Source: File: Albert Mathieu-Favier put forward the
first ever design for a cross-Channel fixed link. See an original image at: <http://www.eurotunnelgroup.com/uk/the-channel-tunnel/history/>
[Accessed 11 August 2016]
Source: File: French mining engineer, Aimé Thomé de
Gamond, spent 30 years working on seven different designs. See an original image
at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Channel_Tunnel_1856_idea_from_Gamond_1a.png>
[Accessed 11 August 2016]
An interest had been proposed
Before and shelved - revived
And again put aside - then a new
Call came for construction
Of a tunnel that could closely link
England to
her ally of France.
114 years previously a proposal
Made by Albert Mathieu-Favier
A French Engineer, for a tunnel.
Oil lamps would light the path
For horse drawn stagecoaches,
To mid point of an artificial island.
An Island where horses changed
Yet political anxiety and friction
Yet political anxiety and friction
Over security prevented such an
Idea - yet within 12 months Henry
Mottray suggested submerging
An iron tunnel into the channel.
Nothing happened until the 1830s -
Over the next 3 decades another
French engineer, Aimé Thomé
De Gamond, developed thoughts
Of steam trains travelling under
The channel waters, by 7 designs.
The channel waters, by 7 designs.
Aimé Thomé de Gamond's ideas
Were approved by Napoleon
III and Queen Victoria - perhaps
By the early twentieth century
The dreams of submerged, easy
Travel to France
to be a possibility.
Then in 1880 on both sides
Of the channel were attempts
Of a boring machine - starting
To dig down, underground
At Shakespeare Cliff towards
The sea to reach 6,211 feet.
From French Sangette 5,476
Feet were reached, but by 1882
The project shelved, regarding
Defence of British Isles -
only
To rise again by 1916 - into wars
Third year plans where revived.
Despite all previous security
Issues, Council of Department
For the Sine by a vote, sought
To revive a channel tunnel -
Work to build a link, would
Start as soon as possible.
United by their war against
Germany - a
post-war link
Would somehow increase
Strength against enemy’s
Economic plans, currently
Being devised, if defeated.
More immediately digging
A link tunnel, as historically
Proposed, would allow by
Their military union, safety
In transport of materials and
Troops from channel attacks.
By Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1916. Channel
Tunnel. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 8 August 1916. P.8. Col.3. Available at:
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12212489/Daily-Telegraph-August-8-1916.html>
[Accessed: 11 August 2016].
Source: File:
Groupe Eurotunnel History - Early Projects. Available at:
<http://www.eurotunnelgroup.com/uk/the-channel-tunnel/history/> [Accessed
11 August 2016]
Source: File:
Channel Tunnel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available at:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Channel_Tunnel> [Accessed 11 August 2016]
Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 11 August 2016).
#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary
#worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1France
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