| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Non w4 residents get Strand permits fiasco | |
| Posted by: | Bernard Allen | |
| Date/Time: | 12/02/19 18:34:00 |
| What is Britain’s oldest road? Many argue that it’s the Ridgeway, an 85-mile route from Avebury to Buckinghamshire which may well have been in use for 5,000 years. What did the Romans do for us? The Romans built the first roads to be formed into anything like a national network. The roads they built, like the Fosse Way (from Devon to Lincoln) or Watling Street (from London to Shropshire), remained in use for centuries and the routes are still followed today. Were medieval roads really bad? By our standards, yes, with the result that waterborne transportation by river or coastal shipping was widely seen as the cheapest and easiest option for anything but the shortest journeys. By the 17th century, major roads were, in summer months at least, largely passable for wheeled transport, including coaches. However, Celia Fiennes, who famously travelled the country at that time, was often scathing about the state of the roads she encountered. What led to an improvement in the state of our roads? The development, mainly in the 18th century, of turnpikes, stretches of roads that were run by trustees and funded and maintained by tolls. By the 1830s over 20,000 miles of road had been turnpiked and many surfaces improved thanks to the work of engineers like John Macadam, whose roads were covered with layers of compacted stone. |