Explore Britain with! Isambard King

Explore Britain with! Isambard Kingdom Brunel

This month our historian, Susannah Stapleton, takes us on a journey through the south of England with Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-1859), the brilliant engineer with a passion for grand schemes.

A Watery Start

Was there something in the salty air at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard that bewitched small boys and made them destined to become great men? The young Charles Dickens and Jeremiah Chubb both spent time in Portsea in the early 1800s, as did our guide for this month, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was born there on 9 April, 1806. Coincidence, maybe, but it still might be worth taking your offspring to visit the Brunel Museum out. in London, which is situated in the tunnel's old engine house. Underground visits are temporarily suspended due to work on the East London Line, but exhibits show how the tunnel was constructed and then used as a pedestrian subway, shopping mall and fairground before being converted to form part of the tube network in the 1860s.

In January 1828, there was a sudden incursion of water into the tunnel where Brunel was working on a high platform. Six men were killed and Brunel was knocked out, swept away and suffered serious internal injuries. His convalescence started in Brighton, but after a relapse – widely attributed to his "overexerting' himself in the company of actresses – Brunel was promptly dispatched by his parents to the more genteel Bristol suburb of Clifton.

Constructing the Thames Tunnel

Within a few years he had resumed work, designing a mechanised observatory for the astronomer, Sir James South, and producing plans for new docks at Sunderland. While in Clifton, he also entered a competition in 1830 to design a bridge across the Avon Gorge. His winning design was to become the Clifton Suspension Bridge out. (visit on a Sunday for a free guided tour) and set the path for his future independent career.

Although work on the bridge was halted in 1836 due to lack of funds and only completed after Brunel's death, the project did introduce him to a group of wealthy local businessmen who helped him to secure positions worthy of his talent. The first of these was as an advisor to the Bristol Docks Company and a boat tour of the harbour out. gives an opportunity to see a number of improvements that were made to the area under his guidance.

The Great Western Railway

At this point in our tour, it might be worth packing a cheese sandwich and a flask of lemon drink in preparation for some serious train-spotting because, in 1833 when he was just 27, Brunel was appointed Chief Engineer to the new Great Western Railway (GWR). Over the next fifteen years he oversaw the construction of a complete railway system including stations, viaducts, tunnels and track from London to Bristol.

A train from Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads will reveal the route of the GWR and many of Brunel's feats of engineering such as the Box Tunnel, the bridges at Maidenhead, Chepstow and Saltash and two viaducts at Chippenham and Hanwell.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

However, for the full historical experience it is worth making two stops. Alight first at Didcot and head for the National Portrait Gallery out.. They had three children and, although Brunel was an attentive father, family life did not quell his ambitions.

The original plan for the Great Western Railway was that the journey would terminate at Bristol, but Brunel had a better idea. Why not continue steaming all the way to New York? In consequence, a subsidiary steamship company was formed with Brunel as engineer and in 1838 the SS Great Western, a wooden-hulled paddle steamer, made her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Not content to stop there, in 1843 Brunel launched a bigger and better ship, the 3000 tonne SS Great Britain. The ship was so vast that it took over a year to get out of the Bristol dock, as the entrance locks had to be dismantled to coincide with a high tide, and she subsequently worked mainly from Liverpool. However, the

SS Great Britain out.

returned to Bristol in the 1980s and now forms a great attraction for a family day out. Various audio tours give different perspectives of life on board during the 19th Century and interactive activities include the opportunity to steer a virtual ship. You can even go beneath the glass "sea" in which she stands to see the massive iron hull.

It was while Brunel was working in London on a third ship, the even bigger SS Great Eastern, that his health began to decline. He had been suffering from kidney disease for many years and had a 40-a-day cigar habit. A few days before the ship's planned maiden voyage he suffered a stroke on deck and died a few days later on 15 September, 1859, aged just 53.

For Armchair Explorers

The top recommendation for armchair exploration this month is Angus Buchanan's biography,

Brunel: The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. out.

However, for something quite different, you could also try to track down an elusive copy of

Great out.

, the 1975 Oscar-winning short animated musical about Brunel that entertains as much as it educates.

The SS Great Britain

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