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