The Bailey Bridge project

A Tribute to Sir Donald Bailey

The "Bailey Bridge project" will develop an oral history archive of the people who worked with, or have memories of Sir Donald Bailey during his 37 years (1927-1962) of employment with the Experimental Bridging Establishment in Christchurch.

The project will celebrate the life of Sir Donald Bailey and the many men and women who worked with him on his innovations in bridge construction. It will become a unique resource which will promote pride and innovation, as well as interest in our recent heritage. By fully involving local people in the collection of oral history and by sharing it with the widest possible audience, we seek to ensure a keen and continuing interest in Sir Donald Bailey and his inventive spirit. Most importantly, the project will also give people living in Christchurch or elsewhere the opportunity to bear witness to the past in their own word.

We will run a 12 month community-based oral history project in the Christchurch area to record the memories of those who worked with Sir Donald Bailey, or have memories of his work in Christchurch. We will make the project relevant to as many local people as possible through providing different ways for them to be involved - as interviewers, as interviewees, in preparing the exhibition and in organising or participating in the associated events. We will also ensure involvement of school pupils through instigating and supporting local history studies.

If you would like to volunteer with on this project, or have story of about Sir Donald Bailey or working at MEXE, please telephone the Museum or email the Museum Manager paul.willis@hants.gov.uk for further details.

Sir Donald Bailey

Sir Donald Coleman Bailey, was born 15 September 1901 at Rotherham, Yorkshire. He attended Sheffield University, where he took several degrees culminating in a Doctorate of Engineering. He joined the War Office in 1928 as a civil engineer designer at the Military Engineering Experimental Establishment (MEXE),Christchurch.

It wasn’t until late 1940 at a conference on the problem of providing temporary spans capable of taking heavy loading, Bailey’s concept of a strong but relatively light steel truss that could be prefabricated in sections was at approved. The characteristics of the Bailey bridge were

• standardization and simplicity of panels
• readiness of assembly in the field
• capacity for additional strengthening by doubling or tripling the truss girders
• adaptability to bridge long spans with the aid of pontoons

It was the simplicity of Bailey’s design that enabled mass production and some 700,000 panels were produced representing about 350 miles of bridging. The original design was adapted to make a pontoon bridge, a suspension bridge and a multi-span bridge. There is no doubt that the Bailey Bridge in its various guises played a very significant role in all theatres of the war. By 1947 about 2000 Bailey Bridges had been built.

Bailey was appointed OBE in 1944 and knighted in 1946. He was promoted to senior principal scientific officer at the MEXE, where he later became director. He retired in 1966.