Brunel’s sister may hold key to 180-year-old Box Tunnel sunrise mystery
At 6.33am this morning – assuming there were clear skies – the sun rose over Corsham in Wiltshire where the eastern portal of Brunel’s Box Tunnel on the Great Western Main Line is located and, according to mathematicians, the angle meant that it shone through to the village of Box at the western portal.
Many suggested that Brunel designed it to do this on his own birthday but that falls on 9 April and it has more recently been suggested that the date is a tribute to his sister Emma Joan, born in 1803, whose birthday was 6 April. The link to Brunel’s sister has only recently been suggested by retired engineer and physicist Peter Maggs who has been puzzling over the date for a number of decades.