The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-08-31 00:00:00

g description
respondent of
o

raits,

idge on the
,ee a wonder

of the world of this kind ; first, there is the middle pier,
rising out of the water founded on the Britannia Rock,
after which the bridge is named. This rock can be seen
at low water. The breadth of this pier is 62 feet by 53
feet and a quarter of an inch. The blocks of stone are 7
and 8 feet 1- by 3 and 4 feet in }. •dth and -1

iong deepness,
and they rise, stone upon stone, until the pier is 230 feet
high. At the distance of 460 feet on each side of this
centre pier there rise, near the water's edge, two other
piers of the same gigantic breadth and height • while on
side of these two piers, at the distance of 250 feet,
' -re rise two walls. Continuing outwards, the wall on
scarcely be described, and even among several naruy burs, un. Light band, on the Carnarvon shore, does not extend
who had braved many a storm, and had often witnessed its ponderous bulk far back, for the land is high and bold,
the deaths of their comrades, its effect was very striking. and the railway comes along its elevated brow, and at once
It will be remembered that this vessel proceeded, some lays hold of the bridge. But on our left hand, which is
years ago, to Davis's Straits, commanded by Captain the Anglesea shore, the wall is the forehead and end of a
Ross, with Mr. Humphrey as sailing master, in search of mighty embankment on which the railway is raised to the
the missing whalers, and very early in the month of Oc- level of the bridge. There, then, are the four spaces be-
tober last she was wrecked upon Red Island. Eleven fore us, across which, in the iron tubes, the railway. is
of the crew, eight men and three boys, took to the skiff, laid, namely, two spaces on each side of the centre pier
lioping to reach the shore, but have never been heard of of 460 feet each (let the reader measure 460 feet on a strett
since. The master, the cook, and the carpenter remained or on a road, and he will wonder at the vastness of this
on board, and were saved. The ship with her stores were structure ;) and two more spaces of 250 feet respectively,
condemned and sold upon Red Island, but the chests, at each end. The tubes are eight in number, each 01
hammocks, &c., of the crew were left at Quebec, but have them 30 feet on the exterior side, and 27 high in the in-
now been brought over in the Indus, by Messrs. R. and terior. Each is 14 feet wide, and they are laid in couplet
J. Gill, of this port, late owners of the Cove.—Hull parallel to each other. In the whole, with the breadth 0'
Packet. the piers and the landward buildings, the length of the
AN ILL-FATED FAMILY.—One of the most cool- bridge is one-third of a mile. In height the three pie°
blooded murders ever perpetrated in this neighbourhood, are, as already said, 230 feet. Measuring from low water
took lace on the morning of Sunday last, at Langshaw mark to the bottom of the tubes, the height is 130 feet'
Farm in Heaton ; Betty Pilkington, an aged and respect- the tubes being 30 feet on the side, and the pier 70 fee
able female having been killed by her husband, Robert above the upper surface. As ornaments to the two wall!
Pilking ton, an old man 56 years of age,. with a bar of iron which rise upon each shore, are four lions, two at each eod
or poker, the particulars of which we give elsewhere. The of the bridge. The lions contain about 8,000 cubic fee'
history of his family is a most melancholy one, and causes of stone. They lie couched, and yet the height of each
amongst such of the inhabitants as are acquainted with it, is 12 feet, the greatest breadth across the body is 9 feet?
horrifying thoughts. Piikington's father, in the middle the length 25 feet, the breadth of each paw 2 feet 4 incbe°'
was hung for stabbing a fellow-creature ; The tubes are made of plates of iron of various thicknesseS;
after that melancholy event, which ought to riveted together. The iron increases in thickness as ti
ashtnaadvg eenaooctf long
dfeis a warning to the remaining branches of the proceed towards the centre. The roofs of the tubes sv",
family, his son—brother to the present monster in human formed of cells, and also the floors. These cells 1,„
shape—was transported for causing a man's death by formed of iron plates set on edge, the cells of the ruve,
kicking ; and, to add to the catalogue, Orrell, who was being within a fraction of one foot nine inches square, Oa
hung for poisoning his children some years ago, was cousin those of the floor being one foot nine inches wide, 61),,i
to him. About three or four months ago, we had to two feet three inches deep. The rails on which the tral:
record a lamentable event which occurred at Dockcocker, run are laid on these cells of the floor. The flat bottom
public house, on the boundary of Halliwell and Heaton, the two upright sides, and the flat roof of each tube
in which a man named Kershaw had been struck on the formed of plates, the thinnest of which is a quarter off,Z,
head with a fire poker, by John Pilkington, son of the inch, and the thickest three quarters of an inch. owe
present homicide, and which had well nigh terminated weight of each of the four long tubes will be about 19';10
his existence. Kershaw, however, (although at times tons; the weight of each of the four short ones
labouring under an aberration of intellect) recovered, but 600 tons. In the whole there will be at least 7,6uu 'J.
John Pilkington was committed for trial at the assizes, of iron used. The masonry was contracted for bYto
and was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for the Nowell and Co., at £130,000 but from alterations in tb•
offence. He had been out upon bail previous to trial, plans it will cost
and on his departure left his mother in charge of the masonry by August, 1848, It will contain 1,300,00"
,
farm, which was the scene of the present murder.. feet Of Owe* £200,000. They expect to finish
to

in October last, with most of her crew. The scene was
unusually painful, from the circumstance that no less
than seven poor widows, all relatives of the deceased, were
assembled to identify the very articles which they them-
selves had made up for the comfort of their partners in
life ; and on the spot, too, where, only twelve months ago,
they took their last farewell. Such a scene_ as this can