Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

English engineer, of Liverpool, for whom see A.W. Skempton et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland I (2002), 651-655, and Howard Colvin, A Biographical dictionary of British architects 1600-1840 (4th edn., 2008), 980-981. Thomas Steers was employed on the Newry Canal between 1737 and 1741. He was originally invited to be engineer to the canal in 1729, but his fee of 100 guineas per month was considered too high. The position was given instead to EDWARD LOVETT PEARCE EDWARD LOVETT PEARCE . Pearce died in 1733, when he was succeeded by RICHARD CASTLE RICHARD CASTLE . In 1736 Steers was called in to survey the work already completed, as a result of which Castle was dismissed in December 1736 and Steers took over the following year. The agreement stipulated that he would be in Ireland for four months in 1737 and for one month in 1738 and 1739. In November 1738 the Dublin Gazette reported: 'We hear from Newry, that the canal from Lough Neagh to that place, is now carried on very briskly by the Engineer Steers, who has undertaken it. As the Trustees did not come to a resolution until the end of the season, there is but a small number of men employed, whom notwithstanding the coldness of the Weather, work near twice as much as the same number did under the former Engineers. There are several Stone-cutters constantly employed, hewing stones for the first lock, which is fixed directly opposite the Newry-quay.'(1) Despite all this activity, the canal was not completed until 1741, involving a further fifteen month's attendance on Steer's part. His total pay eventually amounted to £1,320. In 1738 he was also employed by Hugh Boyd to build a pier at Ballycastle harbour in Co. Antrim.

See WORKS, for Irish work only.



References



(1) Dublin Gazette, 19-22 Nov 1738.


2 work entries listed in chronological order for STEERS, THOMAS *


Sort by date | Sort alphabetically


Building: CO. DOWN, NEWRY NAVIGATION
Date: 1737-1741
Nature: Steers reports on same, 1736. In charge of works, 1737-1741. Canal opened 28 Mar 1742. Assisted by - Gilbert.
Refs: Dublin Gazette, 19-22 Nov 1738; W.A. McCutcheon, The Canals of the North of Ireland (1965), 20; Ruth Delany, A Celebration of 250 years of Ireland's inland waterways (1988), 22; A.W. Skempton et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland I (2002), 653

Building: CO. ANTRIM, BALLYCASTLE, PIER
Date: 1738
Nature: New pier, at least 200 ft long and 40 ft wide, for Hugh Boyd. Constructed of frame of wooden piles held together with iron straps, filled with rubble. Failed fairly rapidly because worms ate wood..
Refs: W.A. McCutcheon, The Canals of the North of Ireland (1965), 20; A.W. Skempton et al., A Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland I (2002), 653