Gott Charles, C.E.

This item is active and ready to use

Gott Charles, C.E.

Watercolour portrait by John Sowden of Charles Gott, C.E., formerly Borough Surveyor.

from John Sowden's notebooks:

"Mr Gott was born at Great Grimsby in 1831 and was the son of Mr Charles Gott, a builder and contractor, of Hull.

His professional career was begun at an early age at Scarborough.

Afterwards he entered the office of the Borough Surveyor of Hull. Mr Gott removed to Bradford in 1855, when he took the appointment as Deputy Borough Surveyor under Mr EW Shaw. A year later Mr Shaw resigned and Mr Gott was made Borough Surveyor and Waterworks Engineer, the Corporation having just purchased the undertaking of the Bradford Water Works Company. Mr Gott designed and carried out a number of works including Doe Park, Stubden, Leeming, Leeshaw, Horton Bank and Brayshaw reservoirs.

One of the most difficult of his undertakings was the successful reconstruction of the lower Barden reservoir which had proved watertight. Mr Gott as Borough Surveyor in the later sixties when Bradford was essentially(?) in the making, carried out many important schemes in the formation of Bradford as it now exists.

Mr Gott retired in 1875 and devoted his whole time to private practice. He soon acquired a considerable practice. He was a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, a Fellow of the Surveyors Institution, and a past president of the Yorkshire and North of England Land Agents and Surveyors Association and of the Bradford Society of Architects and Surveyors. He was a director of the Bradford Third Equitable Building Society.

Mr Gott was a churchman and a Conservative. For six years from 1878 to 1883 he served as a Town Councillor for the Bolton Ward and occupied a seat on the School Board.

He was a Freemason and was twice Worshipful Master of the Lodge of Hope. He died in 1908 leaving a widow and two sons (who were in partnership with him) and three daughters."

Creator

John Sowden

Image filename

sowden-67