James Oldham


James Oldham was a British civil engineer, involved in the reclamation of Sunk Island in the East Riding of Yorkshire, as well as a number of dock and other civil engineering schemes in and around Kingston upon Hull.

Biography

James Oldham was born in Kingston upon Hull on 23 June 1801. At the age of 14 he went to sea, spending time on ships in the Baltic; however the life of a seaman prove too much for him and he later returned to England, and joined his father, a mill wright as apprentice, learning mechanical engineering.
One of his first contracts for was for the upgrade of the North Bridge on the River Hull in 1832 for the Hull Corporation on which he acted as superintending engineer.
In 1835 he prepared a plan for the conversion of the Old Harbour, Hull in 1835, a design for a West Dock for Thomas Thompson, published 1836; and a plan for a dock in the east of Hull for the Queen's Dock Company in 1838. He also was engineer for a number of proposed railways : the Hull and Gainsborough of 1844, the 1845 Hull and Barnsley Junction scheme, the 1866 Hull and West Yorkshire and Lancashire, and the 1884 Hull and Lincoln railway. He also was an engineer on the Hull and Leeds , and Hull and Hornsea Railways.
In 1850 he was employed by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to reclaim the land a Sunk Island on the north bank of the Humber Estuary, and undertook surveys for reclamation of a larger area to the east of In 1874 he entered into partnership with George Bohn; the firm acted under James Abernethy during the construction of the Alexandra Dock of the Hull and Barnsley Railway in the 1880s.
He was a founder of the Hull Mechanic's Institute, and a regular and reliable witness to Committees of the Houses of Parliament.
He died on 10 June 1890, of congestion of the lungs.

Published works

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