L. T. C. Rolt
Encyclopedia
Lionel Thomas Caswall Rolt (usually abbreviated to Tom Rolt or L. T. C. Rolt) (11 February 1910 – 9 May 1974) was a prolific English
writer and the biographer
of major civil engineering
figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel
and Thomas Telford
. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways, and as an enthusiast for both vintage car
s and heritage railways.
to a line of Rolts "dedicated to hunting and procreation". His father Lionel had settled back in England in Hay-on-Wye
after working on a cattle ranch in Australia, a plantation in India and joining (unsuccessfully) in the Yukon gold rush of 1898. However he lost most of his money in 1920 after investing his capital in a company which failed and the family moved to a pair of stone cottages in Stanley Pontlarge
in Gloucestershire
.
Tom studied at Cheltenham College
and at 16 took a job learning about steam traction before starting an apprenticeship at the Kerr Stuart
locomotive works in Stoke-on-Trent
, where his uncle, Kyrle Willans was chief development engineer. His uncle bought a wooden narrow fly horse boat called Cressy and installed first a steam engine and then (having discovered the steam made steering through tunnels impossible) a Ford Model T
engine. This was Tom's introduction to the canal system.
In the thirties slump he was jobless and turned to vintage sports cars, taking part in the veteran run to Brighton and acquiring a succession of cars including a 1924 Alvis
12/50 two seater 'ducks back' which he was to keep for the rest of his life.
He bought into a motor garage partnership next to the Phoenix public house in Hartley Wintney
in Hampshire (their breakdown vehicle was an adapted 1911 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost) and together with the landlord of the Phoenix, Tim Carson, and others, formed the Vintage Sports-Car Club
in 1934. He also found and helped create the Prescott hill climb.
In 1936, Kyrle bought back Cressy, which he had earlier sold, and several trips on the waterways convinced Rolt that he wanted a life afloat. He persuaded Angela Orred, a young blonde in a white polo-necked sweater who had swept into his garage in an Alfa Romeo in 1937 and got caught up into the vintage car scene, to join him in this idyll. Tom bought Cressy from his uncle and set about converting her into a boat that could be lived aboard, the most notable addition being a bath.
By the summer of 1939 they decided to defy Angela's father's reluctance and got married in secret on 11 July and within two weeks had set off up the Oxford Canal
in Cressy. But the second world war intervened and Tom, a pacifist at heart, immediately signed up at the Rolls Royce factory at Crewe (on the production line for the Spitfire
's Merlin engine). He was saved from the tedium of the production line by the offer of a job in an Aldbourne foundry. They battled south in Cressy through storms, reaching Banbury a day before the canals were finally frozen over for the winter.
Their first four month cruise became a book which he initially called Painted Ship. Despite sending the manuscript to many publishers, he had to put it aside as they all considered there was no market for books about canals. It wasn't until a magazine article he wrote came to the attention of the countryside writer H. J. Massingham
that he had the break which led to the book's finally being published in December 1944 under the title Narrow Boat. It was an immediate success both with critics and public, with fan mail arriving on the boat at Tardebigge
where they were then moored.
Two of the letters he received were from Robert Aickman
and Charles Hadfield
who were both to figure prominently in the next phase of his life, as a campaigner. He invited Robert and his wife Ray to join them on Cressy and this trip Robert later described as "the best time I have ever spent on the waterways". It was on this voyage they decided to form an organization that a few weeks later in May 1946 at Robert's London flat got the name of the Inland Waterways Association
, with Robert as chairman, Charles Hadfield as vice-chairman and Tom as secretary.
This was a critical period for the waterways, which were nationalised in 1947 and faced an uncertain future, as the traditional life which Rolt had so movingly described was faced with extinction. Tom pioneered a direct action on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
which stopped British Waterways from closing it, organised a hugely successful Inland Waterways Exhibition, which started in London but toured the country, and proposed the first boat rally at Market Harborough
. Aickman, with a private income, was working full-time on the campaign whilst Rolt, who had only his writing to support himelf and was still living aboard Cressy, struggled to meet all the commitments he found himself with. Eventually he fell out with Aickman over the latter's insistence that every mile of canal should be saved and in early 1951 was expelled from the organization he had inspired.
By this time also he had decided to bring his life on Cressy to an end and return to his family home in Stanley Pontlarge. Angela departed to continue the mobile life, joining Billy Smart's Circus.
