On this day in 2020 Hampshire HistBites shared the story of William Walker. A year later we’re delighted to announce that Lydia from our podcasting team has written an in-depth piece for us on the other man.
‘Funny enough, I vaguely remembered this story about a diver working under a cathedral.’
Most remember the story of William Walker, ‘the diver who saved the Cathedral with his own hands’, but who was Francis Fox, the civil engineer who supported Walker and his work in saving Winchester’s great Cathedral?
This question came to my attention after listening to ‘The Diver That Saved Winchester Cathedral’ podcast, available here. I was fascinated to learn that the first statue commissioned of William Walker in celebration of his work was actually of Francis Fox! See Figure 1.
Figure 1: Original statue of Francis Fox
So that the statue would be as lifelike as possible the sculptor, Charles Wheler, was provided with a photo of Walker. However, in this photo Walker was in his civvies whilst Fox was the one in the diving suit. Thus, as Walker was a diver, naturally Wheler assumed that the man in the diving suit was in fact Walker. This honest mistake was not noted until the statue was unveiled in March 1964. As many of Walker’s descendants were present at this unveiling, they were quick to notice that this statue had no resemblance of their ancestor; instead, it was of Fox in his diving suit.
Figure 2: Francis Fox
Figure 3: William Walker
Wheler’s statue of Fox was later removed and replaced by another by Glyn Williams. Unveiled in 2005, this statue of Walker is the one present in the Cathedral today, see Figure 4.
Figure 4: Statue of William Walker by Glyn Williams
So, obviously Fox played a very important part in the shoring up of Winchester Cathedral in 1905. However, like many, I was only aware of Walker’s contributions to the project which has inevitably contributed to his title of ‘the diver who saved the Cathedral with his own hands’. So, this drew me to the question, who was Francis Fox?
Born on 29th June 1844, son of the noted engineer and contractor Sir Charles Fox, constructor of the Great Exhibition building of 1851, Francis Fox through his involvement with many bridges, buildings and railways became a very successful civil engineer in his own right.
Arguably, Fox is most well-known for his work in supporting Walker in shoring up Winchester Cathedral. When large cracks were appearing in the walls of the Cathedral, Fox was consulted. After visiting the Cathedral on 5th July 1905, Fox devised a five stage plan as follows:
1. Shore up the outside of the building
2. Centre the arched vaulting of the inside of the Cathedral to prevent collapse
3. Insert steel tie rods where necessary
4. Apply grout with liquid cement under compressed air to any space possible, starting at the bottom of the walls
5. Underpin the walls down to the bed of gravel
So that step five could be carried out without the Cathedral collapsing, Fox devised yet another plan, this time involving the work of a diver, William Walker. This stated that the peat underneath the Cathedral would be excavated down to a layer of solid gravel. Then, to stop the Cathedral falling, water under high pressure would be pumped to fill this space. Walker would then dive down into the water to remove the remaining peat and lay bags of dry cement. In total, Walker placed 26,000 bags of cement underneath the Cathedral, supporting its medieval foundation. The water was then drained and the Cathedral was saved. Thus, while Walker descended into the water and placed each of the cement bags, it was the clear planning and decision making of Fox which ultimately saved the Cathedral from collapse. It was for this reason that Fox was awarded with his Knighthood on 25th July 1912 by King George V.
While Fox may be most-famous for his connections to Winchester’s Cathedral, this was not the only Cathedral he worked on. Fox was involved with the shoring up of many great Cathedrals, most notoriously, St Paul’s Cathedral in 1905.
Not only this but throughout his lifetime Fox worked on many other projects, most of which are still around today.
In 1871 Fox designed the retractable Telescopic Bridge in Bridgwater. This movable feature was crucial in its design as it had to carry a railway over the River Parrett to the coal yard and docks and then retract to allow boats to proceed upriver to the Town Bridge. Today it is used by pedestrians, see Figure 5 and 6.
Figure 5: Telescopic Bridge in Bridgwater today
Figure 6
This was not the only bridge Fox worked on. Working alongside his father, Francis Fox helped construct the Victoria Falls Bridge on the Zambezi River, see Figure 7. Built over the Second Gorge of the falls, this river forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia. Therefore, this bridge links the two countries, see Figure 8.
Figure 7: Victoria Falls Bridge under construction
Figure 8: Victoria Falls Bridge on the Zambesi River
After working on many bridges, Fox turned to railways. He was a consultant for the Simplon Tunnel, a railway tunnel on the Simplon railway that connects Brig, Switzerland and Domodossola, Italy, through the Alps. Consisting of two railway tunnels that opened in May 1921, it was the longest railway tunnel in the world until 1982 when the Daishimizu Tunnel opened, see Figures 9 and 10.
Figure 9: Simplon Tunnel under construction
Figure 10: Simplon Tunnel
This was not the only railway which saw Fox’s work. In 1878 Fox constructed the replacement train shed at Bristol Temple Meads railway station and became an engineer for the Great Central Railway. In 1889, working alongside his brother Douglas Fox, Francis Fox worked on London’s Marylebone station and then went on to help his brother again with the construction of the Liverpool Overhead Railway which opened in 1893. Additionally, throughout this time Fox also worked on numerous railways in India, Argentina, Canada and Africa.
Within his personal life, Fox was also a success. In 1869 he married Selena Wright who he went on to have a son and three daughters with. Her untimely death in 1900 led Fox to remarry Agnes Horne in 1901, which he stayed with until his own death in 1927 at the age of 82.
Thus, while Walker’s contribution may dominate the story of how Winchester Cathedral was saved so that it could still be enjoyed by those of today, I hope that this post has shed light on perhaps a somewhat forgotten character to this story and the amazing work that Fox achieved both before and after he worked alongside Walker.
Figure 11: Sir Francis Fox
Credit: We are hugely grateful to Kevin Casey and Gary Wallace-Potter for their time and for sharing the photo of the original statue with us.