John Wilkinson, or Iron Mad Jack as he was known, was King of the Iron Masters.

He was born in March 1728 on the back of a farm cart as his mother was returning home after working all that day on her market stall. The eldest of 6 children, his early life was spent at Little Clifton in Cumbria, helping his father Isaac at the nearby Backbarrow Ironworks. In 1755 John Wilkinson, accompanied by his heavily pregnant wife Ann, arrived at Bersham Ironworks, which his father had recently taken over. Sadly his wife died in childbirth. She has a memorial plaque in St Giles Church, Wrexham, designed and constructed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard, the architect of the world’s 1st iron bridge and John Wilkinson’s friend. On January 27th 1774 at Bersham Ironworks John Wilkinson used the world’s FIRST MACHINE TOOL (built under his patent # 1063) to bore out a cannon barrel from a solid casting. He immediately produced more identical cannon barrels and is recognised as the world’s FIRST PRECISION ENGINEER. In 1775 he adapted this technology to accurately bore out cylinders for James Watt’s steam engine, making it work efficiently and become the main power source of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. John Wilkinson built the world 1st Iron Boat in 1775, a 70ft long river barge, was the main driving force in creating the 1st Iron Bridge (now a World Heritage Site), had his own coinage, with extensive Banking, Lead & Copper interests, JW helped finance and build the Birmingham Canal, being recently hailed as “The Father of the Black Country”. He died on 14th July 1808 and was buried 4 times in an iron coffin. His final resting place was identified in March 2019 at the (now deconsecrated) Lindale Parish Church in Cumbia, quite close to the 70ft Iron Obelisk he had built for himself.