James Trubshaw

James Trubshaw (13 February 1777 – 28 October 1853) was an English builder, architect and civil engineer. His civil engineering works include the construction of the Grosvenor Bridge in Chester, Cheshire, then the longest stone span. He also pioneered the technique of underexcavation with the straightening the leaning tower of St Chad's in Wybunbury, Cheshire.

He was born to stonemason, builder and engineering contractor, James Trubshaw and his second wife Elizabeth (née Webb), at the Mount near Colwich in Staffordshire, the second son in a family of seven sons and two daughters. He was educated in Rugeley, but left school aged only eleven to start work in his father's business. His earliest experience included working on buildings such as Sandon Hall, Fonthill Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle. In 1795, he worked on Wolseley Bridge near Colwich, and many of his early projects were bridges.

On the death of his father in 1808, Trubshaw started a building business in Stone; an early commission was to build Ashcombe Hall. He worked for a time in partnership with the Lichfield architect Thomas Johnson (1794–1865), who was to become his son-in-law. In 1827, Trubshaw became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and presented several papers there. He later became the chief engineer of the Trent and Mersey Canal Company, and superintended the construction of reservoirs, feeders and railways for the company.

Although he received only a limited education, he was a gifted practical engineer. His obituary in The Gentleman's Magazine described him as a man "of original genius, of great natural talent, and persevering energy ... gifted with an instinctive perception of all great mechanical principles, uniformly guided by excellent common sense."

His best-known work is the construction of the Grosvenor Bridge over the River Dee at Chester, Cheshire (1827–33). Designed by Thomas Harrison, the project had been dismissed as impractical by prominent engineers of the time including Thomas Telford. Its single stone span of 200 feet was considered the longest in the world when it was completed in 1833. The Institution of Civil Engineers, to whom Trubshaw presented models of the bridge showing its method of construction, described his methods as having "excited the admiration of the Profession." Trubshaw himself said that he was "convinced the arch will be the largest and finest stone arch in Europe and will consequently be a lasting monument to the glory and superiority of Great Britain."

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