Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

County surveyor for Co. Carlow, 1834-1844, and Co. Waterford, 1844-45. Charles Forth, who was born circa 1808,(1) started his engineering career as an assistant to CHARLES VIGNOLES  CHARLES VIGNOLES in England, working on the Cheltenham waterworks survey and on various English railway schemes. He was senior assistant to Vignoles on the Dublin & Kingstown Railway survey in April 1832 and subsequently worked on the the detailed planning of the line with THOMAS JACKSON WOODHOUSE THOMAS JACKSON WOODHOUSE . He was appointed the first county surveyor for Co. Carlow in May 1834.(2) On 31 July 1844 he was transferred to Co. Waterford, where he also held the position of city surveyor. He was absent from his new post for the first ten months, which caused some complaints, probably because he was again working for Vignoles, this time on the Limerick & Waterford Railway. He died in July 1845.(3) After his death Vignoles proposed establishing a fund for the support of his widow, Catherine Jane (née Macartney), whom he had married in 1832,(4) and their children.

Forth's pupils and assistants included FRANCIS ARTHUR DOYLE.  FRANCIS ARTHUR DOYLE.

ICEI:  founder member, 1835.(5)

See WORKS.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from Brendan O'Donoghue, The Irish County Surveyors 1834-1944 (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2007), 172-3, which gives the fullest account of Forth's career.

(1) www.familysearch.org.
(2) Dublin Evening Post 20 May 1834 (IAA, Edward McParland files, Acc. 2008/44).
(3) Dublin Evening Mail, 1 August 1845.
(4) See note 1, above.
(5) Photocopy of transcript of minutes of first meeting of Engineers' Society of Ireland, 6 Aug 1835, in IAA, Jones File F73.


1 work entries listed in chronological order for FORTH, CHARLES GERRARD


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Building: CO. CARLOW, TULLOW, BRIDGE
Date: 1840
Nature:  Alterations to eliminate awkwardness of approaches. Cost: £487-10s.
Refs: Charles Forth, 'An account of the alterations to Tullow Bridge', paper read to Inst.CE, 7 Jun 1842, summarised in Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal 5 (Nov 1842), 385; JRSAI 7 (1862), 47.