The Clifton Suspension Bridge Trust has been granted funding from the Association of Independent Museums (AIM) and Biffa Award for a year-long project (2017-2018) to celebrate the lives and work John Hawkshaw (1811-1891) and William Henry Barlow (1812-1902), two prominent engineers who played a crucial role in the completion of the Clifton Suspension Bridge. ‘Hawkshaw and Barlow Untold’ is an opportunity to celebrate and recognise these and other achievements through a new mini-exhibition which joins the permanent exhibition at the Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre.
Hawkshaw and Barlow have shaped the engineering world as we know it today. Their experiments and ingenuity had a significant impact on science and industry as they pioneered use of new technology and materials to inform and develop large scale engineering projects across the UK and the rest of world. We tell their story and celebrate and recognise their achievements, beginning with their project to complete the Clifton Suspension Bridge following the death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Find out how and why they redesigned the bridge deck, and why it was their engineering skills which allows the bridge to cope with the demands of modern traffic.
Our exhibition not only explores Hawkshaw and Barlow’s engineering achievements, but also looks at their personalities, character, home lives and relationships with engineering colleagues. Learn about Sir John Hawkshaw, the Man of Vision and ‘Saviour of the Suez Canal’ and William Henry Barlow, the Inventor and Experimenter who created the first reliable sound recording device. Find out which of our historic heroes was related to Charles Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood, how the Brighton Sewers work and why St Pancras station was such an incredible achievement.
See the exhibition!
The exhibition is now on permanent display at the Clifton Suspension Bridge Visitor Centre. We are open from 10am-5pm daily – free entry, donations welcome.
What we did
Our expert panel provided advice and guidance on the personal and working lives of Hawkshaw and Barlow, as well as their engineering advancements – and a team of volunteer researchers collected and evaluated primary source materials for inclusion in the exhibition. We traced family trees, visited archives to read old letters and meeting minutes, and unearthed a treasure trove of personal correspondence hiding in the National Library of Scotland. We visited descendants of our heroes who showed us personal possessions which have been handed down through the family – and we talked to teachers and pupils at the school founded by Sir John Hawkshaw, where the school records tell us about the lessons he and his wife delivered to the children.
We worked with local exhibition designers, CodSteaks, to create the new panels for our permanent exhibition and selected objects to be included in the display. We refurbished a model of Brunel’s bridge deck which will help to explain how Hawkshaw and Barlow changed his designs for the bridge. You can now view a stereoscopic image of the Forth Bridge, explore an engraving created to celebrate Hawkshaw and Barlow’s work on the bridge, touch a piece of Barlow rail and find out what a plumb bob is for. Local woodturners recreated John Hawkshaw’s demonstration model for a gravitational railway and we’ve also created a short film about Hawkshaw and Barlow with the help of our volunteer filmmaker Gordon – and, thanks to the BBCs Antiques Roadtrip, we’ve even included some behind the scenes footage of one of John Hawkshaw’s engineering achievements.
Volunteer Andrew created an amazing interactive diagram showing which projects connected Victorian engineers, Sylvia’s been tracing family trees and reading the poetry of Ann Hawkshaw and Mel’s been creating a map to show where in the world the engineers worked. All of this, plus photographs, diagrams, technical drawings, letters and documents are available on our touchscreen.
A Children’s Trail exploring the content of our exhibition has been designed by Ang Hui Qing and is available free of charge to families visiting the exhibition.