A letter he had sent to the Birmingham Post
in 1950 resulted in the formation of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society and he now threw himself into this and became chairman of the company, which operated it as a tourist attraction. "By the time the fateful letter terminating his IWA membership arrived, he was already busy issuing and stamping passengers' tickets from the little station in Towyn
".
He got married again to Sonia South, a former actress, who during the war had become one of the amateur boat women who worked the canals and had married a boatman. She had been on the council of the IWA.
They had two sons, Tim and Dick, and continued to live in Stanley Pontlarge till Rolt's death in 1974.
The fifties were his most prolific time as an author with the best known being biographies of Brunel
, which stimulated a revival of interest in a forgotten hero,
George
and Robert Stephenson
,
and Telford
, and his classic Red for Danger, about historic railway accidents, which became a text book on numerous engineering courses.
He produced many works about subjects that had not previously been considered the stuff of literature: civil engineering
, canal
s, railways, etc.
In the last years of his life he produced 3 volumes of autobiography, only one of which was published during his lifetime.
He was Vice-President of the Newcomen Society
, which established a Rolt Prize;
a trustee and member of the Advisory Council of the Science Museum
; member of the York Railway Museum
Committee; an honorary MA of Newcastle
; an honorary MSc of Bath
and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
. He was a joint founder of the Association for Industrial Archaeology
, which has an annual Rolt lecture. He helped to form the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
.
A locomotive Tom Rolt
on the Talyllyn Railway
, the world's first preserved railway, was named in his memory in 1991. His book Railway Adventure recalls this period.
Rolt observed the changes in society resulting from the industrial-scientific revolution. In the epilogue to his biography of I.K.Brunel he writes two years before C. P. Snow
makes similar statements about the split between the arts and sciences:
He set out these ideas more fully in his book High Horse Riderless, a classic of green philosophy.
A bridge (no. 164) on the Oxford Canal
in Banbury
bears his name (in commemoration of his book Narrow Boat), as does a centre at the boat museum at Ellesmere Port
in Cheshire
. A blue plaque to Mr. Rolt was unveiled in at Tooley's Boatyard
, Banbury on 7 August 2010 as part of the centenary celebrations of his birth.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
writer and the biographer
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of major civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
and Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways, and as an enthusiast for both vintage car
Vintage car
A vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930 known as the "Vintage era". There is little debate about the start date of the vintage period—the end of World War I is a nicely defined marker there—but the end date is a matter of a little...
s and heritage railways.
Biography
Tom Rolt was born in ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
to a line of Rolts "dedicated to hunting and procreation". His father Lionel had settled back in England in Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye , often described as "the town of books", is a small market town and community in Powys, Wales.-Location:The town lies on the east bank of the River Wye and is within the Brecon Beacons National Park, just north of the Black Mountains...
after working on a cattle ranch in Australia, a plantation in India and joining (unsuccessfully) in the Yukon gold rush of 1898. However he lost most of his money in 1920 after investing his capital in a company which failed and the family moved to a pair of stone cottages in Stanley Pontlarge
Stanley Pontlarge
Stanley Pontlarge is a hamlet in Gloucestershire, within the civil parish of Prescott and the ecclesiastical parish of Winchcombe. It is notable for its Norman church as well as 'The Cottage;' a 14th century house that was the home of Tom Rolt, the writer on canals and industrial archaeology...
in Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....
.
Tom studied at Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College
Cheltenham College is a co-educational independent school, located in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.One of the public schools of the Victorian period, it was opened in July 1841. An Anglican foundation, it is known for its classical, military and sporting traditions.The 1893 book Great...
and at 16 took a job learning about steam traction before starting an apprenticeship at the Kerr Stuart
Kerr Stuart
Kerr, Stuart and Company Ltd was a locomotive manufacturer from Stoke-on-Trent, England.-History:It was founded in 1881 by James Kerr as James Kerr & Company, and became Kerr, Stuart & Company from 1883 when John Stuart was taken on as a partner...
locomotive works in Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent
Stoke-on-Trent , also called The Potteries is a city in Staffordshire, England, which forms a linear conurbation almost 12 miles long, with an area of . Together with the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme Stoke forms The Potteries Urban Area...
