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George Heald (2 June 1816 – 25 May 1858) was a civil engineer active at the beginning of the 19th century, notable for his role in the building of railways that formed part of the Grand Junction Railway, the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, the Caledonian Railway and the North Midland Railway. Nowadays he is largely forgotten but to his contemporaries and those that followed immediately afterwards, he was one of the key engineers of the early railway age being listed alongside Brunel, Stephenson, Locke and Cubitt in George Drysdale Dempsey's book, the Practical Railway Engineer.G. Drysdale Dempsey, page vi He was a colleague and friend of Robert Stephenson and also worked with other notable railway engineers such as Joseph Locke and Thomas Brassey.
Heald was a highly regarded teacher in the field of railway civil engineering. Richard Price-Williams an honorary fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, who in 1866 persuaded the railway companies to use steel rails, cited George Heald on more than one occasion. In an interview given in 1894 Price-Williams said he began his career with 'the eminent engineer George Heald who was responsible for the construction of so many of the great British railways'.Rōrahi Evening Post In Price-Williams' obituary of 1916 the author said that he had been 'a pupil of the late Mr. George Heald, M. Inst. C.E., on the construction of the Lancaster, Carlisle, and Caledonian Railways in the forties of the last century'.Obituary of Richard Price-Williams
In 1841 George was living at home in Wakefield with his mother and sister, Eliza. On the census his profession was described as a land surveyor. At this time he was one of three resident engineers employed in building the North Midland Railway. On 14 July 1841 a celebration in honour of the resident engineers was held by the contractors at the Strafford Arms Hotel in Wakefield. It was a lavish affair to celebrate the completion of the railway. It was attended by Mr Houldsworth the Wakefield MP, and engineers from other railway companies such as the Midland Counties Railway (Mr Woodhouse), the Manchester and Leeds Railway (Mr Forsyth) and the Sheffield and Rotherham Railway (Mr Dobbs). Two of Heald’s long-term associates, both contractors, are also listed: Taylor Stephenson (who reported his death in 1858) and George Mould. "Railway dinner at Wakefield", Railway Times, vol. 4, 1841, p. 742.
He held the post of civil engineer on the North Midland Railway between Barnsley and Leeds until at least 1843 when he applied for the post of Borough Surveyor with the Council of the Borough of Leeds and made the shortlist of four. He was unsuccessful with the post being awarded to another railway engineer.The Northern Star and Leeds General Advertiser (Leeds, England), Saturday, 29 April 1843
From the mid-1840s Heald was active in the construction of the main line between Lancaster and Carlisle in conjunction with Joseph Locke, Thomas Brassey, William Mackenzie and John Stephenson.Memoir of Cornelius Nicholson, page 86
In 1844, together with Joseph Locke, Thomas Brassey and John Stephenson, he constructed the Kendal and Windermere Railway, a branch line of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway.Memoir of Cornelius Nicholson, page 79 The opening of the railway was celebrated with a dinner at the Crown Hotel, Bowness. This event was attended by Mr. Watson, resident engineer, Mr. George Heald, Mr. John Hudson, Mr. Thomas Hudson, secretary to the company, Mr. Miles Thompson (the builder of the stations), Mr. Wm. Rawlinson and Mr. Hunt, of the London and North Western locomotive department. Watson paid tribute to Heald for his work in engineering the line while Heald in turn paid tribute to his predecessor, Joseph Locke. The toasts were proposed to the contractors, particularly Mr. Heald and Mr. Rawlinson. A further toast was made to Messrs. Brassey, Mackenzie, and Stephenson, and to couple the toast with the names of Mr. Heald and Mr. Rawlinson.Memoir of Cornelius Nicholson, page 85 The view was that this railway was a triumph of engineering – "This had been called the gem of railways, and the part of the contractors had been to brush away the dross, to bring the gem out of its natural habitat, and present it before their eyes in all its beauty."Memoir of Cornelius Nicholson, page 85
However, not everybody agreed. This railway was vigorously opposed by William Wordsworth who wrote a sonnet bemoaning the coming of the railway. His letters to the editor of the Morning Post are reproduced in The Illustrated Wordsworth's Guide to the Lakes, P. Bicknell, Ed. (Congdon and Weed, New York, 1984), pp. 186–198. His reactions to the technological and "picturesque" incursions of man on his beloved, wild landscape most famously include the following sonnet:
Is then no nook of English ground secure
From rash assault? Schemes of retirement sown
In youth, and 'mid the busy world kept pure
As when their earliest flowers of hope were blown,
Must perish;—how can they this blight endure?
