THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN ROADS.
Posted: 11 Nov 2022, 05:19
THE BIRTH OF THE MODERN ROADS.
The Leeds and Liverpool canal reached Barnoldswick at the beginning of the 19th century and opened the town up to the coalfields of West Yorkshire and Lancashire. At the same time it facilitated trade out of the town, lime and paving stone were the main exports. The availability of coal coincided with the arrival of the first practical steam engines for rotative power, the days of the watermill were numbered, steam power and modern machinery spawned the modern textile factory system. By 1827 Mitchell’s Mill (Clough) had a steam engine, Butts followed in 1846 and Wellhouse in 1854. The modern era had reached Barnoldswick but the road system was still the old medieval ways. They were totally inadequate for the demand that was to be placed on them.
In the early days most heavy imports like machinery and the cotton as raw material came into the town via the canal. On November 26th 1909 John Sagar who was starting a weaving firm in the new shed at Bankfield wrote to Harling and Todd at Burnley asking for their ‘Best price for 41 inch reed space looms, fast reeds, plain underneath motion with two cross rails and one and a quarter inch shedding bars delivered to the canal wharf’. Even at this late date, this was seen as the best way to get looms from Burnley into Bankfield Shed and remember that the railway connected Burnley and Barnoldswick by then. It would seem the key factor was that it was nearer by road from Coates Wharf, where the crane was, to the mill than from the Station Yard. The same firm sent 28 bags of waste by canal on May 22nd 1918. This isn’t surprising because from the middle of the century the old roads must have been crumbling under the weight of traffic. Remember that all the stone to build the mills, all the coal and all the raw materials had to be transported by road to the mill from the canal or railway station.
Apart from the increased traffic caused by the mills the town was growing in other ways. In 1850 the population was just under 2,000, by 1900 it was almost 6,500. So, added to the mill traffic is the movement of materials to build the new housing required. Matters other than transport such as water supply, sewage and gas also became pressing and a completely new local government structure was needed. The Local Government District of Barnoldswick was sanctioned by the West Riding County Council on May 14th 1890 and the Local Board held its first meeting on November 26th the same year. The Local Board had responsibility for the town’s roads and in 1898 they borrowed £500 to purchase a steam road roller. A new era of local government had begun.
We need to step back here and look at what had been happening to maintain the roads during most of the 19th century. We have seen the role of the Manorial Court as the local government body responsible for the roads. During the late 18th century these duties were taken over by ‘The Vestry’, quite literally a meeting of townspeople, usually in the church vestry. Later this was codified into the Parish Council. In the case of Barnoldswick the Parish Council was superseded by indirect control from Skipton but as we have seen, in 1890 the Local Board was formed.
The roads at this time were simply the customary ways which over the years had been repaired by knapping stone into the surface and had gradually built up into a substantial road bed. The small stone for filling holes was produced by men and women at the side of the road breaking large stones down to pigeon egg size. Very often this was done by poor people to qualify for outdoor relief from the Skipton Workhouse. If you look carefully on the right hand side of the road above Letcliffe Park bottom entrance on Manchester Road you’ll see a small overgrown yard. The locals called this ‘Poorbones’ as it was where stone was broken by the paupers. The most that was done to the road was to fill potholes and rake the surface level. Foot traffic and horse’s hooves consolidated the surface.
As wheeled traffic became more common the roads suffered because the cart wheels ran in the same ruts and soon broke through the surface. This was made worse by carters using wheels that were narrow and had ‘cogs’ or teeth on the tyre as this made the carts easier to pull and extricate from holes. Various local bye-laws were enacted to enforce the use of broader wheels, the idea being that this would have a consolidating effect on the road. It was this principle that the Local Board were using when they bought the road roller. The method was to scarify the road surface, rake it flat and then roll it with the heavy roller to produce a hard, tightly packed surface. If you look at any old postcard from around 1900 showing a local road you will see that it looks white. This is because the usual stone used for capping the road was limestone, hence the colour.
Even after the use of the roller, these roads, though improved, still had their drawbacks. In wet weather they were muddy and in dry weather any traffic produced clouds of dust. Imagine the mess that clung to skirts and trod into houses in wet weather and the constant wind-borne dust that settled everywhere in the house, including on the food. Bear in mind that this dust also had horse manure and even worse pollution in it and it’s no wonder that pressure started to build to alleviate the nuisance.
Billy Brooks told me that the first streets in the town to be paved with stone blocks or setts were Church Street, Newtown and Station Road. This would be about 1895. The funny thing was that the local carters protested, they didn’t like them because they didn’t give as good a grip for the horse’s hooves. At the same time roads had to be laid out to serve the new housing and the modern road system started to emerge. We’ll look at that next week.
SCG/29 September 2005
1050 words.
