Thomas Oliver - Tunnel Builder

Thomas Oliver

Thomas Oliver was one of the two contractors who built the Dore & Chinley Railway, the other being J.B. Edwards of Chester. It was Thomas who built the first ten and a half miles of track between Dore & Totley and Hope stations, including the whole of the Totley tunnel.

Thomas Oliver was born in 1834 in Lowton, near Newton le Willows in Lancashire, the fifth son and seventh child of Cuthbert Oliver, a railway contractor from Allendale, Northumberland and his wife Ann (nee Crow).

By the time of the 1841 Census, the family had moved to Hasland, Chesterfield, and Thomas's parents were to remain there for the rest of their lives, becoming quite wealthy land and property owners. Like his father and his older brother Edward, Thomas established himself as an engineer and contractor, specialising in large civil engineering projects, especially those connected with the emerging railway network.

Thomas served his apprenticeship under Charles Bartholomew in Doncaster. Bartholomew was the engineer in charge of improving the navigation of the River Don and also the engineer to South Yorkshire, Doncaster and Goole Railway. In January 1854, at the age of 19, Thomas Oliver married Caroline Jane Lenn Gichard in York. She was four years older than Thomas, the youngest of six children born to William Michael Gichard, a Cornish gentleman of independent means, and his wife Elizabeth. Their first child, Cuthbert Wallace Oliver was born towards the end of the same year in Masborough, Rotherham.

Shortly after, Thomas was engaged to work for two and a half years to John Towlerton Leather on the improvement of the River Nene Navigation between Wisbech, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Northamptonshire. Mr Leather was later to become infamous when, as the Consulting Engineer for the Sheffield Water Works Company, he prepared the plans and specifications for the Dale Dyke Reservoir which broke its embankment on the night of 11th/12th March 1864 causing the great "Sheffield Flood" with the loss of around 240 lives.

A second child, Thomas William Nene Oliver, was born in Wisbech in the first quarter of 1856. The following year Thomas began working for Edward Woods as the Resident Engineer in charge of the work to build the tracks in Sussex around Petworth, Midhurst and Horsham; the Shrewsbury to Welshpool line; and the Horsham to Guildford line. The Olivers had moved to Horsham in 1857 and were living at West Parade at the time of the 1861 Census. Thomas must have become quite successful because also living with him were a nephew, niece and sister-in-law, supported by a governess and two general servants. His elder son, Cuthbert, died in 1863 at age 8, but two more children were to be born soon after, Caroline Ann in 1863 and Frederick Lenn in 1866.

Edward Woods proposed Thomas's application to become an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, in 1865, after which Thomas began working on his own account as a railway contractor. He was awarded a contract from the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway to add a second line between Coulsdon and Earlswood.

Caroline Oliver

Thomas Oliver won a contract valued at almost £150,000 to build a railway from Mansfield to Worksop and work began in June 1870. In the same year he bought Tanbridge House, off Worthing Road, in Horsham and was living there at the time of the 1871 Census when, aged 37, his occupation was recorded as "railway contractor employing about 950 men". Later the same year, another daughter Mary Helen was born. In 1875 Thomas secured a lucrative contract to build the Bennerley and Bulwell railway in Nottinghamshire, including the boring of the 151 yard Watnall tunnel. Also in 1875 work began on the Swadlincote loop in Derbyshire including two tunnels at Midway (104 yards) and Woodville (307 yards). In 1878 Thomas Oliver contracted to build and manage the line from Chichester to Midhurst.

Tanbridge House, Worthing Road, Horsham

In the 1881 Census Thomas's occupation is shown as "civil engineer and railway contractor employing 918 men" plus a "farmer employing 6 men, 2 boys and 2 women." Tanbridge House was a substantial property, but the Olivers had it demolished and rebuilt on an even grander scale in 1887.

Tanbridge House doorway

Above the door is a Latin inscription which reads "AD FOEDERA CRESCO", meaning "I gain by treaty" or "I grow for treaties". On the front of the building is the Oliver crest of a fist clenching an olive branch, together with the entwined initials T, C & O representing Thomas and his wife Caroline Oliver. To service the new building, the Olivers were employing seven servants by 1891.

Oliver Crest, Tanbridge House

From 1888 to 1894, there are numerous references in the Sheffield and north Derbyshire newspapers to Thomas Oliver during the building of the 6,230 yard Totley Tunnel. Some are in relation to the outbreak of smallpox amongst the navvies, their safety and welfare, and also to damage and obstruction to roads. But not all reports were bad. In a detailed and highly factual report on progress, the Sheffield Independent of 8 June 1889 reported that Totley Grove Hall was unoccupied and being "done up" and that Thomas Oliver intended to reside there; meantime his son, T. W. N. Oliver was representing him on the spot. The article went on to praise Thomas for his efforts to minimise the impact of the influx of over 600 navvies and their families on the local area:

The full article, and more than a dozen others, on the construction of the eastern section of the Dore and Chinley Line, are to be found in our Newspaper Archive and make fascinating reading. They give detailed accounts of the enormous difficulties that were presented to the contractor and overcome by the skill and determination of the engineers, first amongst whom was Percy Rickard.

The tunnel opened for goods traffic on 6 November 1893 and for passenger traffic on 16 May 1894 and the project was deemed to be an enormous success. The Midland Railway made what has been described as an outstandingly generous settlement to Thomas Oliver & Sons, who even received an extra £14,500 unsolicited award in recognition of unprofitable work on a quarter of the length of the tunnel.

Soon after the Totley Tunnel was completed, Thomas Oliver & Sons won a contract for building a 15 mile section of the new London to Sheffield line which was to include a 2,997 yard tunnel at Catesby in Northamptonshire. The first shaft was sunk on 18 Feb 1895 and the tunnel was completed by 27 May 1897, progress being greatly enhanced by the use of "steam navvies", which Thomas had previously used successfully at Totley and in the construction of a reservoir and filtering beds at Barrow Gurney near Bristol.

Thomas Oliver gravestone and memorial window, Horsham

Although they retained Tanbridge House, Thomas and Caroline spent their later years living in Hove, Sussex. Caroline died of cancer in 1904 but Thomas outlived his oldest remaining son. He died on the 8 October 1920 at Abington in Lanarkshire aged 86. He is buried in Denne Road graveyard in Horsham where there is a family stone.

His children paid for a window in the Chapel of the Holy Trinity at the nearby Parish Church of St Mary. The single lancet window is of a bearded figure of Christ made up of stained and painted glass. Installed in 1924, it was designed by Frederick Etchells who noted that "the glass is designed with a minimum of colour in order not to obscure the light in the chapel".

Also near Worthing Road is Oliver Road, named in his memory.

Photos of the Olivers, and the Horsham part of this history: Hidden Horsham