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    Apr 16, 2021 5 minutes

    REVIEW OF THE MONTH

    Victoria’s Railway King - Sir Edward Watkin

    BOOK

    Geoff Scargill

    Frontline Books, 47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire S70 2AS.

    Tel: 01226 734222.

    Web: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk.

    Email: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk.

    Description: Hardback, 160mm x 282mm, 180pp

    ISBN: 9781526792278

    Price £19.99

    It would have been noteworthy enough just to describe the construction of the Great Central Railway’s main line as the greatest achievement of Victorian engineer Sir’ Edward Watkin. But it isn’t true: to detail the rest would fill this entire page.

    Watkin started work on the Channel Tunnel in 1880 with the intention of reaching India, created the concept of suburban housing to profit the Metropolitan Railway, discovered coal in Kent and created the world’s biggest fishing port (Grimsby) and the resort of Cleethorpes beside it.

    He also tried to build tunnels under the Humber and from Ireland to

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