Publications
"John Trew is an Able Man", by Michael Chrimes, published 2003 in Wealden Iron Research Group (Second Series No. 23, article, pp.23-26, ISSN: 0266-4402) accessible at: The Keep [LIB/506570] Download PDF
Abstract:The establishment of an engineering profession in the British Isles is normally dated to the late eighteenth century, more or less coeval with the career of John Smeaton, who was probably the first person to call himself a 'civil engineer'. Smeaton generally referred to himself simply as 'engineer', a term which can be traced back to medieval times, but which was generally applied to military practitioners, a possible reason for Smeaton to introduce the prefix 'civil'.
There had, of course, been a number of engineering works carried out before Smeaton's time, notably the drainage of the Fens in the seventeenth century, but also river improvements, turnpike roads, small harbour schemes, bridges, and developments in mining and metallurgy. These works were carried out by a whole range of people - military engineers, master masons, 'water carpenters', millwrights, coal viewers, mathematical practitioners. Aside from a few well-known foreign engineers like Cornelius Vermuyden there are few examples of full-time engineers in anything like the modern sense. One possible candidate is the Tudor gentleman, John Trew.
There had, of course, been a number of engineering works carried out before Smeaton's time, notably the drainage of the Fens in the seventeenth century, but also river improvements, turnpike roads, small harbour schemes, bridges, and developments in mining and metallurgy. These works were carried out by a whole range of people - military engineers, master masons, 'water carpenters', millwrights, coal viewers, mathematical practitioners. Aside from a few well-known foreign engineers like Cornelius Vermuyden there are few examples of full-time engineers in anything like the modern sense. One possible candidate is the Tudor gentleman, John Trew.