This page on Liverpool Dock work gives a very small window into what must have been a fascinating cut-throat business. We know that Timothy Grindrod (to whom John had been apprenticed) was the Dock Board contractor for masonry works until his fall from grace for fiddling some of the books. I don't know yet how he died, but it is strange that he should do so leaving a young widow and children except by suicide. We shall see.
Anyway those works were subsequently carried on by his executors (not known if that included John, who by then had become his senior foreman). So the prior and subsequent experience must have dramatically expanded his chances.
Not surprisingly -at the next tender for the masonry works- John won.
Unfinished
The laying of the foundation stone for the opening of Birkenhead Docks 1845
Hale Church after a complete rebuild following an arson attack. c 1979
Construction of the Plough Inn Runcorn c 1980
Stands for a Royal visit in 1913 on the site of Premier Buildings on the corner of Church Street and Hanover Street. Now a bank