William Cubitt

Sir William Cubitt (1785–1861) was an eminent English civil engineer and millwright. Born in Norfolk, England, he was employed in many of the great engineering undertakings of his time. He invented a type of windmill sail and the prison treadwheel, and was employed as chief engineer, at Ransomes of Ipswich, before moving to London. He worked on canals, docks, and railways, including the South Eastern Railway and the Great Northern Railway. He was the chief engineer of Crystal Palace erected at Hyde Park in 1851.

He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers between 1850 and 1851.^[1]

One of Cubitt's nephews and his protégé on the South Eastern and Great Northern railways, James Moore C. E., was appointed Chief Engineer for the Hobson's Bay Railway company and designed the first commercial steam railway in Melbourne, Australia. Moore replaced another of Cubitt's assistants, William Snell Chauncy..^[2]

Structures

Extant structures by Cubitt include:

• Many windmills in East Anglia and Lincolnshire
• Iron bridges: Brent Eleigh and Clare, and the Stoke Bridge at Ipswich (Suffolk); Witham (Essex).
• Port Offices, Lowestoft
• Haddiscoe Cut
• Oxford Canal at Rugby and at Newbold tunnel
• Shropshire Union Canal at Shelmore Embankment
• Diglis Lock on the River Severn at Worcester
• Foord Viaduct (1844), Folkestone
• Folkestone Warren and Martello, Abbot's Cliff, Shakespeare and Martello tunnels
• Welwyn Viaduct
• Nene Bridge, Peterborough
• Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green

References

1. ^ Watson, Garth (1988), The Civils, London: Thomas Telford Ltd, p. 251, ISBN 0-727-70392-7 
2. ^ "THE COURIER.". The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840-1859) (Hobart, Tas.: National Library of Australia): p. 2. 25 March 1854. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2247054. Retrieved 8 July 2011. 

External links

• Sir William Cubitt (1785-1861)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

Cubitt also constructed Penton Lodge, which is located in Penton Mewsey,