John Wilkes Bower

[Andy873]

I'm trying to get a better picture of John Wilks Bower from around the 1870's onwards.

John was appointed resident engineer for several L&Y railway builds, and there are some things on the Internet about him, but not too much.

This is what I know (or can work out) from 1870:

He's appointed resident engineer for the loop line I'm researching, along with Thomas Higham as clerk of the works in 1870. They are found living in a house in Simonstone with Thomas' wife and children in 1871.

In 1874, John marries a lady called Clara and in 1881 they are found living at a house in the countryside at Pleasington near Blackburn and have two children, two domestic servants, one of which doubles as a nurse.

Now their son Stanley, aged 6 has his birthplace (and their daughter, 3) as Pleasington, to the west of Blackburn.

This is what I think happened: When John gets married in April 1874, he and Clara have already found a house of their own to live in at Pleasington. Clara obviously doesn't want to live with another family. John can't move too far away from the loop line works as he's the resident engineer for it, but a nice country house in Pleasington would have suited them both I think. Clara soon falls pregnant and Stanley their son comes along 1875.

By 1881 as said, they are settled in Pleasington, but by 1891 they appear to be in Great Neston, Wirral close to the railway station there.

Questions:

Would a railway company help out financially with for instance, renting a house for a resident engineer (not counting their wage)? help out with the expense of a house keeper etc?

Can we get a correct date for John's wedding? one paper says 29 April 1874, another, 22 April.

Would a resident engineer oversee more than one railway works at a time? One new works appears in 1874 as the Hoddlesden branch, a short single line near Darwen station, not too far away from the loop line works.

Where there any L&Y railway works going on around Blackburn in 1881? or do you think after the loop line build was over (1877) he simply decided to stay in Pleasington? If by 1881 he's back working in the Engineer's office (Hunts Bank, Manchester), then it's simply a train from Pleasington to Blackburn, change, and a straight ride to Manchester Victoria.

Where there any L&Y railway works going on around Wirral in 1891? I'm trying to understand why John is in Great Neston at that time.

Do we know when John left the L&Y?

 

[Gloster]

There was no fixed practice and it would vary from company to company, manager to manager, year to year, etc.

The company probably would not provide a house, but they might make an allowance. Sometimes a property might come with the purchase of land for the line and this might be allocated to the engineer. I doubt that the railway would pay for a housekeeper unless contractually required to.

There is no reason why an engineer could not oversee more than one line as long as the total workload, including travelling between lines, was not too great. Why have an underworked engineer on one line when you could dispense with him altogether?

The Chester Northgate-Hawarden line opened in 1890 and the Bidston-Hawarden Bridge line (North Wales & Liverpool Railway) in 1896. Powers for the latter had been granted not later than 1889. Neither were anything to do with the L&Y: both were tied to the Manchester, Sheffield & Lincolnshire.

He is in Graces Guide.

 

[stuving]

The marriage was 29th April - so 22nd would have been the last calling of banns. The full details are:
John Wilkes Bower, bachelor, full age, civil engineer, residence Padiham, father Edward Bower (deceased)
Clara Pennington, spinster, full age, residence Orrell, father John Pennington, customs officer.
There were a lot of witnesses! The first is maybe J H Bower, then there's Amy Penington, M (or Mr) Penington, J Penington, Edw Bower, and Sarah Bower. The officiating minister was William J Turner. This family seem to have spelled their name Penington - Clara did so here, though the minister wrote Pennington.

Neither was living in the parish (St Helens Sefton) at the time, so one of them needed a connection with the parish to marry without a licence. Orrell (where she was born) is a distinct township, and became a separate civil parish, but at the time I think it was within Sefton St Helens church parish - Lancashire parishes were often very large compared to those elsewhere in England.

 

[Andy873]

@stuving That's great work, thanks for that.

I decided to check out the 1881 census to see if Thomas Higham and family remained in the house called Holly, Simonstone. To my surprise Thomas and family have by this date moved to the edge of nearby Padiham.

What probably happened (but can't prove it) was that when John Bower gets married to Clara and move to their marital home, Thomas and family also move, this time to Padiham.

Although Thomas Higham was John's assistant, he's still a civil engineer, so we probably have a situation in 1874 where one is living and supervising the western section of the build, and one doing the same on the eastern build. Perhaps this is when Padiham station got its two signal boxes, but it was certainly the year the contractor for the eastern Padiham section went broke, perhaps another reason, maybe.

John's marriage and move plus Thomas' move helps to bring these characters alive, and puts a little flesh on the bones of the story behind them.

 

[Springs Branch]

Where there any L&Y railway works going on around Blackburn in 1881?

I don't think there were any brand-new lines being built by the LYR around Blackburn at that time. But through the 1880s the L&Y was investing heavily in major improvements to the infrastructure already on its system. Things like widening, strengthening bridges, rebuilding stations, new loco. works & engine sheds, rolling stock etc. Meaning lots of work for experienced engineers.