, where his uncle, Kyrle Willans was chief development engineer. His uncle bought a wooden narrow fly horse boat called Cressy and installed first a steam engine and then (having discovered the steam made steering through tunnels impossible) a Ford Model T
Ford Model T
The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Henry Ford's Ford Motor Company from September 1908 to May 1927...
engine. This was Tom's introduction to the canal system.
In the thirties slump he was jobless and turned to vintage sports cars, taking part in the veteran run to Brighton and acquiring a succession of cars including a 1924 Alvis
Alvis Cars
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company that existed in Coventry, England from 19191967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles, the...
12/50 two seater 'ducks back' which he was to keep for the rest of his life.
He bought into a motor garage partnership next to the Phoenix public house in Hartley Wintney
Hartley Wintney
Hartley Wintney is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire.-Location and character:Hartley Wintney is in the Hart district of North-East Hampshire...
in Hampshire (their breakdown vehicle was an adapted 1911 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost) and together with the landlord of the Phoenix, Tim Carson, and others, formed the Vintage Sports-Car Club
Vintage Sports-Car Club
The Vintage Sports-Car Club or VSCC is a British motor racing club. Established "towards the end of 1934" by Tim Carson and Tom Rolt to promote the pastime of motoring, the VSCC was first started in order to allow the "not so rich" to enjoy historic motoring.. General guidelines made the club...
in 1934. He also found and helped create the Prescott hill climb.
In 1936, Kyrle bought back Cressy, which he had earlier sold, and several trips on the waterways convinced Rolt that he wanted a life afloat. He persuaded Angela Orred, a young blonde in a white polo-necked sweater who had swept into his garage in an Alfa Romeo in 1937 and got caught up into the vintage car scene, to join him in this idyll. Tom bought Cressy from his uncle and set about converting her into a boat that could be lived aboard, the most notable addition being a bath.
By the summer of 1939 they decided to defy Angela's father's reluctance and got married in secret on 11 July and within two weeks had set off up the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
in Cressy. But the second world war intervened and Tom, a pacifist at heart, immediately signed up at the Rolls Royce factory at Crewe (on the production line for the Spitfire
Supermarine Spitfire (early Merlin powered variants)
The British Supermarine Spitfire was the only fighter aircraft of the Second World War to fight in front line service, from the beginnings of the conflict, in September 1939, through to the end in August 1945. Post-war the Spitfire's service career continued into the 1950s...
's Merlin engine). He was saved from the tedium of the production line by the offer of a job in an Aldbourne foundry. They battled south in Cressy through storms, reaching Banbury a day before the canals were finally frozen over for the winter.
Their first four month cruise became a book which he initially called Painted Ship. Despite sending the manuscript to many publishers, he had to put it aside as they all considered there was no market for books about canals. It wasn't until a magazine article he wrote came to the attention of the countryside writer H. J. Massingham
H. J. Massingham
Harold John Massingham was a prolific British writer on matters to do with the countryside and agriculture. He was also a published poet.-Life:...
that he had the break which led to the book's finally being published in December 1944 under the title Narrow Boat. It was an immediate success both with critics and public, with fan mail arriving on the boat at Tardebigge
Tardebigge
Tardebigge is a village in Worcestershire, England.The village is most famous for the Tardebigge Locks, a flight of 36 canal locks that raise the Worcester and Birmingham Canal over 220 feet over the Lickey Ridge. It lies in the historic county of Worcestershire.-Toponymy:The etymology of the...
where they were then moored.
Two of the letters he received were from Robert Aickman
Robert Aickman
Robert Fordyce Aickman was an English conservationist and writer of fiction and nonfiction. As a writer, he is best known for his supernatural fiction, which he described as "strange stories".-Life:...
and Charles Hadfield
Charles Hadfield
Charles Hadfield may refer to:* Charles Hadfield in the north of England in the 19th century* Charles Hadfield of the canals in the 20th century...
who were both to figure prominently in the next phase of his life, as a campaigner. He invited Robert and his wife Ray to join them on Cressy and this trip Robert later described as "the best time I have ever spent on the waterways". It was on this voyage they decided to form an organization that a few weeks later in May 1946 at Robert's London flat got the name of the Inland Waterways Association
Inland Waterways Association
The Inland Waterways Association was formed in 1946 as a registered charity in the United Kingdom to campaign for the conservation, use, maintenance, restoration and sensitive development of British Canals and river navigations....
