The type of road with which people today are familiar dates back to Roman times in Britain. The Romans were the first to lay paved roads in England to facilitate the movement of troops and supplies. Roman road builders were experienced engineers who worked on the principle that the quickest way from A to B was in a straight line. Many Roman roads, like the one across Blackshaw Edge in Lancashire, are still clearly visible and several, like the Fosse Way, remain in use today. By the mid 18th century the Industrial Revolution was beginning, trade was increasing and the population was on the move. Travel and carriage of goods by road was slow. The medieval packhorse routes and 'sunken ways' (roads worn down below ground level by the passage of cartwheels and the tramping feet of people and animals) could not cope effectively. Many of the routes which crossed the Pennines from Lancashire into Yorkshire were either old drover's roads or salt ways. The paved roads of Roman times were just a distant folk memory; the reality of road travel was dirty, difficult and dangerous. The official response to this problem was the setting up of Turnpike Trusts. Turnpike roads were gated and maintained by the Trust (aided by local authorities) in return for a toll paid by those who used the roads. Toll gates and toll houses were built at road junctions to enable the collection of tolls from travellers. Many of these toll houses survive and are characterised by their six sided appearance as the front door opens directly onto the road but the windows either side are angled so that the toll keeper could see down the road in each direction without going outside. The rest of the house was built behind this narrow facade. The first road to be turnpiked in Lancashire was the present A6, the London - Manchester road which runs into Manchester via Buxton and Stockport. By the 19th century the turnpike system of toll roads was widespread. It facilitated easier movement of goods through wagon loads which could travel most of the year round. Previously packhorses and carts were restricted to carrying two to three hundredweight (about 100 to 150 kilos) in summer only as shown by a road survey of 1662. However, similar surveys in 1741 and 1765, after turnpiking of the roads, showed that loads of up to six tons (around 5,500 kilos) were regularly carried for much of the year. Winter, then as now, was always problematical, especially in Northern England. Turnpikes had their problems. In attempts to keep costs down inadequate quality and quantity of stone was used, roads were often too narrow, and the engineering knowledge of turnpike surveyors was frequently insufficient. In 1794 a traveller described the Liverpool-Knowsley section of what is now the A57: '...the great road itself is unworthy of the name turnpike and a scandal to the town it approaches being a series of stones piled on one another so as to form the roughest pavement in the universe...' During the early 19th century John MacAdam, a Scottish engineer, revolutionised road building and maintenance with his new method of road construction. The crushed stone used for the road surface was bound with gravel and laid on base of larger stones. The surfaced was slightly arched (cambered) so that water would drain away quickly. Roads built in this way were known as MacAdamised roads. By the end of the century most European countries had copied his methods. Road travel continued to be slow and cumbersome however. Several horses might be needed to pull a few tons by road while one horse could pull 50 tons by canal boat. The canal network was effective but it was also slow. The breakthrough in fast and efficient movement of commodities came with the advent of the railways in the 1820s. The 'iron horse' replaced the flesh and blood horse and until the 1960s England had a railway system that was second to none. It was only during the latter part of the 20th century that the roads reclaimed their place as the prime method of carriage for both people and commodities. GG View the Roads collection to find out more > |
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