With his death in September 1834, just as the railway age was dawning, Telford had little idea of how lasting his legacy would be: he shaped the lives of the Victorian civil engineers who followed him and almost everything he built is still in use today.

Julian Glover's biography of Thomas Telford: a shepherd's son, born in the Scottish Borders in 1757, who revolutionised British engineering and set the stage for the Industrial Revolution.

Concluded by Robin Laing.

Abridged by David Jackson Young

Producer: Kirsteen Cameron.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in January 2017. Show less