Isambard's Gift
This article summarizes some research I have carried out, on and off, over a period of more than 25 years. It should provide some answers to that vexed question: did Isambard Kingdom Brunel deliberately align the Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway such that the rising sun shines right through it on his birthday?
Click on the icon to download the article from the December Genealogists' Magazine, © Peter Maggs and Genealogists' Magazine 2016.
This article summarizes some research I have carried out, on and off, over a period of more than 25 years. It should provide some answers to that vexed question: did Isambard Kingdom Brunel deliberately align the Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway such that the rising sun shines right through it on his birthday?
Click on the icon to download the article from the December Genealogists' Magazine, © Peter Maggs and Genealogists' Magazine 2016.
| isambards_gift-ed.pdf |
Note added 12 April 2020. Unfortunately, having smugly criticised Lady Noble's biography of Marc Brunel where she dismissed his daughter Emma Joan, and got the name of her husband and his parish wrong, I proceeded to spell the name of his actual parish incorrectly... In the published text, George Harrison's parish was given as 'Langden Hills' in Essex; it is, of course 'Langdon Hills'. I have corrected this in the downloadable file, hence the 'ed'.