Today I start with a whinge about traffic but then move into the exciting world of 19th century town planning. I can hear your collective hearts sinking into your boots! Bear with me, it’s more interesting than it sounds.
It all started with this week’s image of Rainhall Road in about 1910. I know this is the date from the clothing of the pedestrians and the fact that the houses over the railway bridge in the background have been built. There is so much information in these early images if you dig into them!
Very often, views like this were done early in the morning and on Sundays because streets were not cluttered by traffic and people but this one was taken in the course of a working weekday. How can we know that? Because the shop on the right is open and is displaying goods outside. So this is during the working day and there is no traffic. Pedestrians are walking in the road as well as on the pavement and the thing that struck me was that this would be impossible today because there is too much traffic. Walking in the road during the working day would invite an accident. This change has slowly taken over and become normal, we accept it.
We are lucky in that we live in a walking distance town but today many have forgotten this and use their cars for even the shortest distance. This means that the preoccupation is getting as close to where you want to go as possible and finding a parking space. We are told that one of the reasons why large out of town shopping ‘destinations’ are stealing trade from town centre shops is because they offer ample free parking spaces. Thinking about the modern trend to reduce pollution caused by exhaust fumes there something wrong with the way we are doing things. We should be encouraging walking and using local shops more.
No amount of whingeing by an old bloke sat at his kitchen table can achieve this, it is a matter of town planning. This brings me to another matter embedded in the image. Notice the width of the road. This wasn’t a matter of catering for traffic, something else drove the decision. If you look at the new streets laid out by the local council during the late 19th century building boom in Barlick they are all wider than the existing medieval town plan. This was a conscious decision and didn’t they do well! I wonder if they took advice or just used their common sense. Whichever it was, we got streets that are still able to function even with cars parked down both sides. When you think about it this is a bit of a miracle.
There is one consolation, the way things are going with recognition that we have to adapt to deal with climate change, we may once more be able to walk down the middle of Rainhall Road. Now that would be progress!
Rainhall Road in 1910.
