Company type | Public company |
---|---|
Industry | Civil engineering |
Founded | 1870 |
Defunct | November 6, 1973 |
Successor | Kier Group |
Headquarters | 50 Epping New Road, Buckhurst Hill, Essex, IG9 5TH |
Area served | UK, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Malawi, Spain |
Services | Road construction |
W. & C. French, also known just as French, was a civil engineering company based at Buckhurst Hill in south-west Essex.
The business of Messrs W. and C. French was established by William French and his brother Charles French in 1870. [1]
In the Second World War it constructed many RAF airfields and also built Mulberry harbour units. [2]
On 19 September 1949 it became a public company, when the Chairman of the company was Charles Samuel French, the son of William French. Another director was Brigadier John Linnaeus French CB CBE (18 November 1896 - 12 March 1953), a former commander of Colchester Garrison, and brother of Charles. Its transport depot was at Loughton. They had other depots at Colchester and Wisbech and carried out most of its work in East Anglia. The company was acquired by Kier Group in 1973. [3]
The Lancaster Canal is a canal in North West England, originally planned to run from Westhoughton in Lancashire to Kendal in south Cumbria. 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.
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over 230 miles (370 km) from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 and the western end of the A14 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby before heading north-west. It passes Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Preston, Lancaster and Carlisle before terminating at Junction 45 near Gretna. Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow as the M74. Its busiest sections are between junctions 4 and 10a in the West Midlands, and junctions 16 to 19 in Cheshire; these sections have now been converted to smart motorways.
The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston Bypass, which later became part of the M6.
The M62 is a 107-mile-long (172 km) west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting Liverpool and Hull via Manchester, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield; 7 miles (11 km) of the route is shared with the M60 orbital motorway around Manchester. The road is part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22.
Royal Air Force Burtonwood is a former Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces base that was located in Burtonwood, 2 miles (3.2 km) Northwest of Warrington in Cheshire, England. The base was opened in 1940 in response to World War II by the RAF and in 1942 it was transferred to the United States of America for war operations.
The M55 is a motorway in Lancashire, England, which can also be referred to as the Preston Northern Bypass. It connects the seaside resort of Blackpool to the M6 at Preston. It is 12.2 miles (19.6 km) in length.
The Ouse Bridge is a reinforced concrete plate girder bridge that spans River Ouse between Goole and Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It carries the M62 and is situated between junctions 36 and 37. It was built between 1973 and 1976 by Costain and was designed by Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick & Partners. The bridge was officially opened to traffic on 24 May 1976 by nine-year-old Martin Brigham.
Orrell is a suburb of Wigan in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The population of the ward had fallen at the 2011 Census to 11,513. The area lies 3 miles (4.8 km) to the west of Wigan town centre. The area is contiguous with Pemberton.
Welcome Break Limited is a British motorway service station operator that operates 35 motorway service stations in England, Scotland and Wales. It is the second-largest motorway service area operator behind Moto. It also operates hotels and motels. It is a subsidiary of Irish motorways services operator Applegreen.
Moto Hospitality Limited, trading as Moto, is a British service station operator which operates 59 motorway service stations across the United Kingdom. It is currently the UK's largest service area operator.
European route E73 forms part of the United Nations International E-road network, connecting Hungary and eastern Croatia to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Adriatic Sea in the vicinity of the port of Ploče. This 679-kilometre (422 mi) route is also designated as the Pan-European Corridor Vc, a branch of the fifth Pan-European corridor. The route largely consists of two-lane roads with at-grade intersections, although in the 2000s, about a third of the route was upgraded to motorway standards. The remainder of the route is currently being upgraded in all the countries spanned. The longest part of this corridor goes through Bosnia and Herzegovina and is widely touted as a road instrumental to the development of the country. As such, and given its geographical location, the road has occasionally been dubbed as the kičma Bosne. The road also serves as the shortest connection of the eastern and southern parts of Croatia.
Peasey Beck is a 19.6-kilometre-long (12.2 mi) beck flowing through Cumbria, England. It rises on Lambrigg Fell where it is known as the Sparishaw Beck, flows through Killington Reservoir and converges with Stainton Beck to form the River Bela at Milnthorpe. Prior to 1913, it was known as the River Beela throughout its length.
The Tame Valley Canal is a relatively late (1844) canal in the West Midlands of England. It forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It takes its name from the roughly-parallel River Tame.
Hanningfield Reservoir is a large 25,500-million-litre (900,000,000 cu ft) pumped storage reservoir located between Billericay and Chelmsford in Essex. It has a surface area of 352 hectares and is owned and operated by Essex and Suffolk Water.
Scammonden Reservoir is a water reservoir in West Yorkshire, England. Its water surface area when full is 42 hectares (0.16 sq mi). The level of the bellmouth overflow above sea level is 252 metres (827 ft). The reservoir holds 78,000,000,000 litres (1.7×1010 imp gal; 2.1×1010 US gal). Its length is 1.4 kilometres (0.9 mi).
A smart motorway, also known in Scotland as an intelligent transport system, is a section of motorway in the United Kingdom that employs active traffic management (ATM) techniques to increase capacity through the use of MIDAS technology including variable speed limits and occasionally hard shoulder running and ramp metering at busy times. They were developed at the turn of the 21st century as a cost-effective alternative to traditional carriageway widening, with intended benefits ranging from more reliable journey times to lower vehicle emissions. However, despite the risk of a collision occurring between two moving vehicles being found to be decreased, there has been an acknowledged rise in the incidence of collisions involving vehicles where at least one was stationary in the first few years following the widespread removal of the hard shoulder on the country's busiest sections of motorway. Smart motorways garnered intense criticism from politicians, police representatives and motoring organisations, particularly from 2020 onwards, after a surge in near miss incidents and dozens of fatalities were revealed, and as of April 2023, no new smart motorways will be built.
Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Company Ltd, commonly known as Sir Lindsay Parkinson & Co. Ltd or Lindsay Parkinson, was a civil engineering company in the UK. It was responsible for the construction of a significant part of the UK motorway network, including elements of the M4 and the M6. It was acquired by Leonard Fairclough & Son in 1974.
Booth Wood Reservoir is a man-made upland reservoir that lies north of the M62 motorway and south of the A672 road near to Rishworth and Ripponden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. The reservoir was approved for construction in 1966 and completed in 1971. It supplies water to Wakefield.