Thomas Telford

On this day in 1757 Thomas Telford, canal, road and bridge builder, entered the world at Gelndinning, a rural farm in Dumfriesshire.  His shepherd father died soon after he was born and poverty suffused his early life.  At 14 he was apprenticed to a stonemason later working in Edinburgh before making his way to London in 1782.  Self taught for the most part he was a natural engineer and through William Pulteney he obtained the post of Surveyor of Public Works in Shropshire.  While there he not only renovated many public buildings he also began to erect some forty bridges in Shropshire alone as part of his daily duties.  

In 1793 Telford designed and built the Ellsmere Canal linking Wrexham, Ellsmere and Chester with the Mersey.  This included erecting the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct 126 feet over the River Dee. This engineering marvel is still in regular use today by canal boats.  As Telford's reputation grew his opinion was requested in many spheres, Liverpool water, London Bridge and a twenty year job building the Caledonian Canal to improve communication by sea in the heart of the highlands.  This involved a thousand miles of new roads, another thousand bridges, improvements to harbours at ports throughout Scotland as well as the development of the canal itself.  All this at a time when the Navvy, armed with pick and shovel, completed the work by the sweat of his brow.  The death toll from accident as well as overwork must be enormous.  Alongside all this Telford erected 32 new churches and developed almost 200 miles of road in the south west of Scotland.  This at a time when muddy roads were the norm and transport consisted of foot, horse or coach.  Thomas improved on the development of MacAdam roads, changing the material used to strengthen the road surface.  The churches were paid for by parliament and erected in areas devoid of a place of worship.  £1500 was allowed for each building and Telford's design skillfully reduced the cost to a mere £750.  I wonder how many still exist, possibly as expensive homes today.

Telford constructed roads throughout England and Wales all with their accompanying bridges including the Menai Bridge.  The face of Britain was changed completely when his roads were completed.  Canals, roads, bridges and this was soon followed by the entrance of the Railway age, changing the nation once again in a different manner.  Telford's roads and many bridges however are still in use, many now expanded, improved, but still following the original way. When he was referred to as "The Colossus of Roads," by his friend the poet Robert Southey few would have disagreed!   Late in life he completed St Katherine's Dock next to Tower Bridge in London, a place still full of boats today, tunnels, canals and roads were still in his mind when he died in 1834.  Telford was 77 when he died and had never married.  He left no blood relation and had he married and became surrounded by a family would he ever have completed so many great public works?     

Thomas Telford was so great an engineer that many roads, including one near my home area in Edinburgh, were named after him.  However in Shropshire the new town was called 'Telford' in commemoration of the great man.  Few of us will ever have that accolade!

He was a Scot you know, did I mention this?

Thomas Telford  Caledonian Canal  Ellsmere Canal  Thomas Telford Salopian

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Something Different

I was here today.....

Another epic journey of four miles and 35 chains, and back again!  Wot?  A 'chain' is a measurement used on railways, and in other engineering works, it measures 66 feet, or 22 yards, or 100 links, or 4 rods.  10 chains equal a furlong, 8 furlongs a mile.  Railway distances are measured in miles and chains from the starting station.  Each object, bridge, station etc, is listed as so many miles and chains from the starting point. By inquiring in my book on this railway line I can tell I cycled around this distance.  The doubtful bit is me getting to the line which takes a few minutes.  So today I went a mere 9 miles, almost!  This 'Halt' was added to the railway to encourage passengers during the twenties.  Bus travel was hitting the railway money, which was never strong, and folks walking the half mile from the village would hail the train, climb the steps lowered  by the guard, and go their way. 

D Trevor Towe

How it was done. No doubt 'Health and Safety' would stop this now!

Early morn but the sun was already high and I made several attempts to capture the light rays coming through the gaps in the trees.  The problem was the sun was too bright, something the camera and I are not used to dealing with.  Out of the treeline the sun made everything too bright to capture easily.

The brickwork on Victorian bridges is much admired however every so often a weakness arises.  Possibly this one took cracks from bad weather, rain turning to ice and over time developing cracks that threatened to collapse.  Only one house lies over the bridge, a farm, so what passes can be quite heavy even though the road is only occasionally used.  The repair will hold it up, no doubt for years, and also allow people to pass safely.  However it is not worthy of the original architecture, but it will be cost effective and safe.