John Marshall summed it up well in his book The Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway - Vol. 2:-

Programme of Improvements

By the mid-1870s, the LYR had achieved a reputation for being the most degenerate and inefficient railway in the country. In the fifteen years from 1875 it underwent possibly the greatest transformation of any British railway, and by 1891 it had become one of the country's most efficient systems.

Following completion of the North Lancashire Loop, Wilkes Bower might have been involved in a string of concurrent LYR improvement projects, none of which were big enough in themselves to require a 'resident' engineer living in the vicinity.

For example, the LYR re-built and substantially expanded its loco depot at Lostock Hall around 1881 - handy enough for Pleasington, but I doubt this would need the full-time attention of a senior engineer. There possibly may have been improvements on the joint line between Preston and Blackpool / Fleetwood around that time - I'm not sure which year quadrupling etc. took place.

Where there any L&Y railway works going on around Wirral in 1891? I'm trying to understand why John is in Great Neston at that time.

Do we know when John left the L&Y?

As per @Gloster, the LYR did not have a presence on the Wirral. However, if JWB had been involved in any of the LYR's substantial projects around Liverpool around that time, he just maybe chose to move his young family to the 'quality' environment of Great Neston. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) membership list records him as already living in Neston, Cheshire in the year 1885.

Unfortunately the railway connection between Neston & Bidston did not open until ~1896. Meaning travelling regularly from Neston to the Liverpool area (or to HQ in Manchester) would have been a right pain back then. If it were me, and I was supervising construction projects around Liverpool, I would have settled in one of the desirable areas on the Lancashire side of the Mersey, like Crosby, Formby or Southport, and commuted to work on my employer's railway (with a free staff pass!).

JBW's obituary appears in Grace's Guide at:-

John Wilkes Bower - Graces Guide

JOHN WILKES BOWER was born at Small Heath, near Birmingham, on 3rd March 1837.

He served his apprenticeship at Messrs. Sharp, Stewart and Co.'s Atlas Works, Manchester, and on its termination in 1862 he entered the office of Mr. Sturgess Meek, chief engineer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. During this period he became resident engineer during the construction of several branch lines, notably the Oldham and Rochdale and Royton branches, the Meltham branch, the Clayton West branch, also the widening of the main line from Victoria Station, Manchester, to Salford, the new line from Bacup to Rochdale, and many other lines and branches.

His death took place at Leamington Spa, after a long and painful illness, on 15th October 1904, in his sixty-eighth year.

So, the chronology is

• 3 March 1837: Born at Small Heath, Birmingham
• 1858 (age 21) - Took out membership of Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
• 1862 (ages 25) - Employed by the LYR
• 1868, 1872, 1875 - Listed by IMechE as "Employed at LYR Engineer's Office, Manchester".
• 29 April 1874 - Marriage to Clara Pennington at Pleasington.
• 1881 (age 44) - Census lists as resident at Pleasington.
• 1885 (age 48) - IMechE lists as resident at Neston (with no mention of employment by the LYR)
• 1891 (age 54) - Census lists as resident at Neston.
• 1896 (age 59) - IMechE lists as resident at 'Meredale', Rugby Rd, Leamington Spa
• 15 October 1904 (age 68) - Passed away at Leamington Spa.

I wonder if John Wilkes Bower suffered some sort of persistent ill health from middle age, say in his 40s (leading to the "long and painful illness" in his obituary) and needed to resign his permanent position with the LYR between completing the North Lancs Loop line and retiring to Neston sometime between 1881 and 1885?

 

[Gloster]

Neston was also on the line from Hooton to Parkgate that opened in 1866 and was extended to West Kirby in April 1886.

 

[Andy873]

@Springs Branch, thanks for that, that's a detailed list of where and when for John.

I wonder if John Wilkes Bower suffered some sort of persistent ill health from middle age, say in his 40s (leading to the "long and painful illness" in his obituary) and needed to resign his permanent position with the LYR between completing the North Lancs Loop line and retiring to Neston sometime between 1881 and 1885?

It's always such as shame in my books to see someone suffered a long and painful illness, the obituary in Graces Guide doesn't say what it was.

From the newspaper reports I've come across, he seems to be a likeable chap. I wondered why one paper had an article mentioning he attended (maybe as a guest) the naturalist society of Padiham one evening showing fossil nuts found during a foundation dig for the new Green Lane railway bridge there in 1871. But as said, he was living at the time in near by Simonstone. He also allowed the members of this society to walk along the railway route yet undisturbed for rare flowers etc.

When he returned from his honeymoon in May 1874 he is presented with "a beautiful timepiece" to commemorate his marriage to Clara by the L&Y. It doesn't say what type of timepiece it was, but I suspect something like a nice carriage clock that both of them could enjoy. After being presented with this he treats all the railway workforce at Padiham to something, although it doesn't say what. Free beer perhaps?

All of this helps me get a better picture of John's life and character.