William Thorold (engineer)

William Thorold (9 October 1798 – 17 December 1878[1]) was a 19th-century millwright, architect and civil engineer in Norwich, Norfolk, England.

[4] William Thorold designed workhouses built at Thetford, Pulham Market, Rockland All Saints, Kenninghall, Hindringham and Great Snoring all in Norfolk between 1836 and 1837.

[1] He was also involved in drainage schemes at Ten Mile Bank, Hilgay and Middle Level, Kings Lynn in the early 1860s.

[4] In 1868, he presented a paper titled "Railways on Turnpike Roads" to the British Association, proposing a monorail system that could be laid at ground level, and able to negotiate curves of 20 feet radius and gradients of 1 in 12.

One locomotive is preserved in working order at the Indian National Railway Museum in New Delhi, where a section of the monorail has been reconstructed.