Naturally real life returned during Andy Murray becoming the first SCOTTISH Player to win at Wimbledon.  The brats over the road have somehow managed to make something catch fire. Who knows what it was, I could not see for the trees, but these firemen will have a busy time in the sun, there is always someone setting dry haystacks on fire somewhere around here.  Tsk! 

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The Height of Excitement!

Look, a bridge made out of bricks!  Not only does that reveal the height my excitement reached today it also shows how far I cycled.  Not far and watching the 'Tour de France this afternoon I noted my four miles fade somewhat when they said they had only another 122 kilometers to go!  That, as you will have worked out, is just under 76 miles.  The riders had been on the bikes for three hours and more when I turned it on.  My knees could not stand any more so I went out and sat in the park.

The park was filled with people having fun.  A Muslim group had organised a fun day and kids were bouncing off castles, stalls were offering sweets and meat, not together, and people in general were having a real good time in the sunshine.  Naturally that was not for me so I went back indoors and sulked.

Bah!

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MORE SHOPPING WOES!

So you don't like me shopping? BAH!  I went anyway!

It was rubbish! 
The Oxfam shop exists here, it remains overpriced and did not have what I want!  Waterstone's here had more floor space and more books I didn't want, but found two I can suffer.  Almost no bookshops left in this country, even the second hand ones are mostly charitable types now.  Amazon has much to answer for!

Still I got 'Annals' by Tacitus (or Takitus if you prefer) plus 'Britain BC' by Francis Pryor.  Also having passed two folks with flu I expect to get that also, Flu hates me with a passion.  I'm convinced virii and germs recognise me wherever I am.  There are ancient canals in boring  Chelmsford, the bridge is dated 1787, the one below I mean, as that is the year the canal opened, and runs over the River Can which leads tothe Basin.  The green one is considerably later and not so attractive.  From Chelmsford basin, now a nice walk in the sunshine, the boats would make their way to the Heybridge Basin near Maldon.  Horse drawn barges, very romantic but commercially slow, carried 25 tons of grain, flour and whatever to the coast, bricks, coal, timber etc were brought back.  The horse were used until the 60's even!  The commercial side ended in 1972,unusually the rail links did not compete with this canal and that is the reason for its survival.  

I attempted to take pics of the fabulous wee houses I passed but the bus moved too fast and only this one in a village survives.  T last time I was in Great Leighs, about 15 years ago I cycled around the back roads visiting the tomb of the Reverend Clark, he of 'Echoes of the War' fame. Then it was a small place, with lots ofinteresting wee houses and people watching through the net curtains as I passed.  Today it has swollen enormously owing to housing development.  You get a glimpse of such housing development in this picture here.  I know what I prefer.  Other villages have kept the developer at bay and houses from several hundred years ago deserve a visit in the summer.  If I'm free that day!

I hurried up the road to get the quarter past bus, which naturally did not arrive.  The highly sophisticated timetable has been well presented, it just forgot to add the bus might not arrive!  The first time I visited London I was somewhat taken aback to see the timetables on the stops informing us the buses arrived 'every fifteen minutes, but it then told us the times may not be adhered to!  That would never have done for Edinburgh!  

As I headed for the bus in a rush I passed this place.  Typical of many pubs in the London area and looking very neat today.  In stead of standing freezing in the bus station (why do they build them in such a way as to invite cold winds?)  I should have been in here. The bus arrived at twenty to the hour!  Bah!  

Still awake.....?  

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Nothing to say

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So here is a picture of Battersea Bridge.....


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The Waterfall

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Trundling out to exercise my knees I wandered down the path usually occupied early in the morning by folks walking their dogs. Being late afternoon the women were busy in the kitchens preparing their man's dinner which is what they were made for! This meant I could enjoy the bright sunshine, the warm air, and the raging waterfall I found there.  What a lovely spot, especially when the dog walkers were absent and the neds who leave their 'Carlsberg' cans on the waterfall have as yet not arrived. This once was a delightful wooded spot lying just under the hill on which the farmhouse stands.  In the 1850's the railway built the embankment that lies just behind the photographer but even this does not detract from the site itself, in fact in may enhance it.  However as the town has moved outwards the youth has followed on.  Kids of adolescent age use the slope of the embankment as a slide and their older brothers meet to share a can of beer to prove they are men at last. How many fall in while being macho I have failed to ascertain, although I would enjoy a photograph of such!


