George Sorocold

George Sorocold (c. 1668 – c. 1738) was an engineer in Derby, England, in the eighteenth century.

He was born in Lancashire in 1666, the son of James Sorocold and Elizabeth Barrow. He obtained a degree at Cambridge and immediately started his first job in Derby. He married Mary, the daughter of Henry Franceys on 7 December 1684; by 1702 they had thirteen children, of whom eight then survived.

Sometime between 1685 and 1687 Sorocold was involved with the water supply to Macclesfield and in 1687, he took on the job of rehanging the bells in All Saints Church, now Derby Cathedral.

In 1692, he constructed the town's first waterworks, using a waterwheel to pump through some four miles of pipe made of elm trunks. For these he developed a boring machine, which he later patented. This waterworks lasted nearly a hundred years, and he constructed others around the country, at Bridgnorth, Bristol, Deal, King's Lynn, Leeds, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Portsmouth, Sheffield, and Great Yarmouth. In London he built Marchants Water Works, rebuilt London Bridge Water Works and carried out improvements to the New River. Among his many innovations were pumps worked by water‑wheels which rose and fell in accordance with the level of the stream. A patent was granted to his colleague, John Hadley, in 1693.

In 1695 and 1699, he produced plans for improving navigation of both the Yorkshire and Derbyshire River Derwents. He was also involved in improvements to the Rivers Lea, Aire and Cam.

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