Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S., Past President of the Institute of Civil Engineers / Comprising the history of his professional life, together with reminiscences dating from the commencement of the century to the present time.

by Sir John Rennie

A committee, called the Committee of Taste, was accordingly appointed, in order to design such improvements as were imperatively required in the neighbourhood of Charing Cross, the Strand, and Holborn and Oxford Street. This Committee consisted of the late Lord Farnborough, John Wilson Croker, Sir John Soane, Sir Robert Smirke, Nash, and two or three others, and certainly no committee ever discharged its duties better. To its labours we are indebted for Trafalgar Square and the improvements in the Strand, Cockspur Street, the Haymarket, the old Opera House, and those between Oxford Street and Holborn, which are really very good, and the architecture, although not altogether faultless, is nevertheless, taken as a whole, very effective; in fact, nothing like these improvements has been effected since. The new street from Waterloo Bridge to Oxford Street, undertaken soon after, has been a miserable failure; instead of taking a direct line, they availed themselves as far as they could of the old miserable intervening streets, so that this thoroughfare, which ought to have been one of the best in London, is now one of the worst, and the increase in the value of the property on each side has been very little. But if this street had been made in a straight line, and of ample width, the shops and buildings on both sides would have been of a superior character, and would have yielded far higher rents, which would have gone a long way towards paying part of the expenses, if not the whole.

About this time Sir F. Trench, who moved in the most fashionable circles and was a great amateur in architecture and fine arts, was seized and enraptured with the idea of constructing quays along the banks of the Thames, between Whitehall and Blackfriars Bridge, and converting the space so recovered from the shore of the Thames into a handsome carriage-drive and promenade ornamented with gardens and fountains. He applied to the late Mr. Philip Wyatt and myself to assist him in preparing the designs and in obtaining an Act of Parliament to carry it into effect. At the request of the London Bridge Committee I had previously, in company with the late Mr. W. Mylne, prepared a general plan for this object, but it went no farther on account of the difficulty of raising the funds. Trench, however, overlooked this, and said he had no doubt that sufficient money would be obtained. He accordingly, with his great influence and indefatigable activity, formed a committee of the highest class; neither were the ladies excluded; amongst others, the beautiful Duchess of Rutland took the greatest interest in the undertaking, and at the first meeting, which took place at Her Grace’s house, she was unanimously voted to the chair, and conducted everything in the most business-like manner. Lord Palmerston, then Secretary for War, took a leading part, and it is singular that many years later his Lordship, then Premier, should have proposed a similar measure, and the continuation of the coal duties for carrying it into effect, which was adopted; but when we proposed the undertaking and the mode of raising the funds, notwithstanding our powerful committee, the idea was considered as chimerical. Trench, however, was so confident that the means would be found, that he went to considerable expense in preparing a book ornamented with numerous beautiful engravings showing the effect which would be produced by the undertaking, to which Wyatt and myself contributed our share. A solicitor, named Leech, was appointed, notices for going to Parliament were duly given, and the necessary plans and estimates were deposited; but when the question as to the means of raising the funds came before the Managing Committee, everybody was at a loss. To form a company appeared impossible, as it did not appear that sufficient revenue would be derived from the undertaking; and as to raising funds by increasing and extending the coal tax, the Government was decidedly opposed to it; they said they had done as much in this way as possible for London Bridge, and that the public would not submit to any further tax of the kind. Thus, after a considerable deal of useless trouble and expense, Trench, Wyatt, and myself were obliged to abandon this great undertaking, which has since been carried into effect nearly upon the same principles as we recommended.