And look! A brick bridge!  How wonderful! I wonder had we got aerosol spray paint when young would we have scribbled our names on rail bridges?  I suspect we would but the only such vandalism I can recall came when I was in my late teens, and that referred to gang names.  There were certainly lots of such scrawls in Glasgow when we visited but in was only around 1970 they began to appear in Edinburgh. I fear we would have followed the crowd had it arrived earlier however.  I prefer the bridge with just brick rather than someones initials.   

In fact I am now convinced we would have vandalised with the rest.  This door is found at the back to door to the 'stair' in which we lived.  The initials dug into the door began with the 'Teddy Boy' neighbours (and my brother) in the fifties and have been continued since. I suspect this door has now been replaced with 'modern improvements' but you never know.  Graffiti has always been important to people.  Armies marching through the Cilician Gates near Tarsus (in Turkey) left their mark on the walls.  Greeks, Egyptian, Hittite and all put their mark, and those who could write left a statement of their intent as they passed. Sadly I understand the motorway construction of the eighties destroyed the ancient gates!   My dad once admitted that he and his mates had done the same to Stonehenge. Tsk!  The druids will not be pleased.

 
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Bridge over the Atlantic

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Innish

There are still those in the world that refuse to believe that a bridge crosses the Atlantic. You can tell them till you are blue in the face but they still will not believe you. "Where is the evidence?" they spout rudely. "If I cannot see it, I will not believe it," they proclaim with all the assurance of an atheist about to be shot at dawn and receive one almighty shock. "No bridge crosses the Atlantic ocean, none whatsoever!"  But they are wrong. So wrong as one was built over the Atlantic in the year 1792 by John Stephenson or by Robert Mylne, depending on whom you wish to believe. It appears to have been designed by the great Thomas Telford and locals say that their man Stevenson (or Stephenson depending on who you talk to) did the work, and his name is recorded by 'The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) as the man, yet others credit Mylne. I suspect however it was local men paid a pittance who actually did the hard graft. They did the job well as with a little bit of modern strengthening the bridge is still used today, and forty ton lorries can cross it safely.  Though quite why anyone would take a forty ton lorry to the Isle beats me! Some folks do have strange tastes mind. 
The bridge crosses the Atlantic taking the traveler from the Scottish mainland, in the rain, to Seil Island, where it rains harder, and for longer. This is not a populous part of the world but makes for excellent, but damp, holiday excursions. The purple of the Fairy Foxglove guides the tourist, and how we love them, to the hills and sights of the island.  Make sure you investigate Tigh an Truish Inn - the House of the Trousers! 


There are other bridges over the Atlantic but this is the most important one.    
Secret Scotland


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Brickies

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Ever since those 'Fred Dibnah' the Bolton Steeplejack were on telly I have become fascinated with brickwork. Not that I am found staring at brick walls because this reflects on the excitement of my life, but the patterns revealed, the skill required and atrophy of mind are all involved. As I pedal up the old railway I pass a couple of bridges carrying roads over the line. This one served a farm or two and runs at an angle to the line. When you consider the skill required to build such an arch, let alone ensure it remains in place for over a hundred and fifty years, an admiration for these artisans grows. Bricklayers were one of the many groups of artisans that made full use of the 19th centuries desire to 'better oneself.' Gathering in groups they would pay a few pence a week into a kitty and when sick or short of work could draw a few shillings from the common purse. One near here went on to develop a brick making factory in the gravel pits opposite the railway station. Many houses were built from his bricks and he himself made this edifice from his own bricks and must have been quite important by the late Victorian age. Wasted as office space for far too many years this house once must have appeared a marvel to those who studied 'Self Help' books at the time.

Of course it was just as easy to lose everything overnight in those days and many did. The John Brown who owned 'Hollywood' leaves little trace that I can find but he achieved some success for a while at least. One other famous bricklayer was of course Winston Churchill! One of his 'rest cures' was to build walls in his house at Chartwell. The combination of creativity and a chance to rest the mind in the sun and inhaling fresh air and mortar did him good. He actually became a paid up member of a bricklayers union, and not many Conservative Prime Ministers could say that!  Looking at the bridge I was interested at the manner in which the brick ends are forming such a delicate pattern. The skill shown in many bridges, walls, and especially expensive houses shows much taste. Today of course only multi millionaires could contemplate such brickwork, so we end up with plastic and concrete! Ah well, it could be worse I suppose.


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