Harrison Hayter

Who was Harrison Hayter?

Harrison Hayter was a British engineer, participating in many significant railway construction projects in Britain and many harbour and dock constructions worldwide.

Hayter was born at Flushing near Falmouth, Cornwall the second son of Henry Hayter and his wife Eliza Jane Heylyn. He became a Civil Engineer, and began his professional training on the Stockton and Darlington Railway and then in the construction of the Great Northern Railway. In 1856 he was living in Anglesey, while working on the construction of Holyhead Harbour.

In 1857 he joined Sir John Hawkshaw and was associated with most of his projects until Sir John retired in 1888. These including the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, Charing Cross and Cannon Street Lines, East London Railway, completion of Inner Circle, the Severn Tunnel Railway and many overseas railways. The bridges he helped build included the Charing Cross Railway Bridge, the Cannon Street Railway Bridge and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. Harbours were at Alderney, IJmuiden and Mornungao and docks at Hull, Penarth, Maryport, Fleetwood, Dover and the South dock of the West India Docks. Other works included the Amsterdam Ship Canal, the foundation of the Spithead Forts, River Witham middle level, Thames Valley drainages, and sewerage in Brighton. When he died he was completing a large system of docks at Buenos Aires, where James Murray Dobson was the resident engineer.