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George Hennet (1799–1857) was an English railway engineer and contractor. He undertook many contracts for Isambard Kingdom Brunel's broad gauge railways in the South West of England and funded the provision of extra facilities on the South Devon Railway, these formed the basis of a general trading business that he conducted.
During his work for Brunel he was living in London, close to Brunel's offices, but later moved to an address in Bristol near Temple Meads station. About 1849 he moved further west to Teignmouth in Devon from where he could better manage his contracts with the South Devon Railway. He owned a house called "Fonthill" in Shaldon, on the other side of the River Teign, and took an active part in the life of Teignmouth.
In 1853 he was declared bankrupt, owing about £350,000. His trading business continued for some years but his railway maintenance contract was cancelled and he had to sell much of his property in Dawlish and Teignmouth.
He died following a heart attack on 20 April 1857.
He was awarded a contract to construct the track on the South Devon Railway in 1844 but latter received additional contracts for wooden viaducts, bridges and stations. Further contracts were won for supplying and laying the pipes necessary for the atmospheric traction system and to build the engine houses for the atmospheric pumps and boilers. These contracts amounted to over £400,000, about 20% of the total cost of the railway, and Hennet was able to buy back many of the atmospheric pipes for scrap once they were made redundant by its premature abandonment. Once the line was open he also supplied some of the stock that ran on the line, was awarded a five-year maintenance contract. In 1851 he won a new contract for doubling the line near Totnes railway station. In 1853 the staff who had worked for Hennet were transferred to the Railway who then undertook their own engineering.
The works passed to his son and then traded as Hennet, Spink & Else. Some of the ironwork was produced for the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, Cornwall. In 1873 it became the Bridgwater Engineering Company Limited but this failed in 1878.
Following the failure of the atmospheric system, the South Devon Railway was short of money. Hennet proposed that he rent land alongside the line and build goods depots. These were both for his own trade and also for general traffic handled by the railway. Depots were established at Exeter, Starcross, Dawlish, Teignmouth Eastcliff, Totnes, Rattery, Brent, Hemerdon, and Plymouth. At Stoneycombe he established a quarry on railway land and laid a siding to serve that he built there. In addition, two stations were built and operated on behalf of the railway, at Exminster and Cornwood.
The goods shed at Plymouth was soon given to the railway company in exchange for rights at Exeter. The two stations, most of the remaining depots, and some of the wagons were sold to the railway in January 1857, the remainder being disposed of to other traders who continued to operate the depots and wagons for many years.
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