, with Robert as chairman, Charles Hadfield as vice-chairman and Tom as secretary.
This was a critical period for the waterways, which were nationalised in 1947 and faced an uncertain future, as the traditional life which Rolt had so movingly described was faced with extinction. Tom pioneered a direct action on the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
Stratford-upon-Avon Canal
The Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is a canal in the south Midlands of England.The canal, which was built between 1793 and 1816, runs for in total, and consists of two sections. The dividing line is at Kingswood Junction, which gives access to the Grand Union Canal...
which stopped British Waterways from closing it, organised a hugely successful Inland Waterways Exhibition, which started in London but toured the country, and proposed the first boat rally at Market Harborough
Market Harborough
Market Harborough is a market town within the Harborough district of Leicestershire, England.It has a population of 20,785 and is the administrative headquarters of Harborough District Council. It sits on the Northamptonshire-Leicestershire border...
. Aickman, with a private income, was working full-time on the campaign whilst Rolt, who had only his writing to support himelf and was still living aboard Cressy, struggled to meet all the commitments he found himself with. Eventually he fell out with Aickman over the latter's insistence that every mile of canal should be saved and in early 1951 was expelled from the organization he had inspired.
By this time also he had decided to bring his life on Cressy to an end and return to his family home in Stanley Pontlarge. Angela departed to continue the mobile life, joining Billy Smart's Circus.
A letter he had sent to the Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
The Birmingham Post newspaper was originally published under the name Daily Post in Birmingham, England, in 1857 by John Frederick Feeney. It was the largest selling broadsheet in the West Midlands, though it faced little if any competition in this category. It changed to tabloid size in 2008...
in 1950 resulted in the formation of the Talyllyn Railway Preservation Society and he now threw himself into this and became chairman of the company, which operated it as a tourist attraction. "By the time the fateful letter terminating his IWA membership arrived, he was already busy issuing and stamping passengers' tickets from the little station in Towyn
Tywyn
Tywyn is a town and seaside resort on the Cardigan Bay coast of southern Gwynedd , in north Wales. The name derives from the Welsh tywyn and the town is sometimes referred to as Tywyn Meirionnydd...
".
He got married again to Sonia South, a former actress, who during the war had become one of the amateur boat women who worked the canals and had married a boatman. She had been on the council of the IWA.
They had two sons, Tim and Dick, and continued to live in Stanley Pontlarge till Rolt's death in 1974.
The fifties were his most prolific time as an author with the best known being biographies of Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
, which stimulated a revival of interest in a forgotten hero,
George
George Stephenson
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
and Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson
Robert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
,
and Telford
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
, and his classic Red for Danger, about historic railway accidents, which became a text book on numerous engineering courses.
He produced many works about subjects that had not previously been considered the stuff of literature: civil engineering
Civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including works like roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings...
, canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...
s, railways, etc.
In the last years of his life he produced 3 volumes of autobiography, only one of which was published during his lifetime.
Achievements and honours
Newcomen Society
The Newcomen Society is a British learned society formed to foster the study of the history of engineering and technology. It was founded in London in 1920 and takes its name from Thomas Newcomen, one of the inventors associated with the early development of the steam engine, who is widely...
, which established a Rolt Prize;
a trustee and member of the Advisory Council of the Science Museum
Science Museum (London)
The Science Museum is one of the three major museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is part of the National Museum of Science and Industry. The museum is a major London tourist attraction....
; member of the York Railway Museum
National Railway Museum
The National Railway Museum is a museum in York forming part of the British National Museum of Science and Industry and telling the story of rail transport in Britain and its impact on society. It has won many awards, including the European Museum of the Year Award in 2001...
Committee; an honorary MA of Newcastle
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle University is a major research-intensive university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by an Act of Parliament in August 1963. Newcastle University is...
; an honorary MSc of Bath
University of Bath
The University of Bath is a campus university located in Bath, United Kingdom. It received its Royal Charter in 1966....
and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
. He was a joint founder of the Association for Industrial Archaeology
Association for Industrial Archaeology
The Association for Industrial Archaeology, or AIA, is a body promoting the research, recording, preservation and presentation of the Industrial Heritage of the United Kingdom...
, which has an annual Rolt lecture. He helped to form the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust is an industrial heritage organisation which runs ten museums and manages 35 historic sites within the Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire, England, widely considered as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution....