A large wagon with broad wheels and an eight horse team in the late 18th century.
The Leeds and Liverpool canal reached Barnoldswick at the beginning of the 19th century and opened the town up to the coalfields of West Yorkshire and Lancashire. At the same time it facilitated trade out of the town, lime and paving stone were the main exports. The availability of coal coincided with the arrival of the first practical steam engines for rotative power, the days of the watermill were numbered, steam power and modern machinery spawned the modern textile factory system. By 1827 Mitchell’s Mill (Clough) had a steam engine, Butts followed in 1846 and Wellhouse in 1854. The modern era had reached Barnoldswick but the road system was still the old medieval ways. They were totally inadequate for the demand that was to be placed on them.
In the early days most heavy imports like machinery and the cotton as raw material came into the town via the canal. On November 26th 1909 John Sagar who was starting a weaving firm in the new shed at Bankfield wrote to Harling and Todd at Burnley asking for their ‘Best price for 41 inch reed space looms, fast reeds, plain underneath motion with two cross rails and one and a quarter inch shedding bars delivered to the canal wharf’. Even at this late date, this was seen as the best way to get looms from Burnley into Bankfield Shed and remember that the railway connected Burnley and Barnoldswick by then. It would seem the key factor was that it was nearer by road from Coates Wharf, where the crane was, to the mill than from the Station Yard. The same firm sent 28 bags of waste by canal on May 22nd 1918. This isn’t surprising because from the middle of the century the old roads must have been crumbling under the weight of traffic. Remember that all the stone to build the mills, all the coal and all the raw materials had to be transported by road to the mill from the canal or railway station.
Apart from the increased traffic caused by the mills the town was growing in other ways. In 1850 the population was just under 2,000, by 1900 it was almost 6,500. So, added to the mill traffic is the movement of materials to build the new housing required. Matters other than transport such as water supply, sewage and gas also became pressing and a completely new local government structure was needed. The Local Government District of Barnoldswick was sanctioned by the West Riding County Council on May 14th 1890 and the Local Board held its first meeting on November 26th the same year. The Local Board had responsibility for the town’s roads and in 1898 they borrowed £500 to purchase a steam road roller. A new era of local government had begun.
We need to step back here and look at what had been happening to maintain the roads during most of the 19th century. We have seen the role of the Manorial Court as the local government body responsible for the roads. During the late 18th century these duties were taken over by ‘The Vestry’, quite literally a meeting of townspeople, usually in the church vestry. Later this was codified into the Parish Council. In the case of Barnoldswick the Parish Council was superseded by indirect control from Skipton but as we have seen, in 1890 the Local Board was formed.
The roads at this time were simply the customary ways which over the years had been repaired by knapping stone into the surface and had gradually built up into a substantial road bed. The small stone for filling holes was produced by men and women at the side of the road breaking large stones down to pigeon egg size. Very often this was done by poor people to qualify for outdoor relief from the Skipton Workhouse. If you look carefully on the right hand side of the road above Letcliffe Park bottom entrance on Manchester Road you’ll see a small overgrown yard. The locals called this ‘Poorbones’ as it was where stone was broken by the paupers. The most that was done to the road was to fill potholes and rake the surface level. Foot traffic and horse’s hooves consolidated the surface.
As wheeled traffic became more common the roads suffered because the cart wheels ran in the same ruts and soon broke through the surface. This was made worse by carters using wheels that were narrow and had ‘cogs’ or teeth on the tyre as this made the carts easier to pull and extricate from holes. Various local bye-laws were enacted to enforce the use of broader wheels, the idea being that this would have a consolidating effect on the road. It was this principle that the Local Board were using when they bought the road roller. The method was to scarify the road surface, rake it flat and then roll it with the heavy roller to produce a hard, tightly packed surface. If you look at any old postcard from around 1900 showing a local road you will see that it looks white. This is because the usual stone used for capping the road was limestone, hence the colour.
Even after the use of the roller, these roads, though improved, still had their drawbacks. In wet weather they were muddy and in dry weather any traffic produced clouds of dust. Imagine the mess that clung to skirts and trod into houses in wet weather and the constant wind-borne dust that settled everywhere in the house, including on the food. Bear in mind that this dust also had horse manure and even worse pollution in it and it’s no wonder that pressure started to build to alleviate the nuisance.
Billy Brooks told me that the first streets in the town to be paved with stone blocks or setts were Church Street, Newtown and Station Road. This would be about 1895. The funny thing was that the local carters protested, they didn’t like them because they didn’t give as good a grip for the horse’s hooves. At the same time roads had to be laid out to serve the new housing and the modern road system started to emerge. We’ll look at that next week.
SCG/29 September 2005
1050 words.
A large wagon with broad wheels and an eight horse team in the late 18th century.
Thanks Gloria.....