Thomas Telford

There have been thousands of pages written and published about the life and career of Thomas Telford, but none of these give attention to the six years Telford spent as the Bridge Engineer to the Rochester Bridge Trust.

Drawing on original correspondence, reports and plans from the Trust’s archives, Bridge Clerk Sue Threader provides an insight into Telford’s personality, the way he conducted his consultancy business, and fills in an important missing period in the published histories of his career.

This article was originally published in Construction History, International Journal of the Construction History Society, Vol. 32 No. 1 (2017), and delivered as a free lecture, presented by Sue Threader on 20th September 2017.