Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text
enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
THE ROAD
* * * * *
Profit, Conveniency, and Pleasure, to the whole Nation.
Being a short Rational Discourse, lately presented to His Majesty,
Concerning the
High-ways of ENGLAND:
Their _Badness_, the _Causes_ thereof, the _Reasons_ of those
_Causes_, the impossibility of ever having them _Well-mended_
according to the _Old way_ of _mending_.
But may most certainly be done, and for ever so maintained (according
to _This New way_) substantially, and with very much _Ease_.
And so, That in the very depth of _Winter_ there shall not be much
_Dirt_, no _Deep-Cart-rutts_, or _High-ridges_; no _Holes_, or
_Uneven Places_; nor so much as a _loose stone_ (the very Worst of
Evils both to Man and Horse) in any of the _Horse-Tracts_.
Nor shall any Person have cause to be once put out of his way in any
hundred of miles Riding.
_To mend_ High-ways, _loe Here the way is shewn,
No better way than This, shall e’re be known:
A Firm and Certain way, of no great Cost,
In all wayes else their Labour’s wholly lost.
The Old way ne’re could do’t, ’twas meer Deceit,
As may be prov’d, it was a very_ Cheat.
Printed for a Publick good in the Year 1675.
AN OLD TITLE PAGE showing the antiquity of the Road Problem
* * * * *
THE ROAD
_By_
HILAIRE BELLOC
_Printed & Published for_
THE BRITISH REINFORCED
CONCRETE ENGINEERING CO. LTD.
_By_ CHARLES W. HOBSON, St. James’s Sq., MANCHESTER
1923
THE CONTENTS
§ I THE ROAD IN GENERAL
_Page_
CHAPTER I The Origin of Roads
_How Did the Road Come into Existence: The Experimental or
the Scientific Method: The Haphazard Road: The Case for
Design in Road Construction_ 3
CHAPTER II The Crossing of Marsh and Water
_Physical Factors Modifying the Formula of the Road: Marsh
as the Chief Obstacle to Travel: The Political Results of
Marshes: The Crossing of Water Courses: The Origin of the
Bridge: The Effect of Bridges upon Roads: The Creation of a
Nodal Point: The Function of the Nodal Point in History_ 13
CHAPTER III Passability
_The Choice of Soils: Following the Gravel or the Chalk:
Conditions in the South and East: The Obstacle of Gradient:
The Early Vogue of Steep Gradients: “The Other Side of the
Hill”: The Modern Importance of Gradient: Passes or Gaps in
Hill Country_ 33
CHAPTER IV The Obstacle of Vegetation
_The Special Expenditure due to Forest: Roads which Skirt
Woodlands: Roads which have been Deflected by Forest:
Proximity of Material as a Final Main Cause Modifying the
Trajectory of a Road: Cost of Transporting Material and its
Effects in Ancient and Modern Times_ 47
CHAPTER V Political Influences
_The Factor of Cost Resulting in the “Strangling of
Communication”: Congestion which leads to decay: A Great
Modern Problem: The Compulsory Acquisition of Land: Old
Roads Serving New Objects_ 56
CHAPTER VI The Reaction of the Road
_The Physical Effects of Roads: The Way in Which the Road
Compels Communication to follow it: The Formation of Urban
Centres and the Urban Habit: The Spread of Ideas by Means
of Roads: History Deflected by the Deflection of the Road:
The Example of Shrewsbury and Chester: Towns which are
Maintained by Roads: The Road in Military History: Results
of the Decay of Roads: The Road as a Boundary_ 63
§ II THE ENGLISH ROAD
CHAPTER VII The Road in History
_Through the Dim Ages: The Characteristics of the English
Road: Absence of Plan: A Local instead of a National System