As to the architecture of the approaches to London Bridge, I referred the subject to my brother-in-law, Cockerell, a very accomplished and competent authority, and I exhibited his designs to the Committee as well as some of my own. They, however, considered them to be too ornamental and costly, although they were as plain and simple as these important approaches rendered necessary. The Committee, having rejected them, referred the subject to the late Sir Robert Smirke, then one of the Crown architects, and he designed the present buildings on both sides of the bridge, as far as King William Street on the north, and the old townhall of Southwark on the south; and certainly, with all due respect to my late friend Sir Robert Smirke, a more unworthy set of buildings was never designed. Thus not only has a rare opportunity of making handsome and appropriate buildings to one of the greatest thoroughfares in the world been lost, but the buildings are so low and badly built, that the advantages of the ground, which it must have been foreseen were capable of almost unlimited development as regards rental, have been in a great measure thrown away.

Whilst building London Bridge I had also numerous other works to attend to, namely, the Admiralty works, the harbours of Ramsgate, Sunderland, Donaghadee, Port Patrick, Kingstown, and Port Rush, Staines Bridge, the bridge across the Serpentine in Hyde Park, finishing the Eau Brink Works, the Nene and Witham outfalls, the Ancholme Drainage, together with a good deal of miscellaneous business. As the harbours and Admiralty works are fully described in my book on ‘British and Foreign Harbours,’ I will proceed to the drainage: first, the Eau Brink. I have already said that the Great Cut was opened in 1821, just at the period of my father’s death; according to the latest Act, the engineers of drainage and navigation were obliged to report within twelve months after the opening of the cut; they were obliged to examine the whole, and report how far they had been completed, and what further was necessary in order to render them efficient. Mr. Telford and myself accordingly devoted several days to this; on examining the Eau Brink Cut we found that it had been made in exact conformity with Huddart’s design, as specified by the Act; but, notwithstanding, the upper end was too small, and the scour there was so great that it threatened to break through the bank across the upper end of the old channel, and thus revert to its old course. We therefore recommended that it should be increased one-third in area, the greatest part of the increase being at the upper end, and that the money destined in the estimate for clearing away the shoals in the river between the cut and Denver Sluice should be used for the purpose of widening the cut, as the bed of the river did not require clearing. This report took the Commissioners by surprise. They said they had been deceived, and did not believe that it was required, and would have the whole subject investigated by other engineers, which was accordingly done. However, it ended in proving that Mr. Telford and myself were right, and the enlargement of the Eau Brink Cut was made under my direction; this had the effect of lowering the low-water mark at the upper end 2 feet more, making 7 feet altogether. The scour of the cut was so much more than estimated, that the banks between Denver Sluice and the cut were in many places undermined, the channel was diverted from the old quays in Lynn, and several buildings on the opposite shore were washed down, and as the Eau Brink Commissioners were bound under the Act to compensate for any damages done to any interest or party, they, the Commissioners, were compelled to pay for all these damages—50,000l. to the bank owners, 28,000l., and 700l. a year to Lynn Harbour, 10,000l. to the Marshland Drainage, and other minor sums. Having settled this, they obtained an Act to relieve themselves from all further liability.

My father had been employed by the Duke of Bedford, and other great landowners in the north level of the fens, to consider the best plan of improving the Nene, so as to render it a good outfall for the drainage of the extensive low fen lands bordering it, which, on account of their bad drainage, were frequently subject to floods, and comparatively valueless. My father wrote a very able report on the subject, and recommended that the Nene should be deepened, enlarged, and lowered throughout its course from Peterborough to the sea; that a new channel should be made from a place called Rummery Mill above, to the Horse-shoe Bend, below Wisbeach (for the course followed by the river through the town was so crooked and confined that it could not be sufficiently improved without incurring great unnecessary expense) and that the navigation to and from the town should still be preserved by locks connecting the old with the new channel; and also to make a new outfall for the river from Kinderly’s Cut to a place called Crab Hole, in the Great Wash, where there was ample depth of water. He said that the new outfall might be made partly within the estuary and partly in the marshes without, to Skates Corner, but that then it would neither be so direct nor so effectual as if made entirely within the banks of the Nene estuary. Mr. Rennie’s report was approved of, but the necessary means for carrying it into effect were wanting, so the matter for the time lay dormant. Subsequently Mr. Telford and myself were appointed the engineers, and reconsidered the whole matter. Finding the people of Wisbeach were violently opposed to the main channel passing by their town, we were obliged to give up this part, as well as the upper portion of the channel to Peterborough, and confine ourselves to the improvement of the outfall below Wisbeach, and to commence the new outfall near the lower end of Kinderly’s Cut. I strongly advocated my father’s plan of making the new outfall direct to Crab Hole, within the old banks, but as the first expense would have been a little more, although far less in the end, as has been proved, it was resolved to make the new outfall to Skates Corner, partly within, partly without the old banks.

