William Thomas (of Denton Hall)
William Thomas of Denton Hall who was later retained by Christopher Blackett as a consultant engineer to Wylam Colliery
The first idea and proposition to introduce the railroad, imperfect as it then was, for the transportation of goods and for commercial purposes generally, and to be used as a highway between one city and another, as at the present day, was made before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle, England, by Mr. Thomas, of Denton, on the 11th February, 1800.