Thomas Telford (1757-1834)

 

 

Thomas Telford (1757-1834) - Civil Engineer. Born August 9th 1757 at Langholm, Dumfries ... on a hill farm in Eskdale. 

Telford served his time as an apprentice stone mason in the village, and exercised his newly acquired skills on a carved headstone for his father's grave -

'In loving memory of John Telford who after living 33 years an unblameable shepherd died at Glendinning November 1757'.

He never knew his dad, John Telford (1724-57), who died just a couple of months after he was born. John was a meagre herder of sheep, what else was there to do in Eskdale? Most of his friends before and after the Union in 1707 occupied themselves with sheep rustling across the border!

Samuel Smiles tells how his mum Janet Jackson (1723-94) struggled on, a widow so young, but she had a boy to educate. Friends rallied round, and a cousin Thomas Jackson (-), a factor or land steward at Wester Hall, he also helped and 'Laughing Tam' waxed and read books ... he started his quest early, there was a library in Glendinning, at Miss Pasley's house, and he read it ... as all great men attest, 'we are all dwarfs on the shoulders of giants' ...

In 1780 Thomas found jobs hard to come by and he went to Edinburgh for a while before moving to London in 1782 . He noted, 'in the year 1782 after having acquired the rudiments of my profession, I considered that my native country afforded few opportunities of exercising it to any extent and therefore judged it advisable (like so many of my countrymen) to proceed southward, where industry might find more employment and be better rewarded'. Samuel Smiles confirmed his resolute ambition, 'he was bent upon self-improvement and gaining a larger experience of life as well as knowledge of his trade that he determined to seek employment elsewhere'. But he always remained devoted to his mother Janet Jackson and returned to Dumfries often to see her and his mates.

In London he honed his skills in the specification, design and management of building projects at the Portsmouth dockyard. In 1787 he became Surveyor of Public Works in Shropshire, where he built 40 bridges, including major crossings of the Severn. In 1801 Telford devised a master plan to improve communications in the Highlands of Scotland, a massive project that was to last some 20 years, it included the building of the Caledonian Canal along the Great Glen.

Thomas Telford died September 2nd 1834, he was buried in Westminster Abbey.

After his death his assistant, George Turnbull, wrote, 'Mr Telford was of the most genial disposition and a delightful companion, his laugh was the heartiest I ever heard; it was a pleasure to be in his society' ... he added somewhat ruefully, 'I made all the arrangements about the house and correspondence. Telford had no blood relations that we knew of ...' ... but what George Turnbull didn't know was that some of Thomas Telford's genes were spreading far and wide and some ended up as the prized, albeit temporary, possessions of John William Thorpe ...

John William Thorpe's (1877-) dad was  John Thorpe (1850-) from Clay Cross and he married Sarah Ann Cox (1850-) a filly with unusual pedigree born in Moulton, Lincolnshire. It was rumoured Sarah's mum Mary was a cousin of Thomas Telford ...

The Telford Projects.

Buildwas was Telford's first iron bridge, obviously influenced by Abraham Darby's bridge at Ironbridge, but as Telford himself retold his bridge efficiently used only 173 tons whereas the other contained 378 tons.

1793 the Llangollen / Ellesmere Canal linked the ironworks and collieries of Wrexham via the north-west Shropshire town of Ellesmere, with Chester, using the existing Chester Canal, and then to the River Mersey, Liverpool & everywhere.

Spectacular Pontcysyllte Aqueduct over the River Dee.

 A5 London to Holyhead road.

Aldford Iron Bridge crossing the River Dee north of the village of Aldford, Cheshire, England, linking the village with Eaton Hall, the Duke of Westminster's seat.

 

 

'Life' by T Telford + Atlas edited by John Rickman, 1838.

'The Story of Telford' by Sir A Gibb, 1935.

'Thomas Telford' by L T C Rolt, 1958.

'Thomas Telford: Father of Civil  Engineering' by Keith Ellis, 1974.

'The Life of Thomas Telford: civil engineer with an introductory history of roads and travelling in Great Britain' by Samuel Smiles, 2006.

 

'Telford' by Raeburn (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823) was a celebrated Scottish portrait painter from Edinburgh)

 

Any corrections and additional information gratefully received contact john p birchall

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