Richard Thomas (27 December 1779 – 21 February 1858) was an English

civil engineer A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...

. He produced a survey of the navigation of the

River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...

, he also created a geological map of the

mining district Mining district may refer to: * Mining district (North America) * Mining district (Europe) {{dab ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

in 1819 which went through several editions. In 1815, Thomas produced the first " Falmouth Guide" containing "a concise account of the history, trade, port and public establishments of Falmouth; directions to the public offices, lodging-houses, inns, taverns, etc." Between 1850 and 1852, he wrote 35 letters to

the West Briton ''The West Briton'' is a local weekly newspaper published every Thursday. It serves various areas of Cornwall in the United Kingdom: there are four separate editions – Truro and mid-Cornwall; Falmouth and Penryn; Redruth, Camborne and Hayle; ...

newspaper, in which he discussed no fewer than 490 barrows, 180 various earthworks and

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

remains in Cornwall. Barrows destroyed since he had seen them included 7 barrows on St Breock Downs, the diameter of some being 55 feet, the others smaller. Although he died in the

Isles of Scilly The Isles of Scilly ( ; ) are a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, Isles of Scilly, St Agnes, is over farther south than the most southerly point of the Great Britain, British mainla ...

, his funeral took place at Budock, Falmouth.

References

Falmouth Packet Archives
* ''Cornwall'' by

Philip Payton Philip John Payton is a British-Australian historian and emeritus professor of Cornish and Australian studies. Payton is also Vice-President of the British Australian Studies Association at the University of Exeter and formerly director of the ...

, page 23, 1779 births 1858 deaths Engineers from Cornwall People from Falmouth, Cornwall {{Cornwall-stub