L. T. C. Rolt

Lionel Thomas Caswell Rolt, LTC Rolt abbreviated, Tom Rolt, ( born February 11, 1910 in Chester, † May 11 1974 in Stanley Pontlarge in Gloucestershire ) was a British writer and art historian. He occupies a special position in the industrial archeology in Britain and is known for several biographies of Victorian engineers.

Life

Rolts father Lionel lived a long time overseas ( for example on a cattle ranch in Australia, a plantation in India and with little success in the gold rush to the Yukon River ). After returning to England he lost the most money in a bad investment in a company, and the family then moved to Stanley Pontlarge. He attended Cheltenham College, began an apprenticeship as a steam engine machinist at the Kerr Stuart Railway works in Stoke-on -Trent, where his uncle Kyrle Willans was a senior development engineer. In the 1930s, he was in the then economic crisis, unemployed, took part in vintage car races and was part owner of a car repair shop in Hartley Wintney in Hampshire. In 1934 he was one of the founders of the Vintage Sports Car Club and he was the founder of the Automobile Club Prescott Hill Climb.

In 1936 he bought the canal boat Cressy his uncle back, built it into a house boat and toured the English channels. During this time he lived on his houseboat. In 1939 he married. During World War II he worked for the Rolls Royce works, then manufactured Spitfire engines. In 1944 he published his book about his life on English channels ( Narrow Boat ), which became a bestseller and directly to the creation of domestic Waterways Association ( IWA) led ( by Robert Aickman and Charles Hadfield ), the first secretary was Holt. The English channels had been nationalized in 1947 and many were threatened with closure while Rolt and the company came on in successful campaigns. Since Rolt was dependent on his income as a writer and had a falling out in different points with the founders of the company 1951, he was excluded. He was chairman in 1951 instead of a society, the historic railways maintained as a tourist attraction ( Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society in Towyn ( Tywyn ) in Wales). In this field, he was then a pioneer. One of the locomotives of the company is now named after him. He lived from 1953 in his hometown of Stanley Pontlarge and married after separating from his first wife a second time, the former actress Sonia Rolt, who he met in 1945 and with whom he had two sons.

In the 1950s, Rolt had his breakthrough as an art historian with a series of biographies of Victorian engineers. In particular, his biography of Isambard Kingdom Brunel led to a revival of interest in the then almost forgotten engineer. Other biographies of George Stephenson and Robert Stephenson, Thomas Telford, Richard Trevithick, Thomas Newcomen, James Watt followed. He also wrote books for example on railway accidents and a three-volume autobiography.

Rolt was vice president of the Newcomen Society, which donated a prize in his name ( Rolt Prize ), and the Council of Science Museum in London and York Railway Museum. Also at the foundation of the Ironbridge Gorge Museum in the Severn valley he was involved. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Newcastle and Bath. He was a founder of the Association for Industrial Archaeology, in an annual lecture ( Lecture Rolt ) is named after him.

A Bridge on the Oxford Canal in Banbury is named after him.

Writings

Bibliography of his works by Ian Rogerson and others ( M. & M. Baldwin, 1994)

Canals and waterways

  • Narrow boat, Eyre and Spottiswoode 1944 ( reporting a 400- mile journey in his canal boat Cressy on English channels ), Reprint The History Press 2000, 2010
  • Green and silver, George Allen and Unwin 1949
  • The inland waterways of England, George Allen & Unwin 1950
  • The Thames from mouth to source, 1951
  • Navigable Waterways, Longmans 1969, Hutchinson, London 1973
  • From sea to sea: the Canal du Midi, Allen Lane 1973

Railway

  • Patrick Whitehouse Lines of character, Constable and Robinson, 1952
  • Railway adventure, Constable 1953, The History Press in 2010 (partly autobiographical, about the early years of the Talyllyn Railway)
  • Red for Danger: A History of Railway Accidents and Railway Safety, The Bodley Head 1955, 2nd edition 1966, reprint: Sutton Publishing 1998, The History Press 2010 ( railway accidents )
  • Patrick Stirling 's locomotives, Hamish Hamilton 1964
  • The making of a railway, Evelyn 1971

Biographies

  • Isambard Kingdom Brunel: a biography, Longmans Green 1957, Penguin 1989
  • Thomas Telford, Longmans Green 1958, Methuen 1967, The History Press 2010
  • The Cornish giant: the story of Richard Trevithick, father of the steam locomotive, Lutterworth Press 1960
  • George and Robert Stephenson: the railway revolution, Longmans Green 1960 Reprint Amberley Press 2010
  • Great Engineers, G. Bell, London 1962
  • James Watt, Anova Books, Batsford 1962
  • Thomas Newcomen: The prehistory of the steam engine, David & Charles, 1968

Company history, industrial history

1950s was Rolt from end commissioned by many companies to write their history, but this was often published only in-house.

  • Holloways of Millbank: The first seventy -five years, 1958
  • The Dowty story, Part 1, 1962, Part 2, 1973
  • A Hunslet Hundred: one hundred years of locomotive building by the Hunslet Engine Company, 1964
  • The Mechanicals: progress of a profession, 1967
  • Waterloo Ironworks: a history of Taskers of Andover, 1809-1968, 1969
  • Victorian engineering, Allen Lane / Penguin 1970 Reprint Alan Sutton 2007, The History of 2010 ( discussed include the Britannia Bridge from Stephenson, the construction of the London sewerage system, the Severn Tunnel and the Crystal Palace by Paxton )
  • Tools for the Job: A Short History of Machine Tools, Batsford 1965
  • The potters ' field: a history of the South Devon ball clay industry, 1974

Autobiographical

  • Landscape with Machines, London: Longman, 1971, ISBN 0-5821-0740-7 (first part of his autobiography)
  • Landscape with Canals, 1977 ( second part of his autobiography)
  • Landscape with Figures, 1992 ( third part of his autobiography)
  • The Landscape Trilogy, Sutton Publishing, 2001, paperback 2005 (all three parts in one volume )

Others

  • The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903, Methuen 1967, new edition as The Balloonists: The History of the First Aeronauts, Sutton Publishing, 2006 The History Press 2010
  • A picture history of motoring, Hulton Press 1956
  • Two Ghost Stories, 1994
  • High horse riderless, George Allen and Unwin, 1947 ( critical considerations in the way of CP Snow's Two Cultures and a plea for environmental protection)
  • Sleep No More: Railway Canal and other stories of the supernatural, Constable 1948, The History Press 2010 ( ghost stories )
  • Worcestershire, Robert Hale 1949
  • Horseless carriage: the motor car in England, 1950
  • Winter Stoke, 1954 ( story of a fictional town in the Midlands )
  • The clouded mirror, Lane 1955 ( trip reports, etc. ), republished in 2009 under the same titles with excerpts from the autobiographies of Rolt
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