In
1833 Robert Stephenson was appointed
chief engineer of the London & Birmingham
line. This was the first railway into London
and involved solving difficult engineering problems. One of the most
difficult was at Blisworth near Northampton.
Stephenson's team of navvies had to cut their way through 1.5 miles
of rock. Underneath the top layer of stone was a thick bed of clay,
under which was found large amounts of water. Steam engines were used
to pump out the water and two locomotives were put at each end of
the cutting, to drag away the excavated rock and clay. While this
was going on, 800 men were busy digging, wheeling and blasting. By
the time the cutting was finished, over 3,000 barrels of gunpowder
had been used. It was calculated that over a million cubic yards of
material was dug, quarried or basted out at Blisworth Cutting.
Blisworth Cutting
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
