Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford - A Famous Scottish Engineer -
'The Colossus of Roads'
Thomas Telford (1757-1834) A native of Westerkirk, Langholm, Dumfriesshire, where he attended the local school, Telford, a shepherd's son, was first apprenticed to a stone-mason; from sculpting gravestone inscriptions he rose to be a major engineer of the Industrial Revolution. He began to show talent through house-building at New Langholm, a village planned by the Duke of Buccleuch, and went on to work as a journeyman mason on projects connected with the construction of Edinburgh's New Town. It was at this time that he took an interest in architecture and the drawings entailed in carrying out such works. A move to London brought him work on Somerset House (1782-3), and connections with the architects of the day won him contracts at Portsmouth Docks (1783-6), and thence the position of Surveyor of Public Works in Shropshire. A distinguished career as a builder of canals, docks and bridges made him first choice as builder of the great Caledonian Canal, on which construction began in 1803; it was opened to traffic in 1822. International contracts followed, including the Gotha Canal in Sweden (1809-32), which won him a Swedish knighthood. It was the Poet Laureate Robert Southey (1774-1843) who dubbed him 'the Colossus of Roads'. Telford is buried in Westminster Abbey.
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