Slide 1 Good evening. Over the years I have researched and sought to
have properly recorded many lost roads - and footpaths &
bridleways.
Take note - the mood of our politicians is changing toward the
use of roads by motorists. I will touch on many little U turns
during this talk - I hope you will pick up on some.
So I aim to swiftly talk us through what is a truly huge topic as
briefly as I can. (read screen)
Slide 2 The Bronze Age - they built trackways
The Romans - they built properly engineered roads
The Normans - the king granted the roads to the people
Early Maintenance - not a lot
Industrialisation and the need for better communication
Acts for the Inclosure of land and creation of roads swamps
Parliament
Slide 3
Turnpikes
The road makers - Metcalf, Telford and McAdam - rediscovered
the Roman techniques...
Highways Act 1835 - all roads now publicly repairable
The Roads Board - road numbering
NERC - the closure of all roads to motors - beginning of the
end?
Roads are essential to us today and few give a second thought to
using them or how they might have originated. Archeologists
tell us that we Britons traded with people across Europe back
in the Bronze age (3000 bc) so it is fair to assume that they had
regular routes that were followed. It is known that wheeled
vehicles were used during this era in Europe, but probably not
in Britain.
Slide 4
Certainly, within 200 years of visiting this
island the Romans had built an extensive network of roads the first ‘proper roads’ with a sub-base and surface. Around
400 AD the Roman Empire contracted and we returned to our
old ways, Literally & metaphorically, for around 1,300 years.
Roads were no more than muddy tracks, despite the eventual
increasing volume of wheeled traffic and the economic need to
move goods from producer to market. If you look around
England, most villages are within a days walk from a market
town or two.
Slide 5
At one time land was farmed ‘in common’.
That is to say those who farmed and those who had other
rights to land did not possess the land. They farmed in strips
that were allotted each year or grazed their animals on pasture
& wasteland. They also gathered fire wood or peat, minerals,
etc according to the rights they held. These are ‘commoners
rights’ which many will be familiar with today. BUT... the
Normans brought new farming methods that required enclosed
fields and so the new Lords of the land grew hedges and built
ditches to retain livestock.
The Inclosure of land was formalised in 1235.
Statute of Winchester - 1285
“Furthermore, it is commanded that highways from one trading
town to another shall be enlarged wherever there are woods,
hedges, or ditches; so that there shall be neither ditches,
underbrush, nor bushes for two hundred feet on the one side
and two hundred feet on the other, where men can hide near
the road with evil intent; yet so that this statute shall not apply
to oaks or to any great trees, so long as they are cleared
underneath....”
Slide 6
Inclosure was a process that in the early days
required an individual Act of Parliament - although many of the
wealthy & influential simply took land by force. The correct
process involved all those with Commoners rights who, by
agreement, employed a surveyor or Commissioner to draw up
a scheme for dividing up the land giving ownership to those
involved.
Initially each Inclosure required a separate Act of Parliament, but
this overwhelmed Parliament and so eventually there were
consolidated Acts, under which the process could operate. The
Inclosure process continued into the mid 1800s and changed
farming in common (and the landscape) to that we know today.
These changes left many of the poor with nowhere to graze
their animals, other than on highway verges.
Not only did the Inclosure Acts grant the land to an individual
they set out the roads and stated who was to maintain them.
Inclosure also provided the resources to repair the roads. (pits,
river gravel, etc) These roads were far wider than the earlier
ones (which by statute were 8 feet for a carriageway), allowing
for travellers to bypass boggy bits without wandering onto the
cropped land. There is still a common law right to leave the
highway, passing onto adjoining land, to pass round an
obstruction.
It is from the Norman times that we get the term “the King’s
Highway”. It is commonly held that when King willy The Conker
gave his loyal knights chunks of England as a reward for their
support, they set about using it as they wanted. This annoyed
the indigenous population who petitioned the King. He
responded by telling his knights that whilst the land was theirs,
the roads were his and for the use of all his subjects.
