John Rennie
In the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral in London is a grave marked by a plain rectangular prism of polished Cornish Granite - a memorial to one of this country's greatest engineers, John Rennie.
At a time when this country was turning from agriculture to industry Rennie was at the forefront in the inventing, making, and assembly of machines in factories and mills. He was also commissioned to build roads and canals to transport the ever-increasing demand for raw materials and finished goods.
Rennie was born in 1761, in the decade that also saw the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Duke of Wellington. His parents were well-to-do farmers living 20 miles East of Edinburgh. One of nine children, he was the fourth son.
On the family estate lived Andrew Meikle, a miller and millwright, and also a great mechanical engineer in his own right. Meikle was to have a great deal of influence on the young John Rennie who became his apprentice after leaving school at the age of 12.
Two years later Rennie continued his education at Dunbar High School where he excelled at mathematics, and later at Edinburgh University. After completing his studies Rennie decided to broaden his horizons and traveled to Birmingham to take a look at engineering works, then on to Lancaster to view Skerton Road bridge over the River Lune. He also visited Liverpool Docks and the bridgewater Canal at Worsley.
In Birmingham, Rennie met James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, who offered him employment and was to become a lifelong friend. Once he had established his reputation, work began to pour in from all quarters, and Rennie built and fitted out corn mills in this country and abroad, he planned and carried out drainage schemes in the fens, and built waterworks, docks and harbours. By the age of 33 he was involved in the simultaneous construction of the Kennet and Avon, Rochdale and Lancaster Canals.
Rennie's working day would start at 5am and very often he would work through till midnight. He was a powerful man standing 6ft 4" in height and was capable of walking 50 miles a day to supervise his various work sites. Rennie married and had 9 children, 6 of whom survived. He first took up residence on Stamford St in London, then moved to a country house called Frensham Vale, near Farnham in Surrey.
Apart from the mighty Lune Aqueduct, Rennie's other achievements included manufacturing machinery for the Royal Mint, improving and extending the East India Docks, building Southwalk and Waterloo bridges. He also designed and planned London bridge but he died before the work could commence. His son completed this bridge in 1830, but with the increasing volumes of traffic cracks began to appear in the structure. It was eventually dismantled and sold to an American Oil Company and transported across the Atlantic stone by stone (all 120,000 tons of it) and rebuilt in Arizona.
Rennie died in 1821 at the age of 61 but his work lives on and is nowhere better demonstrated than in the well-built bridges and magnificent aqueducts of the Lancaster Canal.