Charles Jones

Charles Jones was an English civil engineer, working primarily on canal tunnels. Despite Jones's extensive career working with prominent engineers (such as John Rennie, William Jessop and Josiah Clowes) on many waterways, he gained a reputation of unreliability and inability, and was dismissed from a number of projects. Career Jones had experience in masonry and mining; he likely learned his trade in the coalfields of Shropshire or Gloucestershire. In 1773 he was living at Preston on the Hill, from where he undertook a number of contracts on the Bridgwater Canal. He later undertook contracts on the Preston Brook tunnel on the Trent and Mersey Canal and on the Chesterfield Canal. Jones's work on the Norwood Tunnel on the Chesterfield Canal earned him £3 per yard. Jones gained a reputation for failing upon debts, as well as becoming known for ineptitude and dishonesty. Despite this, in 1783 he was contracted by the Thames and Severn Canal Company to dig the Sapperton Tunnel at 7 guineas per yard, with a completion date of 1788. The tunnel was to be the longest in the country at . Jones's engagement at Sapperton was ensured through recommendation by the canal's engineer, Josiah Clowes, who described him as "well qualified by experience to take the conduct and management [of the works]". Jones's budget allowed for him to use an early type of railway in the construction, although his financial management led him to fail to pay his workers and he spent various periods in debtors' prison at Bisley, Minchinhampton, and Gloucester. After each release, Jones resumed work on the tunnel. One spell in jail almost caused Jones to break his contract, which stated that he was not to be absent from the tunnel works for more than 28 days at a time. He was released on the 27th day, to find that the canal company had enacted a lien on his personal belongings as a means of security. In retaliation, Jones's son George made a drunken death threat to Samuel Smith, the canal company's owner; this resulted in the son being prohibited from coming within of the canal for five years.