An Act of Parliament was accordingly obtained, and Messrs. Jolliffe and Banks became the contractors. The works commenced, and the outfall was opened in 1831. Whilst it was in progress Mr. Telford and myself frequently visited the works together, and in June we went down the old estuary of the Nene in a boat at low water, for the purpose of examining more minutely the state of the channels near Crab Hole and Skates, where we proposed that the new outfall should enter the estuary. It was a very stormy day, accompanied by lightning, thunder, rain, and a strong south-west wind. We got as far as Crab Hole at low water, when the weather beat us completely, and we were obliged to walk over the muddy shore half-way up to our knees, and drenched to the skin. We had sent some refreshment to an old house, called King John’s House, near the bank, said to have been erected during his reign, and to have afforded His Majesty shelter after his retreat from Lynn. The rain now came down heavier than ever, so that we had no alternative but to retrace our steps back to the dirty old “public” at the Ferry, called Cross Keys, about 3½ miles distant. We got back, thoroughly soaked, about three in the afternoon. I immediately stripped and went to bed. Old Telford, being a strong, hearty man, of about seventy, instead of following my example, ordered a large fire to be made in the only sitting-room there was, called for the newspaper, and sat himself down to dry. After two hours’ nap I was thoroughly refreshed, and went down to the sitting-room. When I entered there was such a steam that I could hardly see anything; but, approaching the fire, found Telford had nearly dried himself, and he abused me thoroughly for being so effeminate as to go to bed. He suffered, however, severely afterwards for his imprudence; for he was taken with a violent diarrhœa at Cambridge on his return, and was confined there for a fortnight, and escaped with difficulty with his life; but the diarrhœa haunted him more or less ever after, until his death. He was a most agreeable, facetious companion, and I passed many happy days with him. Previous to the diversion of the old channel through the new outfall, Mr. Telford and myself ordered the contractors to assemble as many men, horses, carts, and materials as possible, in order that the old channel should be stopped up during the neap tides.

