Engineer who built one third of Britain’s railways honoured with statue

One of the greatest engineers of the Victorian period has been honoured with a bronze statue outside Chester Railway Station – a station that he built.

The statue of Thomas Brassey (1805 – 1870) was unveiled by HRH The Duke of Gloucester to a group of more than 160 people who were invited to celebrate Brassey’s achievements.

Brassey, a civil engineering contractor, is best known for building a large proportion of the world’s railways.

During his lifetime, Brassey built around one third of the railways in Britain, three quarters of the railways in France, and one in every twenty miles of railways in the world.

At his peak, Brassey employed more than 80,000 people worldwide.

Past president of the ICE, Richard Coackley CBE, highlighted that we still rely on many of the railways Brassey built today, “in as good condition now as it was then”.

The statue was commissioned by the Thomas Brassey Society – a group of passionate volunteers with an aim to educate the public about the achievements of Brassey.

Stephen Langtree MBE, who chairs the society along with Coackley as vice chair, said it was a “long term aim” to erect the statue.

“Through energetic fundraising and the generous support of many benefactors, our dream of a statue has now become a reality. We hope this results in many more people appreciating his remarkable achievements,” he said.

The bronze statue of Brassey was created by Andy Edwards, the artist behind the Beatles statue in Liverpool.

Inspiring the next generation of civil engineers

Guides from Girlguiding North West England were among the guests at the statue unveiling.

The Girlguides had a stand at the event, where they promoted the civil engineering badge and its activities, bridging the link between past and present engineers.

During the formal unveiling ceremony, the Girlguides formed a guard of honour as HRH The Duke of Gloucester made his way to reveal the statue of Brassey. They held hard hats and wore hi-vis vests to indicate their connection with civil engineering.

ICE North West regional director, Emma Antrobus, said it was “fantastic” to see “one of the most extraordinary engineers of his time acknowledged for his magnitude of work across the world”.

“It was particularly special to have the next generation of civil engineers present in the Girlguides. I hope they were as inspired as I was by Thomas Brassey’s achievements,” she said.

The unveiling of the Thomas Brassey statue coincides with Railway 200, which marks the 200th anniversary of the modern railway.