George Furness

George Furness (31 October 1820 – 9 January 1900) was a Victorian construction engineer and benefactor. He described himself as a "contractor of public works". He worked all around the world, on railways, drainage, and brickwork among numerous other things.

Birth

Furness was born in Great Longstone, Derbyshire. The old Croft House was part of the Furness' property there.

Career

George Furness did a wide variety of jobs and contracts throughout his life, both overseas and local.

Railway

In the early 19th century, the railway was born in Britain. Furness took advantage of this new type of business; from 1842 onwards, he worked on the construction of major railways in the Midlands, Western and Southern counties of England. Among those he contributed to were:

Some of these still exist.

Overseas work

When Britain was at the forefront of construction and engineering, specialists where in great demand overseas for their skills. Furness, being one of these skilled workers, was involved in overseas construction works in Brazil and France.

Furness

Furness /ˈfɜːrnᵻs/ is a peninsula and region in south Cumbria, England. While the name originally referred to the peninsula only, it can also refer more broadly to the whole of North Lonsdale, that part of the Lonsdale hundred that is an exclave of the historic county of Lancashire and also known as Detached Lancashire, lying to the north of Morecambe Bay. Since the boundary changes which removed the area from Lancashire, the use of the word Furness for the whole area has increased.

The area may be divided into Low Furness and High Furness. Low Furness is the peninsula itself; also an electoral ward which had a total population taken at the 2011 Census of 1,648. It juts out into the Irish Sea and delineates the western edge of Morecambe Bay. Another ward called Mid Furness exists. The population of this ward also taken at the 2011 Census was 3,981. The southern end of the peninsula is dominated by the bay's tidal mudflats. The long thin island of Walney lies off the peninsula's south-west coast. High Furness is the northern part of the area, that was part of North Lonsdale but is not on the peninsula itself. Much of it is within the Lake District National Park, and it includes the Furness Fells. It borders England's largest body of water, Windermere. Additionally, the Cartmel Peninsula, a separate peninsula between the estuaries of the rivers Leven and Kent, is often included in definitions of Furness.

Furness (disambiguation)

Furness is a peninsula in the southern part of Cumbria, in north-west England.

People with the surname Furness: