WISE, BERKELEY DEANE

Railway engineer, active from the 1870s until 1906. Berkeley Deane Wise, a son of James Lawrence Wise, of Berkeley Forest, Co. Wexford, was born in New Ross, Co. Wexford, in 1853. He spent one year as a pupil of MARMADUKE BACKHOUSE  MARMADUKE BACKHOUSE and a further two years as a pupil of JAMES PRICE. JAMES PRICE. (1) He joined the staff of the Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford railway and by 1876 had been promoted to the position of assistant engineer. In 1877 he was appointed engineer to the Belfast & County Down Railway Company and eleven years later, in 1888,(2) to the Belfast & Northern Counties railway, in succession to ROBERT COLLINS ROBERT COLLINS . He remained in this position until a serious illness forced him to resign in 1906. During his years with the company - after 1903 officially titled the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) - he designed and superintended the erection of many stations, including the York Street Station in Belfast and the neighbouring Northern Counties Hotel. He was also active in developing the resorts served by the line: at Glenarriff, where the company purchased the upper part of the glen, he designed paths and bridges and a tea-room,(3) and at Whitehead he was responsible for constructing the promenade and the path round Black Head. He also designed the Gobbins Path along the east coast of Islandmagee, which allowed tourists to experience the spectacular basaltic cliffs at close quarters.

Wise is described in his obituary in the Transactions as zealous and efficient in his work and kindly and genial in his manner. He retired in 1906 on account of poor health and died by his own hand(4) on 5 May 1909 at 18 Salisbury Terrace, Portrush, Co. Antrim.(5) He was survived by an only son, James Berkeley Wise, who was also a railway engineer. His pupils and assistants included JAMES HERON [1] JAMES HERON [1] , FRANCIS GEORGE HOPKIRK FRANCIS GEORGE HOPKIRK , JOSEPH RICHARD PIKE MCALERY JOSEPH RICHARD PIKE MCALERY , PERCY EDWARD SHEPHERD  PERCY EDWARD SHEPHERD and JOHN CHALONER SMITH[2].& JOHN CHALONER SMITH[2].& #160;  He was a subscriber to George Lister Sutcliffe,ed., The Principles and Practice of Modern House-Construction (London, 1898).(6)

ICEI: elected associate, 1876; member, 1880; council member, 1903; organised Belfast visit, 1904; vice-president, 1904-1906.
Inst.CE: member.

Address: Home: Silverstream House, Greenisland, Belfast, <=1898->=1906.(7)

See WORKS and BIBLIOGRAPHY. BIBLIOGRAPHY.

References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from ICEI membership applications, II, 42, and the obituaries of Wise in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 182-184, and IB 51, 15 May 1909, 301.

(1) Information from Wise's ICEI membership application; the obituary in TICEI 35 states that he served his apprenticeship in the engineer's office of the Dublin, Wicklow & Wexford Railway Co. and that 'so highly were his services appreciated that in time he was promoted to the position of assistant engineer'.
(2) His working address is still given as the Belfast & Co. Down Railway, Belfast, in the list of members of the ICEI for 1890 in TICEI 20, however.
(3) See Fred Hamond, Antrim Coast & Glens Industrial Heritage (DOENI, 1991), 71.
(4) Information from Eric Hopkirk.
(5) Notice of death in  Irish Independent, 7 May 1909.
(6) MS list of subscribers from Belfast and other towns in the northern counties (photocopy in IAA, Acc. 2009/066).
(7) From TICEI lists of members.

17 work entries listed in chronological order for WISE, BERKELEY DEANE

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Building:	CO. DOWN, DUNDRUM, HARBOUR
Date:	1884
Nature:	Plan showing Dundrum quayside by BDW among Downshire MSS.
Refs:	Plan, s. & d. 1884, in PRONI, Downshire MSS, D671/P5/11

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, PORTRUSH, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	1893
Nature:	New station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co. By BDW assisted by Francis George Hopkirk. In red brick with half timbering. Contractor: McLaughlin & Harvey. Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Architect 46, 27 Nov 1891, suppl. p.2; W.A. McCutcheon, Railway History in Pictures: Ireland(1969), II, 35; W.D. Girvan, Historic Buildings…in North Antrim (UAHS, 1972), 13-14 (no. 31, illus.); information from Eric Hopkirk.