And must he too the ruthless change bemoan
Who scorns a false utilitarian lure
'Mid his paternal fields at random thrown?
Baffle the threat, bright Scene, from Orresthead
Given to the pausing traveller's rapturous glance:
Plead for thy peace, thou beautiful romance
Of nature; and, if human hearts be dead,
Speak, passing winds; ye torrents, with your strong
And constant voice, protest against the wrong.
During 1845 and 1846 Heald was Thomas Brassey's engineer during the difficult construction of the Caledonian Railway from Carlisle to Glasgow.Obituary of Richard Price-Williams
In May 1846, while staying in the Imperial Hotel at Covent Garden, Heald wrote a letter to George Mould in Carlisle. The contents of the letter indicate that Heald was drawing up plans for the North Western Railway; or more precisely the Little North Western Railway. It is evident that Mould is the contractor for the railway and he has been asked to reduce the cost of the railway. He has been charged with designing a railway that will be constructed for £800,000. Heald's answer suggests that this figure is too low and impossible to achieve:
I have calculated the differences that would be made in the masonry supporting all the bridges were square instead of a good number being skew, and taking the lengths of all culverts as being adapted to embankments where the slopes are one and a half to one instead of two to one. And respecting the alteration that could be made in the earthworks of the present section by employing steeper gradients it is not probable that (without increasing the amount of the embankments) they could by any alteration get rid of the present amount of spoil 1,432,275 c.yds and at the same time dispense with the side cutting of 336,185 c.yds.But, if these impossibilities could be surmounted the estimate might be reduced from £1,258,519 to £1,076,433 leaving it still £276, 433 above Mr. Watson's limits of £800,000.Carlisle Railway Archive
George Heald worked closely with William Mackenzie from 1848. Mackenzie's diary records Heald dining at Mackenzie's house in Liverpool.. During 1849 Heald went, on two occasions, with Mackenzie and Brassey to consult with lawyers in Carlisle. All of these men were involved at that time in building railways in Lancashire and northwards into Scotland.Diary of William Mackenzie In 1851 Heald was working in Liverpool, staying on the night of the census, at the Royal Waterloo Hotel in Great Crosby. He was described as a civil engineer and he was accompanied by a land agent, George Williams. He was almost certainly working on the Liverpool, Crosby & Southport Railway which was begun by George Robert Stephenson in 1848.The steamindex website
There is little information so far found about his activities during the 1850s. It seems that his career was cut short. In 1851 he wrote his last will and testament. He was just 34 years old and yet he bequeathed his entire estate to his mother, Sarah, who was 71 years old. It is evident that George was a sick man and didn't expect to live much longer. He had contracted tuberculosis. In the event he lasted another seven years and outlived his mother. His estate passed to his sister, Eliza. In his last engineering project he was engaged as the civil engineer for the construction of the Cannock Mineral Railway by the railway contractor, Taylor Robinson Stephenson. However Heald's health declined further and around the end of 1857 Thomas Brassey was engaged to complete the task.Cannock Mineral Board Report to Shareholders, 23 February 1858, National Archive RAIL 1110/57 Heald died in May 1858 at Market Street, Rugeley, Staffordshire. He was 41 years old. His death was reported by T. R. Stephenson.
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