Leading to the Present Crisis_ 81
CHAPTER VIII The “Blindness” of English Roads
_The Two Causes Governing the Development of English
Roads--Waterways and Domestic Peace: The Relation of the
English Road to Military Strategy_ 92
CHAPTER IX Five Stages
_The “Potential” in Political Geography Examples: The
Primitive Trackways: The Roman Road System: The Earlier
Mediaeval Period: The Later Mediaeval Period: The Turnpike
Era_ 107
CHAPTER X The Trackways
_The Three Divisions of the British Pre-Roman Road
System--the System of which Salisbury Plain was the
“Hub”: The System Connected with London: Cross-Country
Communications--The Three Factors which Have Determined
Travel in Britain_ 116
CHAPTER XI The Making of the Roman Road
_The Great Initiative: The Mark of the Roman Military
Engineer: The Theory and Practice of the Straight Line:
Modifications of the Straight Line: How it was Carried Out:
The Method of Odds and Evens_ 133
CHAPTER XII The Dark Ages
_The Decline of the Roman Road: The Period at its
Occurrence: Gaps: Roman Roads which Fell into Disuse: The
Relationship of the Modern to the Roman System: Watling
Street: Stane Street: The Short Cut Between Penkridge and
Chester: Peddars Way: The Coming of the New Civilization in
the Twelfth Century_ 147
CHAPTER XIII Wheeled Traffic and the Modern Road
_The Transition from the Horse to the Vehicle: The
Distinctive Mark of the Later Seventeenth Century: The
Turnpike System: The Underlying Idea of the Turnpike: Its
Decline and the First Emergence of the General National
System in 1810: Thomas Telford and His Work: The Movement
Connected with the Name of Macadam: The Coming of the
Locomotive and its Results on Canals and Roads_ 179
CHAPTER XIV The Future
_A New Vehicle Compelling us to Make New Roads: Arterial
Roads for the New Traffic: The Five Necessities of these
Roads: Ways and Means: A National Fund: Taxation according
to Fuel Used: The Question of the Land Contiguous to the New
Roads_ 194
THE ILLUSTRATIONS
_Page_
_FRONTISPIECE: An old Title Page showing the antiquity of the
Road Problem_ 4
_ICKNIELD STREET_ 27
_TYPICAL ENGLISH LANE_ 87
_THE EARLIEST ROAD_ 111
_WELSH SECTION, HOLYHEAD ROAD_ 123
_DERELICT ROAD, SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS_ 151
_ERMINE STREET NEAR ROYSTON_ 171
_TOLL HOUSE ON THE BATH ROAD_ 181
_The text is also elucidated by fifteen maps and diagrams_
AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION
_We are arrived at a chief turning-point in the history of the English
highway. New instruments of locomotion, a greater volume of traffic, a
greater weight in loads, and vastly increased rapidity in road travel
have between them brought us to an issue: either some very considerable
and immediate change in the character of the Road, or a serious and
increasing handicap in our rivalry with other nations through the
strain and expense of an out-worn system._
_The moment therefore calls for some examination of the Road, its
theory and history. That need has prompted me to write this essay;
but I must say at the outset that I approach my task with no expert
qualification. My only equipment for the general sketch I intend is
historical reading and the experience acquired in the writing of
certain monographs upon the_ topography _of the Road in the past. I
can do no more than suggest lines of thought which, if they lead to
practice, need a detailed science I do not possess._
_The Road is one of the great fundamental institutions of mankind.
