William Radford - bridgemaster
- Born : 1817
- Baptism: 4 April 1818 Collegiate Church (Cathedral) Manchester
- Died : 1 November 1897 at Whalley Range
William Radford was born in 1817, a son of Joseph Radford, iron merchant, of the Red Bank Foundry, Salford and his wife Elizabeth. After being educated at the Manchester Grammar School, he was articled to George Watson Buck, then joint engineer with Robert Stephenson, of the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, on which the young Radford was engaged for a time. He next went to Germany, where he was employed for two years as assistant to Mr. Buck, who had undertaken to superintend the construction of the Altona and Kiel Railway. On the completion of that line he was engaged for the Danish Government on the laying-out and construction of the Zeeland Railway, from Copenhagen to Korsor, for his services in connection with which he received the gold medal of the Order of Merit.
In 1850 he returned to Manchester to practice as engineer and surveyor and in July of that year successfully applied for the post of Bridgemaster and Surveyor of Bridges for the hundreds of Salford, Blackburn, Leyland, Amounderness, and North and South Lonsdale. He also enjoyed a large practice as a surveyor and valuer, and acted as umpire or arbitrator in many important cases of disputed compensation. At the time of his death he held the appointment of Arbitrator to the Corporation of Manchester, and he was for many years Chairman of the Moss Side Local Board. In 1853 he joined Cawley in partnership. This partnership was dissolved in 1865 and he was later joined by his son William Harold Radford under the style of William Radford and Son, Civil Engineers, Surveyors and Valuers at 19 Brazennose Street, Manchester.
William Radford died at his residence, South Lea, Whalley Range, on the 1st November, 1897, in his eighty-first year. His connection with the Institution of Civil Engineers, of which he was elected a Member on the 3rd April, 1849, had lasted for upwards of forty-eight years.
He has twice married. His first wife was Augusta, daughter of William Lewis, commander R.N., and his second, Miriam Frances, daughter of Thomas Wilson, of Altrincham, surgeon.
In 1898 an arrangement was made by which the private practice established in Manchester by William Radford in 1850 and carried on until his death in conjunction with his son Mr William Harold Radford under the style of William Radford and Son, Civil Engineers, Surveyors and Valuers at 19 Brazennose Street, Manchester, was transferred to Joseph Swarbrick AICE of Temple Chambers, 33 Brazennose Street, Manchester, consequent upon the appointment of W H Radford to the position of bridgemaster for the County of Lancashire in succession to his father.
Address
1850 : William Radford. M Inst CE 30 Cooper Street, Manchester
1853 : William Radford. civil engineer and surveyor 61 Cross Street (Whellan)
1876-1879 : William Radford civil engineer, surveyor and land agent. Bridge-master for the hundreds of Salford, Amournderness and Leyland. Surveyor of county bridges. 41 John Dalton Street
1897 William Radford and Son, Civil Engineers, Surveyors and Valuers 19 Brazennose Street, Manchester
Residence
1863 : William Radford civil engineer, (Cawley & Radford), Woodlands 6 Upper Camp Street, Higher Broughton.
1897 : South Lea, Whalley Range,