ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the more human side of three of the great contributors to pavements. John Metcalf was born in 1717 in Knaresborough in the West Riding of Yorkshire to working class parents, although his father did keep horses. He was blinded by smallpox when he was 6 years of age and received no further formal education other than music lessons. Nevertheless, he became well known as a very clever and strong young man. Metcalf married the daughter of the wealthy landlord of the local Royal Oak hotel, having successfully proposed to her and then eloped together on horseback the night before her intended marriage to another man. John McAdam’s name has passed into the literature as macadam, the form of pavement he invented. He was an innovative but difficult man who made many very public and acerbic comments about the abilities of his contemporaries. One of Adrien Mountain’s key attributes was the enthusiasm with which he pursued the use of hardwood paving blocks. When he successfully introduced wood block paving into Sydney, it caused consternation among powerful Sydney importers of asphalt, who saw their product pushed aside and their profits savaged. Mountain records that they had led a fierce and powerful attack on wood block paving. This led to Mountain moving to Melbourne where his wood blocks met with great success.