When everything was ready we went down and met the contractors, Messrs. Jolliffe and Banks, and immediately gave them orders to commence filling up the old channel; they had about thirteen hundred men, and horses, carts, and materials, and appliances of all kinds, and set to work in right good earnest. The Corporation of Wisbeach, who had always opposed the measure, although they were compelled by the Act to contribute 30,000l. towards it, which was perhaps the cause, offered every obstruction in their power, and said that the new outfall was not excavated deep enough according to the Act, and came down in their barge with their law officers, giving us official written notices to stop all proceedings. At this critical moment the contractors were rather taken aback; Mr. Telford and I, however, nothing daunted, ordered the men to proceed stopping the channel, and to take no notice of the Corporation. We further told them, that if they did not go away, their barge and all in it would be swamped, and that the responsibility would rest entirely with them. Seeing that we were in earnest they turned tail, and, leaving their protest, returned to Wisbeach. The third day afterwards the old channel was completely closed, and the Nene diverted to its new outfall. It should be observed here, that Mr. Telford and myself, calculating upon the loose nature of the soil, which was silt, and which we felt confident would scour when fairly acted upon by the current, only made the contract for the excavation to the level of low water of spring tides; and therefore it would have wasted money to have excavated that which we knew the current would do for nothing. The current at first appeared to have very little effect; and the Duke of Bedford’s manager, the late excellent and talented Tycho Wing, a schoolfellow of mine at Dr. Burney’s, became much alarmed, and was sadly afraid that the outfall would be a failure. Telford and I knew better, and assured him that our only doubt was whether the current would not be too strong, and render it necessary to protect the sides with stone. This we considered to be no disadvantage—on the contrary a great benefit; for making the cut small in the first instance, we should always be able to regulate the scour whenever it might have a tendency to enlarge the cut beyond the size necessary to discharge the drainage water effectually, at the same time preserving a sufficient depth for navigation; but if it had been too large in the first instance, it could not have been properly adjusted afterwards. Mr. Wing was comforted by our assurances; still he had his doubts, and two months elapsed before any sensible scour appeared to take place. The fact was, the fall in the bottom was so little, that the current had to remove the obstacles to its progress, which it could only do by degrees, when it had accumulated sufficient fall or head; having done this, its progress was most rapid, and increased daily, so that within six months after it had been opened it had scoured out the bottom to 9 feet below low water of spring tides; the sides also had been regularly scoured away, and the area of the cut was increased to three times its original size. Spring tides, which had scarcely exceeded a few feet at Wisbeach, and not much more at Cross Keys, rose remarkably at both places, so that vessels of considerable tonnage could reach Wisbeach even at neaps, whereas before they could only get up there at spring tides. The trade of the port increased so rapidly, that they were soon enabled to pay off the 30,000l. which they had been previously obliged to borrow to contribute to the cost of the outfall.

The outfall by the scour had now attained its proper dimensions, and we recommended that the banks should be paved with stone, in order to prevent them from being enlarged, which was accordingly done. The outfall went on improving until the year 1837, when I examined it, and found that the low-water mark had fallen 10 feet 3 inches at Cross Keys Bridge, that there was a rise of tide of 20 feet at springs, and depth of 9 feet at low water, and a rise proportionate at Wisbeach at both springs and neaps; so that vessels drawing 16 feet could go up to the town at springs, and 12 feet at neaps, and the whole of the surrounding lowland country was completely drained and the property nearly doubled in value. Mr. John Young was appointed engineer under me for paving the new outfall with stone, and afterwards entered business upon his own account as merchant and shipowner at Wisbeach; and by his talents, energy, and industry has since realized an ample fortune, has been elected mayor several times, and has become member for the county of Cambridge.

It had long been a favourite idea with the late Lord William Bentinck and his friend Mr. Thomas Hoseason, of Banklands, to make a bridge across the Nene estuary, at Cross Keys, in order to shorten the distance between the south of Lincolnshire and Norfolk. The bridge over the lower end of the Eau Brink had been completed, and another had been made at the Fossdyke Wash by my father, for the Welland; so that it was only necessary to make another across the Nene estuary, at Cross Keys, to complete this desirable line of communication. A company was accordingly formed for this purpose, of which Lord William Bentinck was the head. An Act was obtained at the same time as the Nene Outfall Act, and I was appointed the engineer. The Nene Outfall Commissioners obtained a clause in the Bridge Act compelling the Company to build the bridge over the Nene Outfall Cut at the same time; this I told them was very unwise, for as the bridge was to be built of wood, with a drawbridge opening in the centre to allow vessels to pass, it would be impossible to drive the great piles forming the piers of the bridge sufficiently deep to be below the scour in the outfall; the better plan would be to wait until the outfall had been scoured to its full depth, and then build the bridge. My opinion was overruled; the bridge was built; and it was impossible, as I expected, to drive the piles to the requisite depth. Where the full effect of the scour had taken place it was found necessary to secure the piles of the bridge by throwing a great mass of stone round them. This materially obstructed the current through the bridge, until at length there was a fall through it of from two to three feet, which greatly injured the drainage, so that the Nene Outfall Commissioners ultimately got an Act to make a new bridge for the Company at the Commissioners’ expense. All this might have been avoided if the bridge had been built as I originally recommended. The spot where this bridge and line of embankment is made is the same place where King John’s army was lost, and where my father was nearly drowned some years before, crossing in his carriage, being overtaken by the tide. Six thousand acres of this Wash have been reclaimed from the sea by myself; and where once the tides used to ebb and flow, are now fields under culture producing the finest crops.