We forget this because we take it for granted. It seems to be so
necessary and natural a part of all human life that we forget that it
ever had an origin or development, or that it is as much the creation
of man as the city and the laws. Not only is the Road one of the great
human institutions because it is fundamental to social existence, but
also because its varied effect appears in every department of the
State. It is the Road which determines the sites of many cities and
the growth and nourishment of all. It is the Road which controls the
development of strategics and fixes the sites of battles. It is the
Road that gives its frame-work to all economic development. It is the
Road which is the channel of all trade and, what is more important, of
all ideas. In its most humble function it is a necessary guide without
which progress from place to place would be a ceaseless experiment; it
is a sustenance without which organized society would be impossible;
thus, and with those other characters I have mentioned, the Road moves
and controls all history._
_A road system, once established, develops at its points of
concentration the nerve centres of the society it serves; and we remark
that the material rise and decline of a state are better measured by
the condition of its communications--that is, of its roads--than by any
other criterion._
_The construction, the trace, and the whole character of the Road
change with new social needs and habits, with the facilities of natural
science, their rise and decline. But this perpetual change, which
affects the Road as it does architecture and every other work of man,
is specially marked by certain critical phases, one of which, as I
said at the opening of this, we have now entered. There are moments
in the history of the Road in any society where the whole use of it,
the construction of it, and its character have to be transformed. One
such moment, for instance, was when the wheeled vehicle first appeared:
another when there first appeared large organized armies. It occurred
whenever some new method of progression succeeded the old. It occurred
at similar critical turning-points in the history of the Road not
only when any of these things arose, but also when they declined or
disappeared. The appearance of great cities, their sudden expansion
or their decay, or the new needs of a new type of commerce--and its
disappearance--bring a whole road system to one of these revolutionary
points. We have had (as I shall develop in more detail)_ five _great
moments of this kind in the history of the English road system: the
moment when the British trackway was superseded by the Roman military
road; the moment when the latter declined in the Dark Ages; the moment
when the mediaeval system of local roads grew up on the basis of the
old Roman trunk roads and around them; the moment when this in its turn
declined in the later sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; and the
re-casting of the road system by the turnpikes of the eighteenth and
early nineteenth centuries. To-day the sixth great change is upon us._
_It is incumbent upon us then to-day to get ourselves clear upon the
theory and the history of the Road, and I propose in this essay to take
them in two sections: first, the Road in general; next, that special
institution the English Road._
A PREFACE
The British Reinforced Concrete Engineering Co. Ltd. recently became
acquainted with the fact that Mr. Hilaire Belloc was engaged in the
production of an essay on the history of British Roads. In numerous
writings Mr. Belloc has treated various aspects of Road history, and
his learning on the subject and his method of communicating it are
in high repute among wide circles of readers. He is, in fact, an
outstanding literary authority on the topic. It therefore seemed to the
Company that if they could acquire the copyright of the work, in which
Mr. Belloc was treating the whole subject not indirectly, but directly
and systematically, and if they could issue this work to people who
are professionally engaged in the construction of roads, a very
considerable service would be done to the cause of road development
in the country. The future always becomes a little clearer if we
thoroughly understand the past, and the Company feel that everybody
who is giving much of his mind and life to road problems will be glad
to have in his possession a book which brings out the historical
and social, not to say the romantic, interest which lies beneath the
surface of the English highway. Mr. Belloc was accordingly approached
on the subject and agreed to sell the publishing rights of his work
to the British Reinforced Concrete Engineering Co. Ltd., who now have
great pleasure in issuing it to the surveying and civil engineering
profession, believing that it will at once assist and beguile the work
of those to whose hands the future of the English Roads, and with it
much of the economic and social prosperity of the country, is largely
entrusted.
* * * * *
THE ROAD
§ I THE ROAD IN GENERAL
CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF ROADS
_How Did the Road Come Into Existence: The Experimental or the
Scientific Method: The Haphazard Road: The Case for Design in Road
Construction._
i
In order to understand any matter, especially if we have to understand
it for a practical end, we must begin by the theory of the thing: we
must begin by thinking out why and how it has come into existence, what
its function is, and how best it can fulfil that function. Next we must
note its effect, once it is formed, and the results of the fulfilment
of its function.
What then, to begin with, is the origin of the Road? Why did this human
institution come into existence, and how does it tend to develop? How
may it best be designed to fulfil its function?
When we have decided that we can go on to the next point, which is: how
does the Road, once formed, react upon its environment; what physical
and (much more important) political results flow from its existence?
The answer to the first question, “How did that human institution, the
Road, come into existence, and why?” is simple, and will be given in
much the same terms by anyone to whom it is addressed. The Road is an
instrument to facilitate the movement of man between two points upon
the earth’s surface.
If the surface of the earth were uniform in quality and in
gradient--that is, if it were of the same stuff everywhere, of the same
degree of moisture everywhere, and everywhere level--the Road between
any two points would clearly be a straight line (to be accurate, the
arc of a great circle) joining those two points. For when we say that
the Road exists “in order to facilitate” travel over the surface of
the earth from one point to another the word “facilitate” includes, of
course, rapidity in progression, and the straight line is the shortest
line between any two points.
