William Hunt

• Birth date           8 January 1843 at Banbury
• Marriage              Elizabeth Ann Dawson
• Death date          29 March 1897
• Burial                  4 April 1897 at St Paul’s Churchyard, Kersal, Salford   

Civil Engineer and Chief Engineer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway 1882-1897. Born in Banbury, William Hunt was articled to Henry Daniel Martin, the engineer to London’s East and West India Docks Company. From 1862 to 1865 he was involved in the construction of railways in the Isle of Wight, before becoming chief assistant to John Smith Burke in Westminster. He was then appointed Assistant Resident Engineer, under Benjamin Burleigh, for the construction of works on the East London Railway on the south side of the Thames, and was afterwards employed by Sir John Hawkshaw, as Resident Engineer for the whole of the works on the north side of the Thames.

In 1876 he was appointed chief assistant engineer to the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, being promoted to the post of Chief Engineer to the Company on the retirement of Sturgess Meek in 1882. Under his direction the Company carried out most extensive works involving an expenditure of £8,000,000. These included the construction of the new Exchange Station at Liverpool; extensions and alterations at Victoria Station, Manchester; the locomotive works at Horwich; the Hindley and Pendleton Railway; and (as assistant) the Cheetham Hill to Radcliffe Branch, now part of the Metrolink system.

William Hunt died at his residence, “High Lea,” Crumpsall, and was interred at St Paul’s Churchyard, Kersal, Salford, on 4 April 1897.

Address   
1876-1896    Engineer’s Department, Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Hunt’s Bank, Manchester

Residence
1851        Bridge Street South, Banbury, Oxon
1861        Willow Terrace Islington London
1871        Rotherhithe, Surrey
1881        “High Lea,” Crumpsall Lane, Crumpsall Manchester   
1897        “High Lea,” Crumpsall Lane, Crumpsall Manchester

Death notice   Manchester Guardian 30 March 1897 page 12 - deaths
Obituary        Institute of Civil Engineers Minutes of the Proceedings, Volume 129, Issue 1897, pp 372-374
Obituary        Manchester Guardian 30 March 1897, page 12
Obituary        Building News 2 April 1897 page 484
Reference      St Paul’s Churchyard Trail 2011