This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Bristol, close to where I grew up, is home to one of his finest constructions, the Clifton suspension bridge, and they are marking the anniversary with various events.
Radio 4 are also in on the act, with Britain’s modern Brunels where Sue Nelson meets people who are pushing today’s engineering boundaries. I found out about it from Sue herself, when she got in touch with me regarding my grandfather’s involvement with Black Knight, for a future project she is researching.
I’m very much looking forward to listening to this series over the next few weeks, and all the other Brunel related events that are happening. Rarely do engineers feature so prominently as Brunel in both our national heritage and daily lives.
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April 15th, 2006 at 11:49 am
Richard, let me draw your attention to a lesser known Brunel commemoration this year. The wonderful Mikron Theatre Company (http://www.mikron.org.uk) who travel round the country ( but not Scotland sadly) on a canal boat bringing theatre to pubs and all sorts of places, are touring this, their 35th, season with “Mrs Brunel”, a life of the great man seen through his wife’s eyes. They have a knack of bringing industrial revolution and other historic and current social issues to life in a really entertaining way, so I recommend you and readers of the blog try and catch them on their tour.
April 15th, 2006 at 6:25 pm
Thanks for the tip off. Sounds like a fascinating idea!
Shame though there’s no chance of seeing them up in Scotland. I’m discovering that many tours either exclude this neck of the woods, or give it a brief visit. I suppose with a small population (relative to the rest of the UK), and very geographically dispersed at that, it’s no huge surprise.
That said, these guys do seem to have a better excuse: Not sure what the canals are like up to here are like!