Thomas Telford's life was extraordinary: born in the Lowlands of
Scotland, where his father worked as a shepherd, he ended his days as
the most revered engineer in the world, known punningly as The Colossus
of Roads. He was responsible for some of the great works of the age,
such as the suspension bridge across the Menai Straits and the mighty
Pontcysyllte aqueduct. He built some of the best roads seen in Britain
since the days of the Romans and constructed the great Caledonian Canal,
designed to take ships across Scotland from coast to coast. He did as
much as anyone to turn engineering into a profession and was the first
President of the newly formed Institution of Civil Engineers. All this
was achieved by a man who started work as a boy apprentice to a
stonemason. He was always intensely proud of his homeland and was to be
in charge of an immense program of reconstruction for the Highlands that
included building everything from roads to harbors and even designing
churches. He was unquestionably one of Britain's finest engineers, able
to take his place alongside giants such as Brunel. He was also a man of
culture, even though he had only a rudimentary education. As a mason in
his early days he had worked alongside some of the greatest architects
of the day, such as William Chambers and Robert Adams, and when he was
appointed County Surveyor for Shropshire early in his career, he had the
opportunity to practice those skills himself, designing two imposing
churches in the county and overseeing the renovation of Shrewsbury
Castle. Even as a boy, he had developed a love of literature and
throughout his life wrote poetry and became a close friend of the Poet
Laureate, Robert Southey. He was a man of many talents, who rose to the
very top of his profession but never forgot his roots: he kept his old
masons tools with him to the end of his days. There are few official
monuments to this great man, but he has no need of them: the true
monuments are the structures that he left behind that speak of a man who
brought about a revolution in transport and civil engineering.
