life He was born ...

with Alfred Gooch as Richardson's assistant. The first contractor for the tunnel works was

Rowland Brotherhood Rowland Brotherhood (or sometimes Roland Brotherhood) was a British engineer. He was born in Middlesex in 1812 and died in Bristol in 1883. He married Priscilla Penton in 1835 and they had 14 children, one also called Rowland who played cricke ...

, with whom Richardson had previously worked on the

Wharncliffe Viaduct The Wharncliffe Viaduct is a brick-built viaduct that carries the Great Western Main Line railway across the Brent Valley, between Hanwell and Southall, Ealing, UK, at an elevation of . The viaduct, built in 1836–7, was constructed for the ...

Hanwell Hanwell () is a town in the London Borough of Ealing, in the historic County of Middlesex, England. It is about 1.5 miles west of Ealing Broadway and had a population of 28,768 as of 2011. It is the westernmost location of the London post t ...

Daniel Gooch Sir Daniel Gooch, 1st Baronet (24 August 1816 – 15 October 1889) was an English railway locomotive and transatlantic cable engineer. He was the first Locomotive Superintendent, Superintendent of Locomotive Engines on the Great Western Rai ...

later appears dissatisfied with Richardson's work and in May 1878 described him in his diary thus, "Richardson, the engineer, has no go in him and does not move without consulting me, making me almost the engineer." Work on the tunnel progressed well and by 17 October 1879 the two headings from each side of the river were within 138 yards of joining up. This was the date of the opening of the nearby

, which Gooch attended as chairman of the GWR and had invited the guests present to view the even more impressive tunnel with the ironic warning, "It will be rather wet and you had better bring your umbrellas". On the 18th, a massive inflow of water had broken into the tunnel, from an unexpected direction in one of the landward tunnels on the Welsh side, entirely flooding the workings. Tunnelling would be repeatedly disrupted by this water for several years, even after the tunnel was first drained and tunnelling work began again in 1881. Hawkshaw rapidly replaced Richardson as chief engineer. Within two months, Thomas Walker, who had originally tendered for the construction of the tunnel, was appointed as the new contractor. The tunnel did not finally open until 1886, after much effort and innovation in both pumping and in working underwater. During his time at Sudbrook, Richardson continued with his interest in cricket. This led to his invention of the modern cricket bat, with its cane-spliced handle.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Charles 1814 births 1896 deaths English civil engineers Alumni of the University of Edinburgh