Statue of John "Blind Jack" Metcalf. Market Place, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe.
Image details
Contributor:
Stan Pritchard / Alamy Stock PhotoImage ID:
HT70Y4File size:
22.4 MB (983.7 KB Compressed download)Releases:
Model - no | Property - noDo I need a release?Dimensions:
2239 x 3500 px | 19 x 29.6 cm | 7.5 x 11.7 inches | 300dpiDate taken:
11 August 2016Location:
Gracious Street Methodist Church Hall, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom, EuroMore information:
BLIND JACK OF KNARESBOROUGH - otherwise JOHN METCALF, was perhaps one of the most remarkable Yorkshiremen who ever lived, principally because his life was one of prodigious effort, despite the fact that he was blind from the age of six, following an attack of smallpox. He became famous as a builder of roads and bridges, using techniques that in the 18th Century were revolutionary. He built roads on the Plain of York, as well as over the much more difficult terrain of the Pennines. His greatest speciality was in laying them across marshy ground, a problem no-one previously had solved. His only instrument was a stout staff. His method for laying foundations was to order his men to pull and bind heather in round bundles and to lay it on the intended road in rows, piling more bundles on top and pressing them down into the bog to soak up the water. He then brought carts loaded with stone and gravel to lay above the bundles of heather. Living at a time when turnpike roads were being built all over Britain, he was responsible for around 180 miles of road in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Derbyshire and Cheshire, including the roads from Harrogate to Boroughbridge, Wakefield to Dewsbury and Doncaster, Knaresborough to Wetherby and Huddersfield to Halifax. The statue was sculpted by Barbara Asquith.