GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton

Harbury Cutting and Tunnel: gwrhc2512

View of the three-arch bridge being repaired near Harbury tunnel during September 1907. During the Victorian era, scaffolding was put up by individual firms with wildly varying standards and sizes. Timber poles are being used to provide the temporary staging as tubular steel water pipes were not introduced by SGB (Scaffolding Great Britain) until 1923. With standardised dimensions, the use of tubes allowed for the industrial interchangeability of parts and improving the structural stability of the scaffold. In 1906, the British Patent Rapid company which became SGB and was founded by Daniel Palmer-Jones and his brother David, patented the 'Scaffixer', a coupling device far more robust than rope which revolutionised scaffolding construction. Its not clear from the above photograph whether the poles are fixed together by rope or the 'Scaffixer'.

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