Daniel Harris ( – 13 June 1840) was an English builder, prison governor, civil engineer, and architect prominent in Oxford.
Family Harris's birthplace is obscure but he was born about 1761, as the entry in St-Peter-le-Bailey's register for his death in 1840 records his age as 79.Colvin, 1997, page 484 He married Elizabeth Tomkins of Oxford in 1789, and they had four daughters between 1791 and 1801.Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 77 Harris died at his home in New Road, Oxford in June 1840.
Career Harris came to Oxford as a journeyman carpenterThacker, 1920 cited in Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 76 and rose to become Governor of Oxford Castle and Prison from 1786 until 1809. He developed a contracting business with convict labour, supplemented by hiring wage-earning tradesmen.Davies & Robinson, 2003, pages 55–56
Harris became involved in waterway engineering, starting by being the contractor to extend the Oxford Canal in Oxford from Hayfield Road to Worcester Street and build the Worcester Street wharves 1788–1789. He built four pound locks to replace flash locks, the first being Osney Lock for the Thames Navigation Commission in 1790. In central Oxford the Oxford Canal and the River Thames were originally linked by a flash lock at Hythe Bridge.Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 43 In 1795–1797, Harris replaced it with Isis Lock, a broad lock to allow Thames barges in and out of the Oxford Canal Company's Worcester Street wharves. None of Harris's pound locks survives in the form in which he built them. The Oxford Canal rebuilt Isis Lock as a narrow lock in 1844, and all of his Thames locks have been either rebuilt or replaced.
From 1812 until 1837, Harris worked in partnership with the architect John Plowman.Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 52
Work
Oxford Prison, Oxford: enlargement, 1785–1805 (to designs by William Blackburn) Oxford Canal, Oxford: Worcester Street Wharf, 1788–89Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 55 River Thames, Oxfordshire: Osney Lock, Oxford, 1790Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 76 River Thames, Oxfordshire: Godstow Lock, Godstow, 1790Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 94 River Thames, Oxfordshire: Pinkhill Lock, Farmoor, 1791 Oxford Canal, Oxford: New Road Wharf, Oxford, 1793 and 1801Davies & Robinson, 2003, page 56 River Thames, Oxfordshire: Sandford Lock, Sandford-on-Thames, 1795Thacker, page 135 Oxford Canal, Oxford: Isis Lock 1795–97 (rebuilt 1844) Wyaston House, New Inn Hall Street, Oxford 1795–97 (for the Oxford Canal Navigation Company) (now Linton House, part of St Peter's College, Oxford)Davies & Robinson, 2003, pages 62, 76 Braziers Park House, Ipsden, Oxfordshire: re-fronting, 1799Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 663 Saint Mary's parish, Bampton, Oxfordshire: alterations to rectory, 1799Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 432 Saint Botolph's parish, Swyncombe, Oxfordshire: rectory, 1803Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 800 Abingdon Prison,Pevsner, 1966, page 57 Abingdon, Oxfordshire, 1805–11 (to designs by Jeffry Wyattville) Saint Mary Magdalene parish, Stoke Talmage, Oxfordshire: extension to rectory, 1820Sherwood & Pevsner, 1974, page 790
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