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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.
isambards_gift-ed.pdf
File Size: 249 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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'.

Note added 8 December 2024. An incomplete knowledge of the history of Brunel's works led to the following statement in this piece: "none of his bridges ever failed catastrophically". Subsequent research shows that Brunel's skew railway bridge carrying the Great Western Railway over the Uxbridge Turnpike in Hanwell, West London, did fail catastrophically—twice—and was later almost destroyed by fire. While the fire was accidental, it resulted from an excessive amount of timber in the bridge which was used to lighten and strengthen it following two girder failures. See Anatomy of a Bridge published in 2024.

Website and Contents © Peter Maggs 2025
  • Home
  • Books
    • Henry's Trials >
      • Extract from Henry's Trials
    • Smethurst's Luck >
      • Extract from Smethurst's Luck
    • Murder in the Red Barn >
      • Extract from Murder in the Red Barn
    • Reverend Duke and the Amesbury Oliver
  • Talks
    • Talk on Henry's Trials
    • Talk on Smethurst's Luck
    • Talk on Isambard Kingdom Brunel
    • Talk on the Murder in the Red Barn
    • BBC
  • Publications
    • The Amesbury Union Workhouse
    • The Separate System
    • Anatomy of a Bridge
  • Peter Maggs
  • Shop
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    • Mirli
    • BM Creeper >
      • The Significance of Stonehenge
      • Educating Ealing I: How Lady Byron Did It
      • Educating Ealing II: Church of England Primary in the 1920s
      • All Because of Crystal Palace
      • Innocent in Ealing - Extract
      • Miss McDonald