Education
Telford went to Westerkirk parish school and became an apprentice to a stonemason at Lochmaben when he left school in 1772.
He’s believed to have run away from the apprenticeship after being treated badly, and went to work for Andrew Thomson at Langholm, working on simple buildings in the area.
In 1780, Telford went to Edinburgh, where he learned to draw and studied the local architecture, and his own work shows influence of the Gothic style of Melrose Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel in the city.
Career
Telford went to London in February 1782, where he met architects Robert Adam and Sir William Chambers, and worked as a stonemason on the building of Somerset House.
In 1783, he first started working for William Pulteney, the first Earl of Bath and MP for Shrewsbury, restoring Sudborough Rectory in Northamptonshire.
Pulteney was a strong influence on Telford’s career, and helped establish him as an engineer.
Telford worked on a number of infrastructure projects in Shropshire after being invited there by Pulteney to restore Shrewsbury Castle in 1786. He worked on local church restorations, private houses, improved streets and drainage.
After he restored the castle in a Gothic style, Telford lived in and practised as an architect from the castle.
When Pulteney became director of British Fisheries Society in 1790, Telford advised on the improvement of numerous harbours in northern Scotland. The largest was Pulteneytown at Wick.
He also helped spread the use of Roman cement in facing, pointing and brick-jointing mortars to stop water penetration. The aluminous hydraulic cement, patented by James Parker, set to a “very considerable extent” in about 20 minutes.
Telford’s civil engineering career started to take off from 1793 when he was appointed as General Agent, Surveyor, Engineer, Architect and Overlooker to the Ellesmere Canal. The standout structure on the canal is the Pontcysyllte cast iron aqueduct over the Dee.
In terms of road construction, Telford’s roads were well-drained and had a hand-pitched stone foundation under a layer of conventional road metal. Although they were more expensive to build, their higher quality meant that maintenance costs were lower.
Telford planned, built or advised on several thousand masonry bridges throughout his lifetime.
His first major bridge was over the Severn at Montford from 1790 to 1792, using convict labour.
Other infrastructure Telford worked on included drainage of the Fens in eastern England, the improvement of more than 100 harbours, docks or piers, and water supply schemes such as a piped supply to Liverpool from springs at Bootle.