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, PORTRUSH, NORTHERN COUNTIES HOTEL
Date:	1894;1905
Nature:	Adds. & alts, 1894 & 1905. Contractor for 1905 work: McLaughlin & Harvey, Belfast. Cost: £20,000.
Refs:	IB 47, 17 Jun,20 Dec 1905, 422,947; W.D. Girvan, Historic Buildings…in North Antrim (UAHS, 1972), 11 (no. 15)

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, CARRICKFERGUS, VICTORIA STREET, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	1895
Nature:	New mock Tudor station, replacing one built in 1862 and destroyed by fire, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183; Gordon Campbell & Susan Crowther, Historic Buildings… in the town of Carrickfergus (UAHS, 1978), 28; C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (UAHS, 1996), 283(illus.)

Building:	CO. DERRY, PORTSTEWART, TRAMWAY TERMINUS
Date:	1899
Nature:	Gabled two-storey building with locomotive shed beneath, offices and crew's quarters above.
Refs:	W.D. Girvan, Historic Buildings…in Coleraine and Portstewart (UAHS, 1972), 33 (no.82)

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, BALLYMONEY, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	1901
Nature:	Cottage style, poychrome brick & timber station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co..
Refs:	W.D. Girvan, Historic Buildings…in North Antrim (UAHS, 1972), 42

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, LARNE, MAIN STREET, LAHARNA HOTEL
Date:	1905
Nature:	Acquired by Midland Railway Northern Counties Committee. Extensive alts. to be carried out by BDW. Will accommodate about 400 visitors; 'specially designed to meet the requirements of the tourist traffic from the Lancashire and Yorkshire districts, which traffic has now grown to extensive proportions in the Larne and Antrim-coast districts'..
Refs:	Irish Times, 27 Apr 1905; IB 47, 6 May 1905, 314

Building:	CO. DERRY, LIMAVADY, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	1906
Nature:	Proposed rebuilding.
Refs:	IB 48, 16 Jun 1906, 497

Building:	CO. DERRY, MALLYMACRAN, LEVEL CROSSING HOUSE
Date:	?
Nature:	Cottage ornée style. One of several along the line. For Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	W.D. Girvan, Historic Buildings in North Derry (UAHS, 1975), 38(no.123)

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, WHITEHEAD, PROMENADE & PATH ROUND BLACK HEAD
Date:	?
Nature:	BDW designs same For Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, GLENARRIFF, PATHS, BRIDGES & TEA ROOM
Date:	?
Nature:	BDW designs same For Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 184; Fred Hamond, Antrim Coast & Glens Industrial Heritage (DOENI, 1991), 71

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, ISLANDMAGEE, GOBBINS PATH
Date:	?
Nature:	Designed same with 'its tubular and other bridges, which has enabled visitors to inspect, under advantageious circumstances, some of the finest cliff scenery in the United Kingdom'.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, TROOPERSLANE, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	?
Nature:	New station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183; Brendan Pender & Herbert Richard, Irish Railways Today (1967), 130

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, GLYNN, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	?
Nature:	New station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, LARNE, HARBOUR RAILWAY STATION
Date:	?
Nature:	New station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, BALLYMENA, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	?
Nature:	New station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183

Building:	CO. ANTRIM, ANTRIM, RAILWAY STATION
Date:	?
Nature:	New station, for Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co.
Refs:	Obituary of BDW in TICEI 35 (1908-9), 183

Author	Title	Date	Details
Wise, Berkeley Deane	'The closing of the breaches on the Myroe Embankment, County of Londonderry'	1905	TICEI 32 (1904-5), 122-131, and IB 47, 11 Feb 1905, 97-98.