Thomas Foxwell Buxton

 by

Lester Cowling

 Slavery’s been around forever.

It thrived in Roman times. And the Vikings had a sort of international slave market in Dublin.

But during the middle ages it faded away in the British Isles and much of Europe.

By the 17th century it was back.

Barbary Coast pirates were seizing English sailors and selling them as slave labour in North Africa, then an outpost of the Ottoman empire.

They’d long preyed on ports and ships in the Mediterranean.

Now they moved north.

Between 1609 and 1616 England lost 466 merchant ships to Barbary pirates.

During the 17th century at least 25 seafarers from Lyme Regis were enslaved.

It’s estimated over a million people were seized altogether.

 Meanwhile England was building a colonial empire in North America and augmenting it with Caribbean islands, starting in 1625 with the sparsely populated Barbados.

ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL

 by Oscar Winsey

Brunel was born at Portsea Portsmouth in 1806 His father was a French émigré who escaped the French Revolution and fled to America but love took him to England where he married Mary Horsley.  With a letter of introduction from Alexander Hamilton he approached Lord Spencer first lord  of the admiralty with an idea to mass produce blocks which was accepted by the Admiralty and hence his living near the dockyard.  Blocks were in wide use for rigging and hauling cannons.  His invention enabled 10 unskilled men to do the work of 110 craftsmen.. The requirement was for  100,000 blocks per annum.

 

SIR JOSEPH BAZALGETTE – THE GREAT VICTORIAN CIVIL ENGINEER

 by John Pennington

Born 1819 Enfield

Died 1891 Wimbledon

Family originally from France, as with Brunel. He was a friend of Brunel and was probably his equal as an engineer, but in a somewhat different field.

As a civil engineer, he was perhaps the person who did more for public health than any other in 19 C.

He placed great emphasis on using high quality materials and contractors for his works. Portland cement with its greater strength was very good for the sewer wall brickwork and other construction.

He was the leading figure in developing sewers, roads, bridges, drainage, open spaces and social housing in London, other parts of UK and overseas.