Thomas Telford ‘Colossus of Roads’ 1757 – 1834 By Professor Roland Paxton MBE FICE FRSE

School of the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University

Vice-Chairman Institution of Civil Engineers’ Panel for Historical Engineering Works

Glendinning sheep farm, Dumfriesshire – Shepherd’s cottage site

Telford 250 cairn commemoration 2007

Westerkirk

Churchyard

John Telford’s

headstone

carved by his

son, the second

named Thomas.

John died three months after

Thomas’s birth.

Langholm Bridge c.1775-78

Telford – stonemason [c.1772-83]

Langholm Bridge – mason mark

Edinburgh Castle & Glasgow Union Canal terminus 1822

Telford – stonemason in Edinburgh 1780-81

Somerset House, London –

Telford – stonemason 1782-84

Roman Baths at Wroxeter, Salop – Telford drawing 1788

Telford – architect [c.1783 – 1790s ]

Bridgnorth

Church, Salop

1795

Externally a regular

Tuscan elevation,

inside Ionic,

surmounted by

a Doric tower

115 ft high.

Cost;

£6827.11s.9d

Bridgnorth Church interior – ‘regularly Ionic’ (Telford )

Ullapool, British Fisheries Society c.1790

Pulteney Town, Wick – harbours 1811,1825-34 (Telford)

Argyll Square, Pulteney Town, Wick

Montford Bridge

Salop 1790-92

Telford first bridge

as County

Surveyor of Salop

Bewdley Bridge, Salop 1795-98

Longdon-on-Tern

Aqueduct,

Shrewsbury Canal

1795-96

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Ellesmere Canal 1794-1805

Telford – Civil Engineer

Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Ellesmere Canal 1795-1805

‘Supreme structural achievement of the Canal Age’

Telford’s wax

seal ‘TT’ –

on a letter

of 1819

Iron Bridge, Coalbrookdale

1779 – 80, 100½ feet span,

influenced Telford

Buildwas Bridge, Salop – Telford 1796 – 130 ft span, low rise

London Bridge - proposed 600ft cast iron span 1800-01 to 1820s. Not erected.

Tongland Bridge,

Kirkcudbright 1804-08

Note Gothic influence on

Telford’s design which

influenced some of Mitchell’s

Highland Railway bridges

Telford

250

commem

-orative

plaque

Scotland: Showing roads, bridges, harbours, piers, canals & railways for which Telford was Engineer – 1790 -1834 – Said to have

advanced civilization in the

Highlands by a century

Bonar Bridge 1812 – 150ft span ‘The first significant prefabricated

iron bridge’ (Telford/Hazledine). Ten arches of this type erected in

the UK over deep water as far south as Tewkesbury by 1830

Craigellachie Bridge 1812-14

‘The earliest surviving

prefabricated iron bridge’

Telford 250 commemoration

visit 2007

Glenshiel Bridge 1817 – Telford’s standard Highland bridge design

Dorret’s

map 1750

- Military

Road to

Bernera

Highland Roads Commissioners map 1821- Road to Skye

Telford plan published in Highland Roads

Commissioners’ Report 1821 – note cattle slip

Kyle-Rhea cattle slip at ferry in 2009

Kyle-Rhea Ferry to Skye – mainland side 1936

Rhibuie Drove Road

1820 - where it now

enters Loch Loyne

(formed by Hydro-Electric

Board in 1950s)

c. 10¼ miles long, cost

£7100 or £695 per mile

inclusive of cutting,

embankments, retaining

walls, bridges, 60% more

than the adjoining

Glensheil Road finished

first. This was road-

making under great

difficulties! One of

Telford’s least altered

Highland roads, now

decaying.

Rhibuie Drove

Road 1819 –

Telford

October 2011.

Typical retaining

wall with batter

Rhibuie Drove

Road 1819 –

Telford

October 2011

Typical small

bridge

Rhibuie Drove Road

1819 – Telford

October 2011

Rhibuie Drove Road

1819 Telford

October 2011

Typical larger bridge –

buttress added later?

