Picturesque Engineering: Telford's Highland Roads and Bridges

In partnership with the Fulbright Commission.
In 1819, Thomas Telford and Robert Southey went on a six-week tour of the Scottish Highlands to inspect the region’s newly built roads, bridges and canals. What compelled this unlikely duo, the “Colossus of Roads” and Britain’s Poet Laureate, to undertake one of the greatest road trips of the Picturesque era?
Landscape historian and Fulbright scholar Paul Daniel Marriott explores the legacy of their extraordinary journey, meticulously chronicled by Southey, on travel, transport and design in the twenty-first century.
A lecture by Paul Daniel Marriott recorded on 14 March 2023 at Barnard's Inn Hall, London.
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/t...
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[@brucevilla]

Thanks for Uploading.

[@harperwelch5147]

Quite a delightful journey the presenter has offered us. Many thanks. Fascinating evolution of form and function.

[@redghost6386]

I'm from the North west of England and I like to kayak along the Shropshire Union canal. Telford pretty much built everything. If it wasn't for our canal system we'd have never been the super power we were. Being able to move stuff across the country fast was what made us better than Europe.

[@2001perseus.]

There is a Telford bridge in the village of Bannockburn that still bears modern traffic on the old A 9 to this day. You wouldn't even know you were on a bridge while passing over it. You have to go down into Bannockburn park to see it. It's an amazing stone structure. a curving arch at the top and a reverse arch low down. Curving pillars each side create a large central circle through the stonework. The man was both a genius and an artist.