.
A locomotive Tom Rolt
Tom Rolt (locomotive)
Tom Rolt is a narrow gauge steam locomotive constructed by the Talyllyn Railway using parts from an Andrew Barclay locomotive built in 1949 for Bord na Móna.-Bord na Móna:...
on the Talyllyn Railway
Talyllyn Railway
The Talyllyn Railway is a narrow-gauge preserved railway in Wales running for from Tywyn on the Mid-Wales coast to Nant Gwernol near the village of Abergynolwyn. The line was opened in 1866 to carry slate from the quarries at Bryn Eglwys to Tywyn, and was the first narrow gauge railway in Britain...
, the world's first preserved railway, was named in his memory in 1991. His book Railway Adventure recalls this period.
Rolt observed the changes in society resulting from the industrial-scientific revolution. In the epilogue to his biography of I.K.Brunel he writes two years before C. P. Snow
C. P. Snow
Charles Percy Snow, Baron Snow of the City of Leicester CBE was an English physicist and novelist who also served in several important positions with the UK government...
makes similar statements about the split between the arts and sciences:
Men spoke in one breath of the arts and sciences and to the man of intelligence and culture it seemed essential that he should keep himself abreast of developments in both spheres. ... So long as the artist or the man of culture had been able to advance shoulder to shoulder with engineer and scientist and with them see the picture whole, he could share their sense of mastery and confidence and believe wholeheartedly in material progress. But so soon as science and the arts became divorced, so soon as they ceased to speak a common language, confidence vanished and doubts and fears came crowding in.
He set out these ideas more fully in his book High Horse Riderless, a classic of green philosophy.
A bridge (no. 164) on the Oxford Canal
Oxford Canal
The Oxford Canal is a narrow canal in central England linking Oxford with Coventry via Banbury and Rugby. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just...
in Banbury
Banbury
Banbury is a market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in the Cherwell District of Oxfordshire. It is northwest of London, southeast of Birmingham, south of Coventry and north northwest of the county town of Oxford...
bears his name (in commemoration of his book Narrow Boat), as does a centre at the boat museum at Ellesmere Port
Ellesmere Port
Ellesmere Port is a large industrial town and port in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated on the south border of the Wirral Peninsula on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal, which in turn gives access to the River...
in Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
. A blue plaque to Mr. Rolt was unveiled in at Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard
Tooley's Boatyard is a boatyard on the Oxford Canal in the centre of the town of Banbury, Oxfordshire, England.The opening of the Oxford Canal from Hawkesbury Junction to Banbury on 30 March 1778 gave the town a cheap and reliable supply of Warwickshire coal. In 1787, the Oxford Canal was extended...
, Banbury on 7 August 2010 as part of the centenary celebrations of his birth.
Waterways
- Narrow boat (1944) Eyre & SpottiswoodeEyre & SpottiswoodeEyre & Spottiswoode, Ltd. was the London based printing firm that was the King's Printer, and subsequently, after April 1929, a publisher of the same name...
- Green and silver (1949) George Allen & Unwin
- The inland waterways of England (1950) George Allen & Unwin
- The ThamesRiver ThamesThe River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
from mouth to source (1951) - Navigable Waterways. (1969) Longmans. (1973) London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-0990-7800-7
- From sea to sea: the Canal du MidiCanal du MidiThe is a long canal in Southern France . The canal connects the Garonne River to the on the Mediterranean and along with the Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. The canal runs from the city of Toulouse down to the Étang de Thau...
(1973) Allen Lane.
Various
- High horse riderless (1947) George Allen & Unwin (personal philosophy)
- Sleep No More (1948) (ghost stories)
- WorcestershireWorcestershireWorcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
(1949) Robert Hale (County series) - Horseless carriage: the motor car in England (1950)
- Winterstoke (1954) — the history of a fictional Midlands town
- The clouded mirror (1955) (travel)
Railways
- Lines of character (1952) ConstableConstable & RobinsonConstable & Robinson Ltd. is an independent British book publisher of fiction and non-fiction works. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co. it is probably the oldest independent publisher in the English-speaking world still operating under the name of its...
(with Patrick Whitehouse) - Railway adventure (1953) Constable
- Red for Danger: A History of Railway Accidents and Railway Safety (1955) The Bodley HeadThe Bodley HeadThe Bodley Head is an English publishing house, founded in 1887 and existing as an independent entity until the 1970s. The name has been used as an imprint of Random House Children's Books since 1987...