Rhibuie Road

1819 – Telford

October 2011

View from arch

Rhibuie Road

1819 - Telford

October 2011

Loch Cluanie

Rhibuie Road 1819

- Telford

October 2011

Exposed running

surface

Rhibuie Road 1819

Telford

October 2011

One of very few

mile stones found

- no numbering or

lettering

Rhibuie Road 1819 –Telford

October 2011

Larger bridge with

substantial retaining wall

approaches – note batter

Dunkeld Bridge 1808 – Telford’s largest Highland bridge

Dunkeld

Bridge

interior

Caledonian Canal plan 1804 –

Loch Ness to Muirtown Locks

Caledonian Canal – Corpach Sea Lock 1808-12

Caledonian Canal –

Neptune’s Staircase,

Banavie 1808-11

‘this series of locks was then

the world’s largest . . . The

project significantly advanced

canal engineering practice’

Moy turn-bridge

Caledonian Canal – Ship being towed in Loch Oich

c.1835

Laggan

Cutting

& Loch

Ness

St Katherine’s Dock, London 1829

St Katherine’s Dock under construction, London c.1828

Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal 1826-35 and other canals & the Holyhead Road

Harecastle Tunnel – 1824-27 (nearly 3,000m long)

Birmingham & Liverpool Junction – Stretton Aqueduct

Birmingham & Liverpool

Junction Canal –

High Bridge,

Woodseaves

Note the very steep –

sloped cutting

typifying Telford’s bold

practice to obviate

lockage

Ellesmere & Chester Canal and River Mersey – Ellesmere Port

‘a canal/seaport interchange peak of efficiency of the Canal Age’

Edinburgh & Glasgow Union - Avon Aqueduct 1822

Telford was the consulting engineer. Hugh Baird - engineer

Telford’s Roads and

Bridges in England

& Wales - Holyhead

Road 1815-29

Routes shown in

broken lines were

surveyed but not

executed

Telford’s ‘General Rules for Repairing Roads’ 1820 -

Telford’s construction with hand-pitched

road foundation (from 1829 drawing)

Holyhead Road gates and mileposts

Holyhead

Road –

Nant Ffrancon

Pass, North

Wales

Menai Bridge suspended centring proposal circa 1810 –

a novel concept by Telford

Runcorn Suspension Bridge proposal

– testing wires 1814

Runcorn Bridge proposal - model 1814

Runcorn Bridge proposal – 1814

Spans 500ft – 1000ft – 500ft

Menai Suspension Bridge 1819-26

‘established this genre as the most economic

means of achieving the largest spans’

Conwy suspension bridge 1826

Glasgow

and

Carlisle

Road

1815-25

Ecclefechan Bridge, Glasgow to Carlisle Road, 1826

Dinwoodie Toll

House,

Dumfriesshire

on

Glasgow to Carlisle

Road

1822-23

Dinwoodie Toll House – Broad eaves

Gretna Green Toll House – Marriage House

Telford churches and manses – 1825-30

Ullapool Church

Over Bridge, Gloucester 1826-28

Tewkesbury Bridge 1823-26

Glasgow Bridge 1833-35 – then

widest in UK @ 60 ft - gently

curving extrados, c. 3ft from

ends to centre. Re-erected to

same elevation 1894-99.

Aberdeen granite reused.

Foundation s 100 ft + deep.

Dean Bridge, Edinburgh 1829-32

Dean Bridge Drawing 1832

Dean Bridge interior

Dean Bridge interior – crown of arch

Dean Bridge slenderness ‘with Glasgow Bridge a fitting crown to Telford’s creative life’ (Gibb)

Dundee Harbour – ‘Mr Telford’s Plan’ 1822

Dundee Harbour c.1845

Note - only the lighthouse now remains!

Dundee Harbour

Author’s historical

evolution of site for

‘Discovery Dock’

Aberdeen Harbour – North Pier

Telford 250 Commemoration 2007

Aberdeen Harbour –

North Pier 1815

Telford’s

recreation –

going to see

Dorothea Jordan

in a play -

for example in the

farce ‘The Devil

to Pay’

Westminster Abbey

Telford’s grave 1834

and statue