Peter Schuyler Bruff

Peter Schuyler Bruff was born in Devonport in 1812.

He trained under Joseph Locke as a civil engineer on the Liverpool to Manchester Railway and joined the Eastern Counties Railway (ECR) circa 1840.

The ECR were unwilling to extend the line to Ipswich. Bruff therefore plotted his own route which he took to John Chevallier Cobbold. The Eastern Union Railway Company, under Cobbold’s chairmanship, built the railway to Bruff’s design between Colchester and Ipswich, arriving at the first Ipswich Station in Croft Street in June 1846.

This line was extended to Bury St Edmunds by December 1846 again to Bruff’s design. This included the boring of a tunnel through Stoke Hill in Ipswich on a curve (a world first).

In 1881 he built the first sewer system for Ipswich.

This plaque was unveiled in June 3rd 2019.