page_title: History of road transport
section_title: Metcalf
hierarchical_section_title: History of road transport / Industrial civil engineering / Metcalf
caption_attribution_description: English: John Metcalf (civil engineer). Uploaded from http://www.knaresborough.co.uk/history/blindjack/ Drawn by J R Smith in the Life of John Metcalf published 1801.
context_page_description: The history of road transport started with the development of tracks by humans and their beast of burden.
context_section_description: By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, new methods of highway construction had been pioneered by the work of two British engineers, Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam, and by the French road engineer Pierre-Marie-Jérôme Trésaguet.
  The first professional road builder to emerge during the Industrial Revolution was John Metcalf, who constructed about 180 miles (290 km) of turnpike road, mainly in the north of England, from 1765, when Parliament passed an act authorising the creation of turnpike trusts to build new toll funded roads in the Knaresborough area. Metcalf won a contract to build a three-mile (5 km) section of road between Minskip and Ferrensby on a new road from Harrogate to Boroughbridge.  He explored the section of countryside alone and worked out the most practical route.
  He believed a good road should have good foundations, be well drained and have a smooth convex surface to allow rainwater to drain quickly into ditches at the side.  He understood the importance of good drainage, knowing it was rain that caused most problems on the roads. He worked out a way to build a road across a bog using a series of rafts made from ling (a type of heather) and furze (gorse) tied in bundles as foundations.  This established his reputation as a road builder since other engineers had believed it could not be done. He acquired a mastery of his trade with his own method of calculating costs and materials, which he could never successfully explain to others.
caption: John Metcalf, also known as Blind Jack of Knaresborough. Drawn by J R Smith in The Life of John Metcalf published 1801.
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