Slide 7
Roads were repaired by the inhabitants of the
Parish. The scheme was called Statute Labour - a Roman idea
- and was a tax in the form of labour for repairing roads. From
Tudor times there had been a Parish Surveyor, who levied a
rate on rate payers (not many of those) for the repair of roads.
All Parishioners had to do their Statute Duty to mend the
highways. If you was posh, then you either got someone to do
it for you, or you donated a cart and horse for the day in lieu. If
a highway was deemed to be out of repair the Surveyor (an
unpaid post) could be summonsed before the Justices. Not
exactly a system to provide results. This was abolished in
1836.
Slide 8
It should be remembered that maintenance, back
then, meant no more than clearing ditches, allowing sun and
wind to the surface and filling potholes.
Slide 9
In the mid 1600s we have Samual Pepes and
Daniel Defoe’s writing to tell us of the condition of the
highways. Pepes chronicled everyday life, and if we can ignore
the licentious, we can see that he got around London by boat,
as the streets were so filthy. Once established and wealthy
Pepes bought a carriage, something that was quite new in
1660, as hitherto wagons were primarily for the carriage of
goods.
Read this slide - then give thought to the damage the
poor state of the roads did to the economy. (Shift to slide 10)
Slide 11 England was becoming an industrial nation and
without an efficient means to transport goods from factory to
customer the potential for a thriving economy was stifled. Bulk
loads were carried by ship Where there was no harbour, the
ship was unloaded onto a beach. Parliament realised that to
gain the benefit from the new industrial processes internal
communications needed improving.
Slide 12 Read the screen. Note the differing rates for
different wheel widths.
They even had toll roads in Wales - where chaps dressed as
women and called themselves ‘Rebecca’. Actually, the
‘Rebecca’ riots were an uprising against paying tolls to use
roads, but yes, big burly Welshmen disguised themselves as
women (any excuse) and went about smashing down toll
gates.
There were a range of tolls for different users. The tolls charges
we see here tell you that the narrower the wheel, the more
expensive the toll. The civil engineers had some funny ideas -
Slide 13 ... as did the mechanical engineers. Look at the
wide conical wheels on this wagon.
Whilst we are talking about turnpikes and tolls it should also be
noted that often the toll collection was farmed out to ‘private
enterprise’ and the Turnpike Trusts were defrauded of a large
proportion of income. Many Trusts went broke - a lot of people
lost money.
Slide 14 Read slide.
1663 - first Turnpike created by Justices on the Great North Road
1697 - an Act allowing magistrates to put up signposts
1706 - first Turnpike Act, allowing the formation of Turnpike Trusts
1744 - An Act making milestones compulsory on most Turnpikes
Slide 15 Read Slide.
Slide 16 Read Slide.
Slide 17 Read Slide.
To get this in perspective, in 1771 the Frenchman, Cugnot, had
driven his steam carriage into a wall. This was the year of
Richard Trevethick’s birth and in 1801 he, Trevethick, had a
vehicle on England’s roads.
The 1835 HA made all public carriageways publicly repairable but even today there are exceptions to this - where a public
road or bridge is maintained as a condition of property
ownership - Ratione Tenurae. A question to be answered is
‘does the NERC Act of 2006 close these roads and bridges to
motorists?’
Highways Act 1835 - “Drivers of waggons or carts not to ride
thereon unless some other person guide them. Drivers causing
hurt or damage to others, or quitting the road, or driving
carriage without owner’s name, or not keeping the left or near
side, or interrupting free passage, if not the owner to forefeit
20s; if he be the owner, 40s.”
District Highways Boards were born.
Slide 18 Parliament was concerned about the state of the
roads and in 1815 passed an Act that required surveyors to
make returns for the distance of road open to wheeled
carriages. By this time the nation were well aware of steam
driven vehicles. By 1820 there were a number of steam
carriages running regular services.
