William Walker: The Deep Sea Diver Who Saved Winchester Cathedral

Did you know that a great pre-medieval cathedral was saved from sinking into the swamp above which it was built by a deep sea diver at the turn of the 20^th century? His name was William Walker (1869-1918) and he worked tirelessly for nearly 6 years in a trench filled with murky mire along one side of the cathedral to shore it up so that permanent repairs could be made¹.

Winchester Cathedral is an enormous 556 foot long Norman cathedral built in 1079 ² ! It is located in Hampshire, England, which is approximately 150 miles south west of London. Imagine! In 1979, Winchester Cathedral, which is the longest cathedral in all of Europe ², celebrated its 900^th birthday! It has had many facelifts and additions since then but no repair was more crucial than that performed under water by deep sea diver William Walker around the cathedral's foundation from 1906-1911 ³.

Winchester Cathedral was built for Norman King William by Bishop William Walkelin. The limestone was imported from a quarry on the Isle of Wight. The bishop persuaded King William to allow timber from the Royal Forest at Hempage to be used to provide firm footing over the swampy land chosen for the cathedral. The bishop had every tree but one in the forest cut down, much to the King's dismay. He was severely reprimanded for destroying the forest. Nevertheless, it took that forest of trees to provide the "floor" upon which the stone of the cathedral was laid ².

After 800 years, the timbers had begun to decay, putting the cathedral in peril of cracking and sinking into the swampy mire. Civil Engineer Francis Fox decided that the only way to permanently restore Winchester Cathedral's underpinnings would be to replace the rotting timbers and the peat moss below them with a layer of concrete. The concrete would sit securely on the original gravel bed at some 16 to 22 feet below ground level ³. He had no idea that he would need the efforts of William Walker to carry out his plan.

Fox instructed workers to dig a trench along one wall of Winchester Cathedral to the depth of the rotting timber foundation. It was 24 feet deep in some places. When the peat moss was disturbed, however, swampy water filled the excavation trench to a level of 13 feet. Fox decided to hire a deep sea diver to complete the task of removing the peat moss and rotting timbers and placing the concrete. He sought out the best diver he could find. With superb diving credentials, William Walker was the deep sea diver chosen for the job ³.

William Walker dove into the murky water five days a week, for 6 hours at a time, for 6 straight years. He removed the rest of the rotting timbers and peat moss strictly by feel-the swampy water was pitch black. He layered thousands of bags of concrete, concrete blocks and bricks in place under Winchester Cathedral during that time period ¹. On the weekends, he would ride his bicycle home to his family near London, over 300 miles away round trip ¹.

When deep sea diver William Walker's job on the cathedral repair was finished, the water was pumped out and masons and other workers completed repairing the cathedral foundation and placed tie irons and grout in all the cracks. William Walker remained humble but proud of his great accomplishment ⁴. Sadly, he would die just seven years later during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic ¹. Yet his legacy as the deep sea diver who saved Winchester Cathedral for the world will live on forever.

Sources:

1. "William Walker," Wikipedia.
2. "A Walk Round Winchester Cathedral - Exterior," home.clara.net/reedhome/winchester/exterior.htm.
3. Rob Palmer, "Winchester Cathedral," secret-bottletop.com/diving/Script1/p7.html.
4. "Diver's Work Saves a Great Cathedral," The New York Times, 28 July 1912.