William’s father Joseph was the miller in Southrepps between 1790 and 1801.
William was born to Joseph Cubitt and Hannah Lubbock at Ebridge Mill Dilham in 1785. He was probably educated at the private school in Upper Street under the control of the church. He befriended the curate Rev Erasmus Drury and gained access to his library and subsequently to that of Rev Humphrey in Wroxham. William was employed by his father in Southrepps mill Lower Street, and having shown considerable aptitude in the repairs of the mill was apprenticed for four years to James Lyons, a cabinet maker in Stalham. He returned to work with his father at Bacton Wood mill. Here he displayed great mechanical talent and determined to forge his own career he joined the agricultural machine maker Cook in Swanton. With his knowledge of windmills he was frequently called upon to repair them. This led to his first successful invention of the self-regulating windmill sails patented in 1807 when he was just 22. By now he was living in Horning as a millwright. He married Abigail Sparkhill and had a son Joseph and two daughters. Abigail sadly died in1813.
He began constructing machines for draining the marshes and in 1812 was employed by Ransome’s of Ipswich, quickly rising to Chief Engineer. He worked on the Norwich Navigation and was responsible for the invention in 1818 of the human powered treadmill for grinding corn, pumping water and any other purpose that require such power. This was quickly adopted by the prison service as a means of punishment.
In 1820 he married Elizabeth Tiley. They had one son who appears to have died in infancy.
In 1826 he moved to London where his was engaged in almost all the important civil engineering works of the time, particularly canals, including the Oxford Canal, and the Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal. He also worked on the Great Northern Railway and was chief engineer to the South Eastern Railway. In 1851 he supported Paxton’s design for the Crystal Palace and supervised its construction in Hyde Park.
Many of William’s structures can still be found:
- Many windmills and drainage in East Anglia and Lincolnshire
- Iron bridges: Brent Eleigh and Clare, and the Stoke Bridge at Ipswich (Suffolk); Witham (Essex).
- Port Offices, Lowestoft
- Haddiscoe Cut
- Oxford Canal Navigation at Rugby and at Newbold Tunnel
- Shropshire Union Canal at Shelmore Embankment
- Diglis Lock on the River Severn at Worcester
- Folkestone Viaduct
- Folkestone Warren and Martello, Abbot’s Cliff, Shakespeare and Martello Tunnels
- Welwyn Viaduct
- Nene Bridge, Peterborough
- Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green
William’s son Joseph born in 1811 followed in his father’s footsteps and he too became a civil engineer. He was responsible for the building of Blackfriars bridge on the London Chatham and Dover railway. Like his father he too worked for the London Necropolis Co at Woking. He married Ellen Moore and on his death in London in 1872 he was buried in St James Churchyard Southrepps. The Rev Richard Gwyn is listed as one of his executors.
For William’s obituary see
https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/imotp.1862.23416
https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/William_Cubitt
For Joseph’s obituary see