Blind Jack of Knaresborough - Harrogate's unlikely road building expert
John Metcalf, known as 'Blind Jack of Knaresborough', was the first professional road builder to emerge during the Industrial Revolution. Blind from the age of six, he was an accomplished diver, swimmer, card player and fiddler. But he is best known for pioneering 180 miles of turnpike road in the north of England, between 1765 and 1792.
Metcalf lost his sight following a smallpox infection as a child, and was given fiddle lessons as a means of making a living later in life. He also had an affinity for horses, and worked as a horse trader. Despite his blindness, Metcalf took up swimming and diving, fighting cocks, playing cards, riding and even hunting. He knew his local area so well he was paid to work as a guide to visitors.
Metcalf also worked as a carrier, using a four-wheeled chaise and a one-horse chair to take his customers on journeys. In 1745 he bought a stone wagon and worked it between York and Knaresborough. By 1754 his business had grown into a stagecoach line.
In 1765 Parliament passed an act that authorised the building of toll roads in the Knaresborough area. Metcalf utilised his practical experience as a carrier, and won a contract to build a 3-mile road from Harrogate to Boroughbridge. This was the start of his extensive road-building. Many of his routes still survive today, for example as parts of the A59 and the A61.
Metcalf believed that a good road should be well-drained, and designed a way to build roads across bogs, using a series of rafts to support the surfacing. This established his reputation as an excellent road builder because other engineers believed it could not be done. Consequently, Metcalf became known as one of the fathers of modern road construction, along with Thomas Telford and John MacAdam.
Blind Jack died aged 92 in 1810. In 2009 a statue of him was installed in Knaresborough market square, and in 2017, the Harrogate Southern Bypass was named 'John Metcalf Way'.
Further reading
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