Finding accurate contextual imagery for the Bramhope Tunnel was far more difficult than I had previously assumed. The tunnel was constructed in the 1840s, thus photography was still a relatively new concept, and limited to the upper echelons of society, who could afford the expensive hardware. Thankfully I found some later photographic documentation of navvies, bothies and early Victorian construction projects.
Bothies were the shack-like structures which Navvies (navigators) slept in when not working on their shift. During the construction of the Bramhope tunnel there was about 330 bothies for a workforce of over 2000 navvies, and presumably their families.
Steam-powered machinery was a wide-spread and much relied upon tool of large projects.
A steam-powered hydraulic pump was brought to the project to help relocate the water which periodically flooded the tunneling operation.
No comments:
Post a Comment