Notwithstanding all the attempts to improve the river Nene above Wisbeach, nothing had been done, and I was again requested by the Duke of Bedford’s advisers to examine the subject and make a comprehensive plan by means of which Whittlesea Mere and all the low fenny country around it might be drained, to the extent of 55,000 acres, it being then little better than a marsh. I accordingly surveyed and levelled the whole country, and made my report in 1837. I showed that by improving the Nene from Peterborough to the outfall, and making a main drain to Whittlesea Mere to connect it with the Nene, and by making a catchwater drain round the base of the surrounding hills, so as to discharge the highland water into the Nene at Peterborough and the Ouse at Hermitage Sluice, the whole country would be thoroughly well drained, the navigation would be greatly improved, and there would be an ample supply of fresh water at moderate cost. This plan was approved of by the late Mr. Robert Stephenson, but was not adopted. The Middle Level Corporation, in whose district was the greatest part of the lowlands to be drained, would not listen to it, but insisted on draining them by the Ouse, 10 miles farther distant. This measure was carried out at double the cost of my plan, and a minor plan substituted for the improvement of the Nene, which is said to have cost a great deal more than any benefits derived from it, although the Eau Brink Cut had lowered the low-water mark on the Ouse nearly 6 feet. Still the sands below Lynn, at the mouth of the Ouse, accumulated to such an extent, that the navigation up to that town was so seriously obstructed that moderate-sized vessels could only come up to the town at spring tides, and they frequently got ashore upon the numerous shoals, lost their tide, and were detained for days together, besides suffering considerable injury. The drainage interests, moreover, complained that the water in the Ouse did not fall low enough to enable the middle and south level lands to be properly drained. In fact, the good effects produced by the Eau Brink Cut were decreasing, in consequence of the waters not being able to get off below Lynn, so that they were held up to the extent of 2 feet at the lower end of the Eau Brink Cut, thus reducing the original fall gained by that cut from 7 feet to 5, whilst the fall gained by the Nene Outfall had been fully 10 feet 6 inches to 11 feet, being a difference of 6 feet in favour of the Nene. A committee, consisting of Lord W. Bentinck, Sir William Foulkes, and others, leading proprietors and parties interested, requested me to examine into the whole subject and report as to what was best to be done. I accordingly employed nearly twelve months in surveying and levelling the Great Wash and the mouths of the Ouse, Nene, Welland, and Witham, which are the principal rivers discharging their waters into the Great Wash, and which drain all the adjacent fen lands, amounting to nearly a million of acres, besides the high lands. I found that by improving all the mouths of these rivers an additional fall of 7 feet might be gained for the Ouse, 2 feet for the Nene, and a similar amount for the Welland and the Witham, and recommended that all these rivers should be united and made to discharge their waters into one great main channel in the centre of the Great Wash, and that the main and minor channels should be properly embanked. By this means not only would all these rivers be much improved, and the drainage and navigation rendered as perfect as they could be made, but, in addition to this, from 150,000 to 200,000 acres of land would be gained from the Wash, or, in other words, a new county, of most valuable land, would be added to the kingdom. This project was so vast and important that it took the world by surprise. It was impossible to deny the soundness of the principles or data upon which it was founded, or the vast importance of it in a national point of view, if means could be found to carry it into effect; but here was one of the great difficulties, and another still greater presented itself, namely that of uniting together the vast number of conflicting interests concerned, so that they might combine together as one whole body for the completion of the undertaking.