Sonning Cutting
| Sonning Cutting, between Maidenhead and Reading in Berkshire, was needed to keep the railway line as level as possible. Brunel had originally intended to make a tunnel here, but the geology did not seem suitable, and instead this huge cutting, over a mile long and up to 60 feet deep, was let as contract 8L to William Ranger. Hundreds of navvies laboured on it, but the work was dogged by unusually foul weather in 1836-7. Ranger became insolvent, and had to be replaced with the Scots firm of Hugh and David McIntosh. The cutting was finished and the line opened to Reading in March 1840. |