William Crosley Jnr

Details

Hits: 289

William Crossley Jnr was a canal engineer from Yorkshire, he was the son of William Crosley Snr.

In 1802 he succeeded Thomas Thownsend as engineer on the Rochdale Canal, who had succeeded his father when he died. The canal was completed in 1804, but Crosley stayed on for a couple of years after that.

In 1809 he was appointed engineer for the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal (now part of the Monmouthshire Brecon & Abergavenny Canal). Crosley devoted his whole time to completing the final 11 miles link to the Monmouthshire Canal within a 3 year period. The Canal Company had powers to build tramroads within 8 miles to serve the canal, but in 1810 Crosley surveyed two longer railways, from the canal at Brecon through Hay-0n-Wye to Eardisley, and from Llanfoist to Llanvihangel Crucorny, both lines were modified by John Hodgkinson and built, the latter forming the first part of the line from Hereford to Abergavenny.

In 1811 Crosley had moved on to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, Crosley had been recommended by John Rennie Snr after they had sacked the previous engineer John Woodhouse over problems with the lift at Tardebigge, which incidentaly had been given a bad report by Rennie. 

Crosley was also engineer for the Macclesfield Canal from 1826 - 1833.

Crosley left the canals in 1833 to work as an assistant engineer for Robert Stephenson working on the Tring to Wolverton railway.