This slide shows the figures from this Act of 1815 for the county
of Southampton. (read them)
Rod = pole = perch - 5.03m
Slide 19 Read Slide
By 1834 the roads were not greatly improved and Parliament
formed a committee to look at the topic. They even considered
getting Telford to build a paved section alongside the Holyhead
road to carry steam vehicles. Telford oversaw the unification of
turnpike Trusts along the Holyhead road, and the
improvements of those sections where there was need, but the
separate paved road for steam vehicles did not come about. I
can only assume that the steam powered railway overtook
events.
Slide 20 Jack Metcalf. It is said that he played his violin in
the Royal Court on a number of occasions and once, when
departing London on foot, for Knaresborough, a nobleman
offered him a lift in his carriage. Jack refused, saying that he
was in a hurry. Bedfordshire was not an easy county to cross.
Slide 21 Tarmac....
Before McAdam the majority of roads outside cities and large
towns were unsurfaced, other than flints from the fields. The
larger towns might have had the main roads paved with stone,
cobbles or tar-soaked wooden blocks (from 1830), but even
these would have had a liberal coating of horse power.
Slide 22 Read Slide
During his life Telford built more than 1,000 miles of road,
including the main road between London and Holyhead - The
A5 - The Shropshire canal - Viaducts.
Slide 23. The Menai bridge was designed by Telford. A
workaholic, he formed the Institute of Civil Engineers and the
site of his house at One Great George Street is not the home of
the ICE.
Slide 24 More examples of legislation. Read Slide
On the maintenance of roads, there were several interesting local
cases. New Forest HB v Eyre (1892); R v Inhabitants of
Southampton (1887) (repair of Cobden Bridge); Webb v
Eastleigh Borough Council (1957) Chestnut Avenue (width of
the highway) - but I’ll not bore you.
Slide 25 Whilst the Parish had been responsible for the
maintenance of roads, the county generally looked after
bridges - expensive structures. Early bridges were built by the
wealthy as an insurance policy for entering into heaven monasteries built them as well, but bridges were nothing like as
numerous as they are today - the water-splash being common
- like at the bottom of Leigh Road, Eastleigh, by the fire station;
like on the Fair Oak Road in Bishopstoke.
Slide 26 Read Slide
From the outset Rees Jeffries was the Sec of the Roads Board a keen cyclist, he is to be credited with the rapid progression
from dirt & stone roads to the sealed roads we have today. It
was in no small measure due to the pressure exerted by
cyclists that roads were improved.
(1913 - cycling very popular with short haired English chaps especially along the boarder between France & Germany...)
The Parish minutes for Twyford in 1922 record that the Clerk was
to write to the Winchester District Highways board asking for
the main road from Winchester to Portsmouth be tar sprayed
through the village, as the speeding motorist was kicking up
clouds of dust - which obviously contained a good portion of
horse droppings. This was seen, rightly so, to be a serious
health hazard - and not too good for Monday’s washing, as it
dried on the line.
In 1934 a survey for a Report on the Road Fund records that
from 174,000 miles of road only 59,000 miles had a sealed
surface.
Slide 27 Read Slide
Slide 28 Read Slide
Slide 29 IN more recent times Local authorities claimed
Central Gov money for every inch of ‘road’ they could possibly
claim for - even those dirt roads that remained unsealed. Many
of those roads, for which WE paid to have repaired are now
closed to us.
Clearly I have glossed over many Acts that dictate how the
Highway Authority dealt with motorists and what are now
known as MPV - clearly, in the early days of steam powered
carriages Parliament lumped mpv in with all other carriageway
users, with a couple of exceptions - but there is one Act that is
current and important - the HA 1980. This places a duty on
every highway authority to maintain the road for the traffic of
the area AND to preserve and protect the rights and the
enjoyment of those using a highway.
Slide 30 Read Slide
Then we have NERC 2006 - the first piece of legislation to run
counter to premise that has held sway for over 500 years closing thousands of miles of road to the motorist.
Slide 30 Read slide
Slide 31 Leave for note taking