Eysambard's Many Mysteries.

A report on the January Meeting of Resolfen History Society

In the absence of the normal scribe, David Woosnam and Cathy Grahame have kindly provided an account of the meeting. Another change to the programme, was that of the advertised speaker since Mr Phylip Jones was unable to speak owing to illness. Glyn Williams, ably stepped into the gap and gave another splendid talk on his “hero’, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, this time on the numerous mysteries which surround the engineering genius, that was Brunel.

The first mystery surrounds Brunel’s Christian name since he may have originally been called “Eysambard”, ( he was half French by extraction Ed.) though no one really knows which one is correct. Glyn was of the opinion,that probably either would have suited.

The second mystery surrounded the “Lost Bridge at Paddington”. Brunel had favoured a different location to that of today’s London terminus. He built a bridge over the canal and erected a new viaduct at the site,so obstructing the view of the bridge. As rail traffic increased, the station was moved to its present location. Some ninety seven years later, the bridge (which was the first built by Brunel) was discovered and lies now (in pieces) in the good care of English Heritage. Glyn wondered how such a treasure could have been simply forgotten?

The third mystery, was that of Brunel’s famous fixation with the using of the “broad gauge”, for his famous GWR between London and the west of Britain.  Robert Stephenson had set the gauge between the rails at 4’ 8” (standard gauge) ; George Stephenson  at  five feet  but Brunel set the gauge at seven feet and a quarter of an inch. Despite, protestations as to the superiority and efficiency of the broad gauge, Glyn thought that Brunel had proverbially “dropped a clanger ”, but pride dictated that he kept to his original design.  Needless to say, Robert Stephenson’s standard gauge won the day.

The fourth mystery surrounded Brunel’s most iconic construction, the suspension bridge at Clifton. Anyone looking at the bridge would assume that it is symmetrical in dimension, but closer inspection shows that the towers are indeed different. The reason is unclear, but the answer may lie in the fact that the bridge was completed after Brunel’s death as a tribute to him. The original bridge building suffered from a lack of funding since it was started in 1831, riots caused a stoppage until 1836 and the whole project ran out of funds in 1843. It was eventually completed in 1862.

The final mystery was that of the Box Hill Tunnel. It is said that on one day of the year , the sun was visible along the whole length of the tunnel, some two miles in total. This was supposed because the tunnel does not contain any corners or curves. Glyn settled the mystery that he had himself tried to prove this conundrum but, sadly, it was untrue in his opinion.

Many thanks once again to Glyn.