Thomas Telford
The Father Of Civil Engineering
1757 to 1834
Thomas Telford was born in Eskdale (near Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway) on 9 August 1757. His father, John, was a shepherd, but he died when Thomas was a baby. The family was very poor, but Thomas did go to school, and learned to read and write. He helped out with various jobs when he was a boy, and was treated kindly by some local families.
He became an apprentice to a stone mason when he was 14. He is known to have worked on a river bridge in Langholm which is still there and bears Telford’s signatory marking symbol. He then moved on to work in Edinburgh before moving South.
In 1782 he went to London, and was soon employed on the new Somerset House and promoted to first class mason. Upon completion of Somerset house in 1784 Telford was engaged to work on various buildings in Portsmouth dockyard from 1784 to 1786. During this time he expanded his skills to include specification, design and management of building projects.
Telford was appointed Surveyor of Public Works for the County of Shropshire in late 1786 or early 1787. He built a couple of churches in Bridgenorth and Madeley, and Montford Bridge (on the London –Holyhead road) 1790-92. Another 40 or so bridges were built in five years and then came the river Severn bridges at Buildwas – Telford’s first bridge made of iron, Bridgenorth and Bewdley by 1798.
He became involved with the Ellesmere Canal (now the Shropshire Union and Llangollen Canals) and worked on this for twenty years, culminating in the completion of the Chirk (1801) and Pont Cysyllte (1805) aqueducts.
From 1801 to about 1820 Telford was involved in a programme to improve communications in Scotland. He was responsible for over 900 miles of new roads and nearly 300 miles of improved roads together with the improvement of scores of harbours around the coast. The Caledonian Canal was another of his projects during this period.
Telford was invited to survey a route for a ship canal across Sweden in 1808, and the Gotha canal was eventually completed in 1832.
About this time there was great concern at the state of the route from London to Ireland and particularly the part between Shrewsbury and Holyhead. At that time the road was the responsibility of 17 separate Turnpike Trusts, and was in very poor condition. Telford surveyed a number of alternative routes and was eventually appointed in 1815 to build the new road. The whole route was either built as a new road or significantly improved from the existing. Telford gave a lot of attention to making sure that the gradient of the new road was consistent and not too steep so that the coaches could maintain a reasonable average speed. The crowning glory was, of course the Menai Suspension Bridge opened in 1826. Telford’s appointment was extended to include the Chester to Bangor road, which involved building new roads around the Penmaenbach and Penmaenmawr headlands. It also included the Conwy Suspension bridge which was also completed in 1826, and remains largely unaltered today having been replaced by the new road bridge in 1958.
In 1820 Thomas Telford was invited to be the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the oldest professional learned society and qualifying body for the engineering profession in the world. He served as President until his death in 1834.
