Story of Blind Jack: The famous Yorkshire historic figure who invented the measuring wheel and put Knaresborough on the map

John Metcalfe, most commonly known as Blind Jack, was the first road builder to transpire during the Industrial Revolution.

Local historian, Paul Chrystal, who lives near York and has been writing about Yorkshire for more than 30 years, shared his knowledge of the historic figure.

“[Blind Jack] was blind because he contracted smallpox when he was a child,” Mr Chrystal said.

“He was born in 1717 in a cottage near the parish church and was a Jack of all trades as he did lots of things.

“He contracted smallpox at age six. But he was clever, he did well at school despite his lack of vision and he did a lot of gambling as a child.

“By the time he was 15 he was appointed the official fiddler at the Queen’s Head in Harrogate, so he was getting money.”

While marching against the war led by Bonnie Prince Charlie in his battle for the crown of Naples, he discovered the insufficient roads and made it his mission to fix them.

“He actually eloped with a lady called Dolly Benson, the daughter of the landlord at the Royal Oak, which later became The Granby and is a nursing home by the looks of it,” Mr Chrystal said.

“In 1745, he marched as a musician to Scotland in what was a band called the Yorkshire Blues to fight against Bonnie Prince Charlie in the war.

“He was very active [in the community]. Presumably, what happened while he was fighting the war against Bonny Prince Charlie, he noticed the roads he was walking on were absolutely dreadful.

“So he decided to put them right and became a civil engineer; he started mending roads between Harrogate, York and Knaresborough and so on.”

Blind Jack was the inventor of the viameter, also known as a measuring wheel.

Throughout his work as a civil engineer and his vast improvements on Knaresborough and Harrogate, he helped put Knaresborough on the map.

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“He built the road from Knaresborough to Harrogate,” Mr Chrystal said.

“To help him, he invented something called a viameter which was basically a wheel on a stick that was used by engineers.

“Someone walks around with a wheel on a stick to measure the distance. Blind Jack invented it, you can still see the original in the Courthouse Museum. This helped him with road building.”

A statue was erected in his honour built by an artist called Barbara Asquith in the early 2000s.