West Riding Surveyor
Surveyors were first appointed by the justices in April 1743. The two surveyors, who held office jointly, were responsible for the `Riding bridges' that is, those bridges which the Riding was liable to maintain out of the West Riding rate. An important aspect of their work was to investigate the status of bridges to ensure that no bridge was maintained out of the West Riding rate if liability lay with a wapentake, an individual or any other authority. The surveyors did not have responsibility for the maintenance of Riding bridges. From July 1712 this had been regularly let out to contractors known as the undertakers of Riding bridges. Wapentake bridges, those for which the liability for repair fell upon a particular wapentake, were supervised by the local justices, except for the wapentake of Staincliffe and Ewecross for which contractors were appointed. The importance attached to the role of the surveyors in protecting the Riding `from future violations and impositions' over the status of bridges is witnessed by the preparation of the bridges book of 1752-1753 (see QD1/461).
In April 1777 the justices decided to make a major revision in the office and duties of surveyor. Thereafter there was to be a single surveyor only, to whom was to be delegated all business concerning both Riding and wapentake bridges and all other public works. As before, the surveyor was not to be directly involved in contracts for the repair or building of bridges, but the practice of letting a single contract for the maintenance of all Riding bridges seems to have ceased. The responsibility for public works assumed greater significance in the nineteenth century. The commission for the first West Riding asylum was awarded to a private architectural practice, as noted on page 81, but the West Riding Surveyor was responsible for designing two houses of correction and two later asylums. In December 1878 the responsibilities of the surveyor were enlarged by the delegation to him by the court of duties under the Highway and Locomotives Amendment Act, 1878 which made counties liable to contribute towards the maintenance of main roads.
Biographical details of the Watson, Carr, Gott and Hartley families who filled the office of surveyor in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries may be found in H Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 (London, 1978)
The Quarter Sessions order books contain the following entries relating to the appointment of surveyors:
- April 1743: John Watson of Hobroyd and Robert Carr of Horbury, masons; to be paid £15 a year each (ref. QS10/19)
- April 1757: John Watson the younger replaced his deceased father (ref. QS10/22)
- April 1761: John Carr replaced Robert Carr (ref. QS10/23)
- August 1771: John Billington of Foulby replaced John Watson desceased (ref. QS10/27)
- April 1773: Robert Carr of Horbury, architect, replaced his brother John Carr, for whom he had been officiating since January (ref. QS10/27)
- July 1774: Jonathan Sykes of Oulton replaced John Billington (ref. QS10/28)
[Robert Carr buried, Horbury 11 March 1777]
- April 1777: John Gott of Woodall appointed surveyor at £250 a year with £50 for assistants; Jonathan Sykes to be supernumerary surveyor at £35 a year (ref. QS10/28)
- July 1793: William Gott replaced John Gott deceased (ref. QS10/32)
- January 1797: Bernard Hartley replaced William Gott, resigned (ref. QS10/33)
- April 1819: Bernard Hartley the younger appointed jointly with his father as 'Bridge Master and Surveyor' (to 1833) (ref. QS10/45)
- 1834: Bernard Hartley II takes over (ref. QS10/51, see also QD3/16)
- August 1855: Bernard Hartley III appointed in place of his deceased father as 'Surveyor of the bridges and other public works' (ref. QS10/58)
- October 1882: J Vickers Edwards appointed in place of Bernard Hartley, resigned, who is retained as consulting engineer (ref. QS10/65)
For more information about records relating to West Riding Bridges see here.