By Maggie Aherne, Archive Volunteer
The often recounted tale of how Brunel became one of the earliest plant conservationists is fascinating. The story relates how, early in the construction of Clifton Suspension Bridge, the foreman’s wife, Mrs Glennie (she was rarely accorded her own name in the telling of the story), came to Brunel with a plea. The Avon Gorge was carved out towards the end of the Ice Age and it contains many plants known only in the gorge, such as the Bristol onion, Bristol rock cress and the Bristol whitebeam tree. One such rare plant is autumn squill. Mrs Glennie had noticed that the construction work for the bridge was threatening the habitat of the squill, and she cared enough to raise this with Brunel. He ordered his workers to dig up the plants and move them a safe distance away – they thrive there to this day.
It’s a great story, but here’s the problem for historians: where does it come from? An online search will show this account being repeated in a number of reputable places, but what’s the primary source? Without having documentary evidence for a story, it remains just that – a story. So I set out to discover the origin.
Hannah Little, archivist at the Suspension Bridge until 2025, was able to answer this query surprisingly quickly. Apparently the story was passed orally through the Glennie family, on to a Mr House, then to botanist James Walter White. In 1912 White published Flora of Bristol (John Wright & Sons, republished in 1972), where on p. 590 he writes this:
‘At the date (1885) of my earlier work on this section of the Bristol flora its (Autumn Squill) and possible destruction were ascribed to the completion of the Suspension Bridge and its approaches. In 1888, however, I had the pleasure of publishing the following: “Supplemental Note” in the Proceedings of the Brit. Nat. Soc. vol.5. “It is gratifying to be able to announce the hope expressed in the Flora, p. 201, that this rare bulb might be yet rediscovered on St Vincent’s rocks, has been justified. For this we are indebted to Mr. J. C. House, who, during a scramble in the autumn, came upon a patch of about a hundred plants. It was somewhat perplexing to find that the spot was made ground, the site of ancient quarrying; but this circumstance has been accounted for in a very interesting and satisfactory manner. Mrs Glennie Smith has kindly furnished an explanation which was conveyed to her by Mrs Glennie, widow of Mr. William Glennie, the engineer, under Brunel, of many great works in the West of England. The account runs as follows:- When Brunel was about to commence his work on the Suspension Bridge, Mrs Glennie told him that he was going to destroy the Clifton locality of Scilla autumnalis, it grew just where the approach on the Gloucestershire side was to be made. The engineer at once informed himself of the exact spot, and before the ground was broken he made some of his workmen dig up turfs containing the bulbs and transport them safely beyond the reach and influence of the work he was about to begin. Mrs Glennie could not remember, if she knew, the place to which the transference was made; but it seems tolerably clear that Mr. Brunel’s care was effectual in preserving for us a choice plant, the locality for which, when undisturbed, was evidently of small dimensions. Aided by Mr. House’s information I soon found Brunel’s patch. That spot is, I think, safe from molestation, and when I last reached it the Squill was flourishing”.’
How wonderful to have tracked down the evidence for this delightful story! Thanks to Hannah Little, archivist, and to the late Adrian Andrews, whose archive provided the source for this information.
The final piece of the story is to give Mrs Glennie her own name. She was Elizabeth Catherine, nee Barker, who married engineer William Glennie in 1833. She supported her husband in his work on many of Brunel’s greatest projects, including – in addition to the Suspension Bridge – the South Devon Railway, Box Tunnel on the Great Western Railway, the Cornwall Railway and the Royal Albert Bridge linking Devon to Cornwall. Her intervention at the Suspension Bridge site shows that, like many women, she was knowledgeable about botany and about the unique habitat of the gorge, but the impact she had on a man as important as Brunel shows that she commanded an unusual level of respect. Today, the Avon Gorge is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and thereby protected by law from incursions that could cause damage. Elizabeth Glennie’s intervention to protect the gorge was ahead of its time.