Telford & Wrekin Council is co-ordinating a county-wide series of events and projects that will celebrate Telford’s memory and help remind local people of his achievements.

The poet, Robert Southey, punningly praised him as the "Colossus of Roads", but Thomas Telford was much more than a road builder.

Born in poverty in 1757, the son of a Dumfriesshire shepherd who died in the same year, Thomas Telford became renowned as the father of civil engineering and was the first President of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Trained as a stonemason from the age of 13-14, Telford found fame as a canal, aqueduct and bridge builder as well as the architect of many churches.

His first association with Shropshire came when he was commissioned to direct the restoration of Shrewsbury Castle which led to his appointment in 1787 as the first County Surveyor. In 1796 Telford built the world's first cast-iron aqueduct at Longdon on Tern, but perhaps his greatest legacy to the county was the construction of the Holyhead Road which on its completion was reckoned to be the finest road in the whole of Europe.

Thomas Telford's great historic contributions to Shropshire and the fact that many of his works can still be seen in the county were major reasons for Dawley New Town, in 1968, being renamed Telford in his honour.

2007 marks the 250th Anniversary of the birth of this great, pioneering engineer and Telford & Wrekin Council is co-ordinating a county-wide series of events and projects that will celebrate his memory and help remind local people of his achievements and the integral part that Shropshire has played in the industrial history of the nation and, indeed, the world.

These events will include public lectures, and plaque unveilings. Key to the success of 2007 will be the involvement of many local schools in competitions and displays which will help to raise the profile of engineering's exciting future as well as the glories of its past achievements.