BLACKBURN-BORN Keith Duckworth is remembered as one of motorsport’s greatest engineers.

For the world of Formula 1 was changed for all time when he, alongside partner Mike Costin, created the famous Cosworth ‘DFV’ racing engine, back in 1967.

Sir Jackie Stewart, who never raced with any other engine after 1968, believes their genius was one of the great stories in motorsport history and left an indelible mark.

A new biography of the man who was born at 77, Ramsgreave Drive in 1933, now tells the story of one of Britain’s most remarkable 20th century engineers.

Keith’s childhood shaped his approach to life - his father Frank, born in 1902 in Blackburn, went into the cotton mills, but through hard work, owned his own two mills before his early death at the age of 43.

In the same year Keith was born, Frank bought Oozebooth mill, with 300 looms and by 1936 it was up and running as Oak Street Manufacturing Co.

The family moved to Norfield House in Wilpshire and he attended Notre Dame School, before following his older brother Brian as a boarder to Giggleswick School.

After his father’s death, Keith became close to his uncle, Harry Hardman, who was used to seeing the youngster hanging round Wellington Garage on Furthergate, the base of the family business.

Like most haulage businesses of the time, Hardman and Gillibrand maintained its own vehicles and throughout his junior school days, Keith enjoyed quizzing the mechanics servicing the wagons to see what was wrong with it.

Shortly before his death, Frank had turned the redundant air raid shelter in the garden into a workshop, to help foster his young son’s emerging engineering talents.

Keith trained himself by sheer enthusiasm and an endlessly questioning mind and before long neighbours were asking his advice on mechanical problems.

In 1949, at the age of 16, he also built his own radio controlled equipment, even though the technology was still in its infancy.

He left Giggleswick in 1951, becoming one of the first in the country to sit the new A-level exams, and was accepted at Imperial College, London, one of the top engineering institutions.

By then, brother Brian had established several launderettes round the streets of Blackburn and his uncles Harry and David also went into the same business.

After completing his BSc in 1955 Keith worked for Lotus as a gearbox engineer, but three years later established Cosworth as a racing engine design and development firm, which achieved its first victory with Jim Clark behind the wheel of a Lotus 18 in the Formula Junior category at Goodwood in 1960.

In 1966, Keith signed a contract with Ford to develop a new three-litre Formula One engine and the legendary DFV was born.

The DFV, in subsequent development guises, went on to dominate the sport for 15 years and clinched 155 race wins.

A host of famous names benefited from Costin and Duckworth’s approach to Formula One - as well as Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, James Hunt and Nelson Piquet all took championships using Cosworth engines during the 1970s.

n First Principles by Norman Burr (Veloce Publishing, veloce.co.uk) £35