Berkeley Deane Wise

Berkeley Deane Wise (2 October 1855, New Ross – 5 May 1909, Portrush) was an Irish civil engineer who made a significant impact on the development of railways and tourism, particularly in Northern Ireland.

Early years

Berkeley Deane Wise was born on 2 October 1855 in Berkeley Forest, New Ross, County Wexford, the son of James Lawrence Wise, solicitor, and Elizabeth Deane. The family moved to 26 Waterloo Road in Dublin, where Wise was brought up. He went to school in England before entering Trinity College Dublin in 1871, but he did not proceed to a degree.

Engineering career

Wise started his civil engineering career in 1872 as a pupil to Mr Marmaduke Backhouse and then Mr James Price, MICE, Chief Engineer of the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland, during which time he was the Resident Engineer on the construction of the Navan and Kingscourt Railway.Wise, Berkeley Deane, Candidate's Application, The Institution of Civil Engineers, London, 1888.

From October 1875 until December 1877 Wise was Assistant Engineer to the Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford Railway where he was engaged on a new tunnel 450 yards long at Bray Head.

In December 1877 he moved north to become the Chief Engineer to the Belfast and County Down Railway (BCDR), where he stayed for 11 years, living at Salem Cottage on the Knock Road, Belfast.Crossland, Sir Bernard & Moore, John Shaw, The Lives of the Great Engineers of Ulster, Vol 3, p86, October 2008.

During this time he re-made most of the line and carried out extensive alterations to the Belfast Terminus at Queen's Quay including new signal gantries. Towards the end of his time on the BCDR, Wise prepared drawings, specifications and estimates for the Quoile Viaduct to carry the railway over the River Quoile.

Wise was committed to the safe operation of the railway, and introduced interlocking signals at most of the stations. He developed and patented the signalling staff system which bears his name and is described in patent 1030 of 1896. He also gave the BNCR its characteristic somersault signal.

Wise was elected as a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in London on 4 December 1888, aged 33, and remained a member until his resignation through ill-health on 27 February 1907. Among those who proposed him were famous Ulster engineers Luke Livingston Macassey and Bowman Malcolm. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers of Ireland in 1880 and was its Vice President from 1904 to 1906.

Northern Counties

The pinnacle of Wise’s civil engineering career was his 18 years as Chief Engineer to the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway (BNCR). He was appointed to this position on 11 April 1888 at a salary of £400 (),, and held it until 1906 when his health failed.

Wise ensured that renewal of the BNCR track was carried out to a high standard. He specified steel bull head rails of 83 lb per yard laid on creosoted Baltic redwood. Wise was a strong advocate of good quality stone ballast, and he developed a quarry near Ballymoney where he installed the latest stone-breaking plant. Wise introduced the tablet signalling system and gave the BNCR its characteristic somersault signals. His resignalling of York Road Station, Belfast in 1897-98 was the largest installation in Ireland. From around 1900, Wise also pioneered the use of reinforced concrete for railway structures, such as the King’s Bridge in Whitehead.

Wise designed many of the stations of the BNCR (see List of Works). His first was Larne Harbour Station, built in 1890 to a budget of £3,000 (). it had a double faced platform, one side serving the broad gauge line from Belfast and the other the narrow gauge from Ballymena, and a clock with two minute hands showing both English and Irish time, which was 25 minutes later.Currie, JRL, The Northern Counties Railway, Vol 1, David & Charles, 1973.

But perhaps Wise's most famous building is Portrush railway station, which still stands. By 1891, the existing station was completely inadequate to deal with heavy summer traffic. Wise designed a mock Tudor building with black beams painted on white stucco, all on a red brick base. There was an elegant clock tower, some 50 feet high and three platforms 600 feet long, covered for the first 200 feet by a canopy supported by the girders known as the Belfast Truss. On the seaward side, Wise designed the Cafe and Restaurant for over 250 diners, with a balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Portrush station was built by contractor McLaughlin and Harvey, opening in the spring of 1893.

Wise gave the BNCR a distinctive architectural style of red brick buildings with large overhanging awnings and half-timbered gables. It owed much to the Old English style of architect Norman Shaw. Two wooden kiosks, designed by Wise, one from Portrush and one from Belfast York Road in a Swiss style, are preserved in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum in Cultra.

Wise worked under Edward John Cotton, General Manager of the BNCR, and together they developed the most prosperous railway in Ireland, showing a particular flair for the promotion of tourism. So as well as his normal work on the railway and its stations, Wise designed tea rooms, promenades, bandstands, footpaths and golf courses across the network.

Glenariff, one of the nine Glens of Antrim

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases