Chartered Engineer | Historian of Construction, Engineering & Science (Military & Civilian) | Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) @EngineeringCU

Joined November 2020
54 Photos and videos
Pleased to be joining the Scientific Committee for the 9th International Conference on Construction History (ICCH9), which will be hosted by the @CHGPolitodad. The call for abstracts is now open until the 28th June. For further details, please see: constructionhistorygroup.pol…
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OUT NOW! Making its way to members of @conshistsociety is Construction History Volume 40 No.2. As ever, it’s packed with a variety of interested papers. If you’d like to contribute to a future issue, please forward your abstracts to editor@constructionhistory.co.uk
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This is how it ends…. #brokenbritain
Owing to the forecast high temperatures, MCC has decided to dispense with the requirement for gentlemen to wear jackets in the Pavilion for the Blast match between Middlesex and Surrey on the day of Sunday 24 May. This applies to Members of MCC and Middlesex and their guests.
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Brilliant!
Strait of Hormuz is Open! Strait of Hormuz is Closed! Open! Closed!
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Well done lads!
💪 Cambridge Men Win The 2026 Boat Race! 💪 Well done to all our @CUBCsquad athletes
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Oh yes, I love the Belfast, but just imagine her moored on the Thames as a museum ship...
Just imagine..
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Rather than a proposed Parliament building, I think you (@AntipodeEmpire) might find the picture is the Sydney Garden Palace, a purpose-built exhibition building constructed to house the Sydney International Exhibition in 1879 and lost to fire in 1882.
You don't know how good things could have been
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Terrible images of yet another lost jewel of Glasgow's built heritage. There are many serious questions that need answering!
Another week, another devastating fire in Glasgow, resulting in the very sad loss of the Category B listed Forsyth House (1851) on Union Street. Architectural heritage is irreplaceable - whether from the 20th century or any other period. Attitudes towards the care, protection and maintenance of our historic buildings must change.
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I think this should have had its own little train as well!
The Forth Bridge opened on this day 136 years ago. An engineering marvel in the east, but did you know that Glasgow had its very own Forth Bridge? Ours was a just a wee bit smaller... #glasgow
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British engineering at its best!
#OnThisDay 1963 the Hawker P1127, forerunner of the Harrier, made the first touch and go by VTOL (Vertical Take Off & Landing) ever in the world on a Carrier on HMS ARK ROYAL off Portland, UK @RoyalNavy
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I’m sorry, but this is just absolutely nuts! Politicians should just move out to allow the works to go ahead, which will be much safer for all involved and cost far less money. No different to when last building burnt down in 1834 and had to be rebuilt. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgp…
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Like the railways, these canals were not exactly an act of British benevolence. They were paid for by Indian revenue and built by Indian labour. Still, there is a reason why there are many statues and plagues honouring British military engineers still standing across India.
History Hour with Amelia 🌍 Mid-19th century Punjab. Mostly desert. Regular famines. Millions dead. British engineers built 75,000 miles of irrigation canals across India. That's three times around Earth's equator 🤯 2.5 million acres of wasteland turned into cropland. Lyallpur went from 7 people per square mile to 301 in thirty years. Between 1850-1900: 15 million dead in famines. After the canal system was complete: India is famine-free until the wartime Bengal crisis of 1943. We hear a lot about the mistakes of the British Empire. This bit rarely makes it into the history books. 🇬🇧
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Absolutely, the Victoria Barracks should be preserved as a museum park! They are amongst the finest examples of colonial barracks still standing.
Our statement on the future of Victoria Barracks, Sydney, was quoted in this evening's Channel Ten 5:00pm news bulletin. Read the full statement here: militaryhistorysocietynsw.bl… #auspol #Auspol2026
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I really like these old diagrams, they demonstrate an intuitive understanding of structures that I think we've lost in the age of computer analysis. @DarrenMcLean_uk You may have seen the one on the RHS, used on the cover of Prof. Heyman's The Stone Skeleton.
Just a reminder of what your roof trusses are going through.
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If you want examples of wartime innovation in timber construction @DarrenMcLean_uk, look at how Australians adapted local hardwoods to build long-span structures capable of supporting the US Army Air Corp in WW2. We could learn a lot today from their efforts!
Necessity is the mother of invention, and all that. These WWI era roof trusses use small dimensional pieces. Quite clever really.
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The Yanks arrived in Oz with standard plans for military buildings that revolved around softwoods and steel, which were in pretty short supply during WW2, so had to adapt to what was available – green eucalyptus!
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This just seems absolutely criminal! Why do we continue to allow our built heritage to be destroyed, only to be replaced (in most cases) by some cheap, bland, sh*tbox of a building that probably won't last its today's minimum design life of 50 years?
So, just three weeks after my original post, on a quiet Saturday morning a digger was put through the gatehouse to the Victoria Infirmary at Glasgow’s Queen’s Park and within a few hours - by the time I got there - it was reduced to rubble. I appreciate @WeAreSanctuary were within their rights here as, frustratingly, the gatehouse was neither listed or in a conservation area therefore this is permitted development; however, given that it was a building designed by one of the best mid-Victorian architectural practices in Glasgow - Campbell Douglas and Sellars, who designed the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry at the Kelvingrove and what was the St Andrews Hall later the west extension to the Mitchell Library which is one of the finest neoclassical buildings in Europe - perhaps it should have been? Regardless, when we are in a housing emergency demolishing a house which should have been brought back into use at least a decade ago is not a good look. Part of what gives ‘The Victoria’ its kerb appeal is the contrast between the new buildings and the surviving historic buildings and the authenticity that lends it. Sadly, yet again another historic building has been dispatched. It all feels at bit snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and leaves me concerned for the neighbouring Administration building which is at least ‘B’ listed and meant to be retained but is in increasingly poor condition and will no longer have the benefit of rates relief…
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It’s a shame that architects and engineers don’t produce drawings like this anymore.
Replying to @Pastpreservers
Just love these drawings!
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