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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
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Glendinning sheep farm, Dumfriesshire – Shepherd’s cottage site
Telford 250 cairn commemoration 2007
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Westerkirk
Churchyard
John Telford’s
headstone
carved by his
son, the second
named Thomas.
John died three months after
Thomas’s birth.
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Langholm Bridge c.1775-78
Telford – stonemason [c.1772-83]
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Langholm Bridge – mason mark
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Edinburgh Castle & Glasgow Union Canal terminus 1822
Telford – stonemason in Edinburgh 1780-81
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Somerset House, London –
Telford – stonemason 1782-84
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Roman Baths at Wroxeter, Salop – Telford drawing 1788
Telford – architect [c.1783 – 1790s ]
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Bridgnorth
Church, Salop
1795
Externally a regular
Tuscan elevation,
inside Ionic,
surmounted by
a Doric tower
115 ft high.
Cost;
£6827.11s.9d
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Bridgnorth Church interior – ‘regularly Ionic’ (Telford )
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Ullapool, British Fisheries Society c.1790
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Pulteney Town, Wick – harbours 1811,1825-34 (Telford)
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Argyll Square, Pulteney Town, Wick
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Montford Bridge
Salop 1790-92
Telford first bridge
as County
Surveyor of Salop
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Bewdley Bridge, Salop 1795-98
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Longdon-on-Tern
Aqueduct,
Shrewsbury Canal
1795-96
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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Ellesmere Canal 1794-1805
Telford – Civil Engineer
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Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Ellesmere Canal 1795-1805
‘Supreme structural achievement of the Canal Age’
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Telford’s wax
seal ‘TT’ –
on a letter
of 1819
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Iron Bridge, Coalbrookdale
1779 – 80, 100½ feet span,
influenced Telford
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Buildwas Bridge, Salop – Telford 1796 – 130 ft span, low rise
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London Bridge - proposed 600ft cast iron span 1800-01 to 1820s. Not erected.
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Tongland Bridge,
Kirkcudbright 1804-08
Note Gothic influence on
Telford’s design which
influenced some of Mitchell’s
Highland Railway bridges
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Telford
250
commem
-orative
plaque
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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
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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
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Craigellachie Bridge 1812-14
‘The earliest surviving
prefabricated iron bridge’
Telford 250 commemoration
visit 2007
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Glenshiel Bridge 1817 – Telford’s standard Highland bridge design
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Dorret’s
map 1750
- Military
Road to
Bernera
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Highland Roads Commissioners map 1821- Road to Skye
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Telford plan published in Highland Roads
Commissioners’ Report 1821 – note cattle slip
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Kyle-Rhea cattle slip at ferry in 2009
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Kyle-Rhea Ferry to Skye – mainland side 1936
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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.
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Rhibuie Drove
Road 1819 –
Telford
October 2011.
Typical retaining
wall with batter
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Rhibuie Drove
Road 1819 –
Telford
October 2011
Typical small
bridge
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Rhibuie Drove Road
1819 – Telford
October 2011
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Rhibuie Drove Road
1819 Telford
October 2011
Typical larger bridge –
buttress added later?
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Rhibuie Road
1819 – Telford
October 2011
View from arch
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Rhibuie Road
1819 - Telford
October 2011
Loch Cluanie
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Rhibuie Road 1819
- Telford
October 2011
Exposed running
surface
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Rhibuie Road 1819
Telford
October 2011
One of very few
mile stones found
- no numbering or
lettering
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Rhibuie Road 1819 –Telford
October 2011
Larger bridge with
substantial retaining wall
approaches – note batter
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Dunkeld Bridge 1808 – Telford’s largest Highland bridge
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Dunkeld
Bridge
interior
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Caledonian Canal plan 1804 –
Loch Ness to Muirtown Locks
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Caledonian Canal – Corpach Sea Lock 1808-12
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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
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Caledonian Canal – Ship being towed in Loch Oich
c.1835
Laggan
Cutting
& Loch
Ness
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St Katherine’s Dock, London 1829
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St Katherine’s Dock under construction, London c.1828
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Birmingham & Liverpool Junction Canal 1826-35 and other canals & the Holyhead Road
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Harecastle Tunnel – 1824-27 (nearly 3,000m long)
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Birmingham & Liverpool Junction – Stretton Aqueduct
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Birmingham & Liverpool
Junction Canal –
High Bridge,
Woodseaves
Note the very steep –
sloped cutting
typifying Telford’s bold
practice to obviate
lockage
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Ellesmere & Chester Canal and River Mersey – Ellesmere Port
‘a canal/seaport interchange peak of efficiency of the Canal Age’
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Edinburgh & Glasgow Union - Avon Aqueduct 1822
Telford was the consulting engineer. Hugh Baird - engineer
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Telford’s Roads and
Bridges in England
& Wales - Holyhead
Road 1815-29
Routes shown in
broken lines were
surveyed but not
executed
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Telford’s ‘General Rules for Repairing Roads’ 1820 -
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Telford’s construction with hand-pitched
road foundation (from 1829 drawing)
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Holyhead Road gates and mileposts
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Holyhead
Road –
Nant Ffrancon
Pass, North
Wales
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Menai Bridge suspended centring proposal circa 1810 –
a novel concept by Telford
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Runcorn Suspension Bridge proposal
– testing wires 1814
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Runcorn Bridge proposal - model 1814
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Runcorn Bridge proposal – 1814
Spans 500ft – 1000ft – 500ft
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Menai Suspension Bridge 1819-26
‘established this genre as the most economic
means of achieving the largest spans’
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Conwy suspension bridge 1826
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Glasgow
and
Carlisle
Road
1815-25
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Ecclefechan Bridge, Glasgow to Carlisle Road, 1826
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Dinwoodie Toll
House,
Dumfriesshire
on
Glasgow to Carlisle
Road
1822-23
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Dinwoodie Toll House – Broad eaves
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Gretna Green Toll House – Marriage House
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Telford churches and manses – 1825-30
Ullapool Church
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Over Bridge, Gloucester 1826-28
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Tewkesbury Bridge 1823-26
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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.
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Dean Bridge, Edinburgh 1829-32
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Dean Bridge Drawing 1832
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Dean Bridge interior
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Dean Bridge interior – crown of arch
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Dean Bridge slenderness ‘with Glasgow Bridge a fitting crown to Telford’s creative life’ (Gibb)
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Dundee Harbour – ‘Mr Telford’s Plan’ 1822
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Dundee Harbour c.1845
Note - only the lighthouse now remains!
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Dundee Harbour
Author’s historical
evolution of site for
‘Discovery Dock’
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Aberdeen Harbour – North Pier
Telford 250 Commemoration 2007
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Aberdeen Harbour –
North Pier 1815
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Telford’s
recreation –
going to see
Dorothea Jordan
in a play -
for example in the
farce ‘The Devil
to Pay’
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Westminster Abbey
Telford’s grave 1834
and statue