| Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 Early Years Thomas Telford was one of the great civil engineers of the eighteenth century. He was born an only child, near Westerkirk, in Eskdale in the lowlands of Scotland on August 9th 1757. A few months after Telford‘s birth his father, John, a shepherd, died leaving his mother, Janet, to bring him up alone with only the support of the local community. As a boy, Telford carried on his father‘s work herding sheep. He occasionally attended the parish school in Westerkirk where he received a basic education before leaving at the age of fourteen to become an apprentice stone mason. The local laird, the Duke of Buccleuch, was improving his estate, and Telford was kept busy building homes for the estate workers and roads and bridges on the estate lands. Despite the long hours and physically hard work, Telford carried on with his education reading through the library of Mrs Pasley, a local lady who had taken to him as a child. By the late 1770‘s, Telford had become a journeyman mason and began to travel the country looking for work. He arrived in Edinburgh in 1780 and helped build the New Town. He was in London in 1782 where, following introductions from Mrs Pasley, he found work on the building of Somerset House. After two years in London, Telford moved to Portsmouth, choosing to work in the dockyard rather than the grand buildings of the town. There he met Samuel Watt an architect who had been pioneering the use of cast iron in building work. While working at Portsmouth Telford was asked to advise on repairs to Wester Hall near his family home in Eskdale. Wester Hall was the home of theJohnstone family, headed by Sir William Pulteney, MP for Shrewsbury. Impressed by Telford‘s designs, Sir William invited him to Shrewsbury to restore its castle; and so his long association with the County of Salop began. While in Shrewsbury Telford became Surveyor of Public Works for the County and Clerk of Works for the new County Gaol, quickly progressing to architect and then engineer. In 1787 he became the first County Surveyor for Shropshire.
 John Telford‘s gravestone at Westerkirk Burial Ground in 2003. One of the first things Telford didas a young stonemason was to cut a headstone for his father. Photograph courtesy of Chris Morris.
Eskdale a poem written by Telford and published in 1784 in the ‘Poetical Museum.‘ Telford enjoyed writing poetry throughout his life.
 Somerset House in London as it stands today. Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4 | Page 5 | Page 6 | Page 7 | Page 8 | Page 9 | Page 10 | Page 11 | Page 12 | 
