Short answers, pulled from the story.
Blind Jack of Knaresborough was John Metcalf (1717-1810), an English road builder who lost his sight at the age of six following a smallpox infection. He became the first professional road builder to emerge during the Industrial Revolution, constructing roughly 180 miles of turnpike road across the north of England between 1765 and 1792.
Metcalf surveyed routes alone on foot, relying on his exceptional knowledge of terrain. He developed his own methods for calculating costs and materials, and pioneered a drainage-first approach: good foundations, a convex road surface, and side ditches to carry away rainwater. His most celebrated technique was building across boggy ground using rafts made from bundles of ling and furze as floating foundations.
John Metcalf built approximately 180 miles of turnpike road during his career, which ran from 1765 to 1792. He worked mainly in the north of England, including roads in Lancashire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire.
John Metcalf was born on the 15th of August 1717 in Knaresborough, Yorkshire. He died on the 26th of April 1810 in Spofforth, Yorkshire, aged 92, and was buried in the churchyard of All Saints' Church, Spofforth.
A statue of John Metcalf was placed in the market square in Knaresborough in 2009, across from a pub named Blind Jack's. On the 7th of July 2017, the A658 Harrogate Southern Bypass was officially named John Metcalf Way.
Metcalf is ranked alongside Thomas Telford and John MacAdam as one of the fathers of the modern road because he developed consistent engineering principles for road building: solid foundations, proper drainage, and a convex surface to shed rainwater. His solution for constructing roads across boggy ground using raft foundations was considered impossible by other engineers before he demonstrated it.