John Sheldon Wilkinson
John Sheldon Wilkinson (1837-1880)
1881 Obituary [1]
. . . About Christmas 1856 he was articled to W. M. Brydone, M. Inst. C.E., then chief engineer to the Great Northern Railway Company. At the expiration of his pupilage he continued in the employment of the Great Northern railway, being engaged for twenty months in there building of the bridge over the Witham at Bardney, between Boston and Lincoln, on their loop line. In the execution of this work he was considered to have shown good skill, as the reconstruction had to be effected in a morass, and by its stability it has proved the judgment shown in its erection.
From this work Mr. Wilkinson became contractors’ engineer, having charge of the construction of part of the Aylesbury and Buckingham railway. Then for two years he was chief assistant engineer on the Great Northern railway. When the Great Northern and the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire railways determined on carrying out their Cheshire line as a joint undertaking, he was the resident engineer engaged in their superintendence. But about this time Mr. Wilkinson determined to commence business on his own account, and took up his residence in Manchester, where he continued for the most part to reside until his premature death, though he was then making arrangements to remove his main office to London, where for some time he had had a branch. . .