Blind Jack

This bronze seated statue of Blind Jack of Knaresborough, in the Market Place, is by local sculptor, Barbara Asquith. I have tried many times to photograph it but it is difficult to avoid lots of street clutter or, in more pleasant weather, tourists sitting on the bench posing with the statue.

John Metcalfe was born in Knaresborough in 1717 and lost his sight, through smallpox, when he was six. He made a living in a variety of ways, as a fiddler in local hotels, running a carrier business and driving his own stagecoach. He also became an army recruiting sergeant, travelling with the army to Scotland during the Second Jacobite Rebellion.

His greatest achievement, apart from living to nearly 93, was as a pioneering road builder. From 1765 until he retired in 1792, he designed and built nearly 200 miles of turnpike roads, across the north of England.