Question: One of the contractors of the Kendal Windermere Railways had also built one third of the railways in which country by 1847?

full_context: Document 1: Kendal and Windermere Railway: The Kendal and Windermere Railway is a railway in Cumbria in north-west England. It was built as a railway from the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway at Oxenholme via Kendal to near Windermere, opening fully in April 1847. The engineer was Joseph Locke and the partnership of contractors consisted of Thomas Brassey, William Mackenzie, Robert Stephenson and George Heald. It remains open, albeit in much simplified form, as the Windermere Branch Line.
Document 2: Oxenholme Lake District railway station: Oxenholme Lake District railway station (often shortened to Oxenholme) is a railway station in Oxenholme, near Kendal, in Cumbria, England. The station is situated on the West Coast Main Line and is also the start of the Windermere Branch Line to Windermere. All platforms are electrified, however platform 3 on the Windermere branch has limited capacity for longer trains. The station serves as a main line connection point for Kendal, and is managed by Virgin Trains.
Document 3: Lancaster Canal: The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria (then in Westmorland). The section around the crossing of the River Ribble was never completed, and much of the southern end leased to the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, of which it is now generally considered part.
Document 4: John Whitton: John Whitton (1820, near Wakefield, Yorkshire, England – 20 February 1898), an Anglo–Australian railway engineer, was the Engineer-in-Charge for the New South Wales Railways, serving between 1856 and 1899, considered the Father of New South Wales Railways. Under his supervision, it is estimated that 2171 mi of railway around New South Wales and Victoria were completed. Whitton was responsible for the construction of the Blue Mountains railway line and parts of the Main Western railway line, in particular the Great Zig Zag near Lithgow, and much of the Great Southern line.
Document 5: Windermere, Cumbria (town): Windermere is a town and civil parish in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England. It has a population of 8,245 increasing to 8,359 at the 2011 Census, and lies about half a mile (1 km) away from the lake, Windermere. Although the town Windermere does not touch the lake (it took the name of the lake when the railway line was built in 1847 and the station was called "Windermere"), it has now grown together with the older lakeside town of Bowness-on-Windermere, though the two retain distinguishable town centres. Tourism is popular in the town owing to its proximity to the lake and local scenery. Boats from the piers in Bowness sail around the lake, many calling at Ambleside or at Lakeside where there is a restored railway. Windermere Hotel opened at the same time as the railway.
Document 6: Windermere: Windermere is the largest natural lake in England. It is a ribbon lake formed in a glacial trough after the retreat of ice at the start of the current interglacial period. It has been one of the country's most popular places for holidays and summer homes since the arrival of the Kendal and Windermere Railway's branch line in 1847. Historically forming part of the border between Lancashire and Westmorland, it is now within the county of Cumbria and the Lake District National Park.
Document 7: Thomas Brassey: Thomas Brassey (7 November 1805 – 8 December 1870) was an English civil engineering contractor and manufacturer of building materials who was responsible for building much of the world's railways in the 19th century. By 1847, he had built about one-third of the railways in Britain, and by time of his death in 1870 he had built one in every twenty miles of railway in the world. This included three-quarters of the lines in France, major lines in many other European countries and in Canada, Australia, South America and India. He also built the structures associated with those railways, including docks, bridges, viaducts, stations, tunnels and drainage works.
Document 8: Thomas Mainwaring Penson: Thomas Mainwaring Penson (1818–64) was an English surveyor and architect. His father and grandfather, who were both named Thomas Penson, were also surveyors and architects. His grandfather Thomas Penson (c. 1760–1824) worked from an office in Wrexham, North Wales, and was responsible for the design of bridges, roads, gaols and buildings in North Wales. His son Thomas Penson (1790–1859) was county surveyor to a number of Welsh counties and also designed bridges. He later moved to Oswestry, Shropshire where he established an architectural practice. Thomas Mainwaring Penson was born in Oswestry, and was educated at Oswestry School. His elder brother was Richard Kyrke Penson who became a partner in the Oswestry practice in 1854, before developing an extensive architectural practice of his own, mainly in South Wales. Thomas Mainwaring Penson trained in his father's practice. Thomas Mainwaring initially designed buildings in the area of the practice, including stations for the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway.
Document 9: Gustave Eiffel: Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (born Bönickhausen; ; ] ; 25 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.
Document 10: History of rail transport in Great Britain: The railway system of Great Britain, the principal territory of the United Kingdom, is the oldest in the world. The system was originally built as a patchwork of local rail links operated by small private railway companies. These isolated links developed during the railway boom of the 1840s into a national network, although still run by dozens of competing companies. Over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries, these amalgamated or were bought by competitors until only a handful of larger companies remained (see railway mania). The entire network was brought under government control during the First World War and a number of advantages of amalgamation and planning were revealed. However, the government resisted calls for the nationalisation of the network. In 1923, almost all the remaining companies were grouped into the "big four", the Great Western Railway, the London and North Eastern Railway, the London, Midland and Scottish Railway and the Southern Railway. The "Big Four" were joint-stock public companies and they continued to run the railway system until 31 December 1947.
Document 11: Shrewsbury–Chester line: The Shrewsbury–Chester line, also known as the Severn–Dee Mainline (after the rivers on which Shrewsbury and Chester stand), was built in 1846 as the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway. The engineer for the line was Henry Robertson, a partner in locomotive builders Beyer Peacock, while the contractor was Thomas Brassey in partnership with William Mackenzie and Robert Stephenson.
Document 12: Garabit viaduct: The Garabit Viaduct ("Viaduc de Garabit" in French) is a railway arch bridge spanning the River Truyère near Ruynes-en-Margeride (), Cantal, France, in the mountainous Massif Central region. The bridge was constructed between 1882 and 1884 by Gustave Eiffel, with structural engineering by Maurice Koechlin, and was opened in 1885. It is 565 m in length and has a principal arch of 165 m span.
Document 13: Roger Morris (engineer): Roger Brian Morris (19 March 1933 – 15 June 2001) was a pioneer in railway engineering, having helped develop the rail system for the Channel Tunnel, the hovertrain project as well as a number of the railway systems in Eastern Europe and South America.
Document 14: Rudyard Lake Steam Railway: The Rudyard Lake Steam Railway is a ridable miniature railway and the third railway of any gauge to run along the side of Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire. The railway runs for 1+1/2 mi on the track bed of an old standard gauge North Staffordshire Railway line. After the NSR line closed down, a small narrow gauge train ran on the site for two years before moving via Suffolk to Trago Mills in Devon. The current line started in 1985 and is gauge, and operates to a timetable. It was built by Peter Hanton of Congleton working on his own over a period of 10 years. He sold the railway to the Rudyard Lake Steam Railway Ltd in October 2000 who have developed it since that date.
Document 15: Cumbrian Coast line: The Cumbrian Coast line is a rail route in North West England, running from Carlisle to Barrow-in-Furness via Workington and Whitehaven. The line forms part of Network Rail route NW 4033, which continues (as the Furness line) via Ulverston and Grange-over-Sands to Carnforth, where it connects with the West Coast Main Line.
ground_truth: Britain