John Towlerton Leather
John Towlerton Leather (1804–1885) was a British civil engineering contractor. In his early career was employed by the Sheffield Waterworks company, and involved in the construction of several dams. He entered private practice in 1839, initially in partnership with Mr Waring (of Waring Brothers). He was contracted on civil engineering works including railways, harbour walls and bridge foundation construction. In the 1860s he was a consulting engineer on the Dale Dyke Dam which collapsed causing the Great Sheffield Flood. He also known for his work on the breakwater at Portland harbour, the forts at Spithead, an extension to the Portsmouth Dockyards, and as the founder of the Hunslet Engine Company of Leeds. Leather was also, for many years, the proprietor of Waterloo Main Colliery near Leeds. Biography John Towlerton Leather was born in Beeston Park, Yorkshire on 30 August 1804. He trained under his uncle George Leather, engineer of the Aire and Calder Navigation, and of the Goole docks. In 1829 he began his own practice in Sheffield, and became engineer of the Sheffield Waterworks in 1833. As engineer to the Sheffield Waterworks he helped create the Redmires Reservoirs and the Crooke's Moore reservoirs, during which time the young John