Commemoration Service for 'father of civil engineering' John Smeaton

Nearly 250 people gathered at St Mary’s church, Whitkirk this month to celebrate one of Leeds famous sons.  The service was in honour of John Smeaton, known as 'the Father of Civil Engineering in Britain'.

The commemoration marked the completion of his most notable construction 250 years ago.  On 16th October 1759 a light was exhibited for the first time from the Eddystone Lighthouse, 14 miles south of Plymouth on a treacherous reef.  This was the first lighthouse to be built of stone at sea and for it John Smeaton invented a special mix of lime mortar which sets under water.  The lighthouse was depicted on the back of the old penny, just behind Britannia and now stands as a permanent memorial on Plymouth Hoe after being moved there stone by stone when the rock underneath it eroded.

The preacher at the service was the Bishop of Knaresborough, Rt Revd James Bell.  Special invited guests included the Deputy Lord Mayor Leeds and Commodore David Squire from Trinity House, the lighthouse authority.  Children form Austhorpe Primary sang at the service and two laid a posey of flowers on his grave, behind the main altar.  The school is built on land next to the site of his house and uses the lighthouse as its emblem.  Christopher Severn, author of Smeaton's Tower, a novel telling the story of the building of the lighthouse travelled from Wales to be at the service.

Canon Ian Black, the Vicar of Whitkirk, said: "John Smeaton was a remarkable man.  He gave his employees contracts of employment, setting out clearly the terms of their employment and giving them security at a time when this was not common.  Many of his structures still stand today.  He even gets a mention in the Kaiser Chief's song 'I predict a riot'."

John Smeaton was born in Austhorpe Lodge in 1724, attended Leeds Grammar School, leaving at 16 to work in his father's law practice.  He gave that up and became an apprentice to a mathematical instrument maker, setting up his own business around 1750.

In addition to his lighthouse, John Smeaton designed an impressive list of bridges (Aberdeen, Banff, Coldstream, Hexham, Newark viaduct, Perth - featured on Griff Rhys Jones recent programme 'River').  He was responsible for the Forth-Clyde canal, the Calder navigation and 8 miles of canal at Ripon; Ramsgate Harbour and Pumps at London Bridge.  He discovered hydraulic lime (calcinations of limestone containing clay which harden under water).  There is a mathematical formula named after him called the Smeaton Coefficient (which concerns the relationship between pressure and velocity for objects moving in air).

He died at Austhorpe Lodge on 28th October 1792.  A model of his lighthouse adorns his monument in the chancel near his grave