- Patrick StirlingPatrick StirlingPatrick Stirling was Locomotive Superintendent of the Great Northern Railway.His father Robert Stirling was also an engineer. His brother James Stirling was also a locomotive engineer...
's locomotives (1964) H. Hamilton - The making of a railway (1971) Evelyn
Biography
- Isambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom BrunelIsambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
: a biography (1957) Longmans Green - Thomas TelfordThomas TelfordThomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
(1958) Longmans Green - The CornishCornwallCornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
giant: the story of Richard TrevithickRichard TrevithickRichard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer from Cornwall. His most significant success was the high pressure steam engine and he also built the first full-scale working railway steam locomotive...
, father of the steam locomotive (1960) Lutterworth Press - GeorgeGeorge StephensonGeorge Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives...
and Robert StephensonRobert StephensonRobert Stephenson FRS was an English civil engineer. He was the only son of George Stephenson, the famed locomotive builder and railway engineer; many of the achievements popularly credited to his father were actually the joint efforts of father and son.-Early life :He was born on the 16th of...
: the railway revolution (1960) Longmans Green - Great Engineers (1962) G. Bell, London
- James Watt (1962) BatsfordAnova BooksAnova Books is a UK-based publishing company founded in 2005, with the acquisition of the Chrysalis Books Group from the Chrysalis Group. Since its inception, the firm has acquired or created several other imprints...
- Thomas NewcomenThomas NewcomenThomas Newcomen was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He was born in Dartmouth, Devon, England, near a part of the country noted for its tin mines. Flooding was a major problem, limiting the depth at which the mineral could be mined...
: The prehistory of the steam engine (1968) David & CharlesDavid & CharlesDavid & Charles is a publisher. The company was founded - and is still based - in the market town of Newton Abbot, in Devon, UK, on 1 April 1960 by David St John Thomas and Charles Hadfield. It first made its name publishing titles on Britain's canals and railways...
Industrial history
From the period of 1958 onwards, Rolt was commissioned by many engineering companies to document their history. Many of these are unpublished internal documents; only the published works are listed here.- Holloways of Millbank: The first seventy-five years (1958)
- The Dowty story (part I 1962, part II 1973)
- A Hunslet Hundred: one hundred years of locomotive building by the Hunslet Engine CompanyHunslet Engine CompanyThe Hunslet Engine Company is a British locomotive-building company founded in 1864 at Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England by John Towlerton Leather, a civil engineering contractor, who appointed James Campbell as his Works Manager.In 1871, James Campbell bought the company for...
(1964)) - The MechanicalsInstitution of Mechanical EngineersThe Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the British engineering society based in central London, representing mechanical engineering. It is licensed by the Engineering Council UK to assess candidates for inclusion on ECUK's Register of professional Engineers...
: progress of a profession (1967) - Waterloo Ironworks: a history of Taskers of Andover, 1809–1968 (1969)
- Victorian engineering (1970)
- The potters' field: a history of the South Devon ball clayBall clayBall clays are kaolinitic sedimentary clays, that commonly consist of 20-80% kaolinite, 10-25% mica, 6-65% quartz. Localized seams in the same deposit have variations in composition, including the quantity of the major minerals, accessory minerals and carbonaceous materials such as lignite...
industry (1974)
Autobiography
- Landscape with Machines (1971) London: Longman. ISBN 0-5821-0740-7 — the first part of his autobiographyAutobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
) - Landscape with Canals (1977 — the second part of his autobiography)
- Landscape with Figures (1992 — the retitled third part of his autobiography)
- The Landscape Trilogy (2001) combines all three parts of his autobiography in one volume.
Other works
- The Aeronauts: A History of Ballooning 1783-1903 (1966), republished as The Balloonists: The History of the First Aeronauts (2006)
- Two Ghost Stories (1994)
See also
- Canals of the United KingdomCanals of the United KingdomThe canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a colourful history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's role for recreational boating...
- History of the British canal systemHistory of the British canal systemThe British canal system of water transport played a vital role in the United Kingdom's Industrial Revolution at a time when roads were only just emerging from the medieval mud and long trains of pack horses were the only means of "mass" transit by road of raw materials and finished products The...