A Forgotten Chapter in Dam History: Masonry Dams in British India in the Nineteenth Century

British dam practice in the nineteenth century was dominated by the use of earth embankments with puddle clay cores (Binnie, 1981; Skempton, 1990). However, British engineers in India often benefited from more advanced academic training at the East India Company's Seminary, Addiscombe, and later the Cooper's Hill College, and made more widespread use of masonry structures. A pioneering buttress dam at the start of the nineteenth century was followed by Khadakwasla Dam, the first large gravity masonry dam, designed by General J G Fife, who also translated the work of Graeff and Delocre into English (Fife, 1869). Indian-trained engineers later moved to Australia, pioneering the use of masonry arch dams there, to designs generally far in advance of their UK counterparts. In that context the first modern masonry dam was not built in Britain until Abbeystead in 1881.