06/07/2026
A bit of history for everyone.
William Gradwell:
Built Cumbria's unique Rolling Bridge.
Born 1820, Lowick. No formal training — apprenticed as a carpenter and wheelwright. Built the first wooden iron-ore pier at Ulverston, then scaled into timber importing and contracting. In 1878 his firm won the contract for the Ulverston Canal rolling bridge project — a bridge that retracts sideways into a dock rather than lifting or swinging, engineered by Frank Stileman. Gradwell built it: foundations, brickwork, and the accumulator tower that stored the hydraulic power to move it. Still standing, Grade II listed. He went on to build large chunks of Barrow-in-Furness — warehouses, hotels, streets of housing — and became one of the town's biggest cottage-property owners. Self-taught tradesman who ended up construction-managing some of the most technically unusual infrastructure in the country.