But the surface of the earth is highly diversified in quality as in
gradient. Therefore the _trajectory_ or _course_ of the Road is not in
practice, and should not be in theory, a straight line from point to
point. That straight line has to be modified if we are to give to the
Road an ultimate form such that it shall best serve its end; and when
we come to look into the problem we shall see that it is one of very
great complexity indeed. That is where the study of the theory even
in its most elementary form becomes of such value to the execution in
practice. We discover by studying the theory of the Road how many and
how varied are the elements of the formula we have to establish. We
become prepared in that study for the discovery, in each new particular
problem, of any number of novel modifications not present in problems
previously attacked.
So true is this that the whole history of progress in road-making is a
history of discovering methods for dealing with obstacles either novel
in character or only appreciated after lengthy use. Let us begin at the
beginning, with the very elements of the affair.
The first element in the theory of the Road may be put thus: _To find
a formula of minimum expense in energy for communication between
two given geographical points under given conditions of travel and
carriage._
The diversity of geographical circumstance moulds the formula into its
final shape through balanced modifications of the direct line.
The most obvious modifications to a direct trajectory arise from the
two primary circumstances of surface and gradient. It is easier to
go over one kind of soil than another; easier to go over one kind of
surface in summer and another in winter; easier to go over one kind of
surface in wet, and another in dry weather; easier to go over one kind
of surface with a heavy load and another with a light load; over one
with sumpter animals, over another on wheels, and so on.
Again, it is for all kinds of travel easier to go upon the flat than
uphill, and this element of gradient is much more complicated than at
first it would appear. Thus travel of one kind--travel on foot, for
instance--can take a sharp gradient for the sake of a short trajectory
more easily than can traffic with burdens; and traffic with burdens
carried by animals can take a sharper gradient with advantage than can
wheeled traffic; and wheeled traffic differs according to the character
of the vehicle in this respect.
Again, a road of diverse use must strike a compromise in its formula
between the various needs subserved. If the great bulk of its use is
to provide for rapid military advance by marches, you must sacrifice
to shortness some of the easier gradients which would be demanded for
traffic mainly civilian, yet if of three main users even the least
important is incapable of more than a given gradient, your formula
can never exceed that gradient, and so forth. So we have even in this
simplest and most primary of all analyses of the Road considerable
elements of complexity appearing.
As the study progresses an indefinite series of further complexities
arises, and one soon reaches that _crux_ in the theory of the Road
which has led to so much discussion and which some still call unsolved:
whether the formula of the Road is best left to the unconscious or
half-conscious action of experiment, which in time should lead to an
exact minimum of expense in energy, or whether it is best to arrive at
it by a fully conscious, exact, and (as we say to-day) “scientific”
examination of all the conditions and a deliberate and immediate
conclusion upon them.
Should the road _grow_ or should it be _planned_? The discussion is
not idle. The clash of opinion upon it is at the root of the contrast
between national systems, and a right answer will make all the
difference between success and failure in our approach to a new road
system such as is now upon us.
ii
I maintain that of the two theories the second is just: that a gradual
experimental growth in its roads, a method coincident with local
caprice, burdens with imperfect communication the society adopting it;
that conscious design is essential to efficiency. And this I propose
to illustrate by a single example. Take two points A and B, such that
a line joining them must lead across a marsh, a river, and a range of
hills. Let some primitive wanderer make his way from A to B, knowing,
when he is at A, the direction of B by, let us say, a distant peak
overtopping the range between. That primitive wanderer would first of
all skirt about the marsh and, finding its narrowest place at C,
would set to work and make his causeway there. Having crossed it, he
would come to the river. He must either swim or ford it. Supposing him
to prefer, through the necessity of a pack or what not, to ford it, he
casts about for a ford. He finds one at D, and perhaps he also, if he
takes time to look about him, finds another deeper one at E and another
at F, but as his causeway is near D he takes that ford.
[Illustration: Sketch I.]
Then he has to make for the hills. We will suppose that the peak
directing him from beyond B is still visible. He takes his new
direction from it and looks towards the base of the hills at G. There,
in the direct line to the peak, the contours are so steep that the
trouble of getting up would more than counterbalance the shortness
of the cut. He casts about for a better chance, and at last finds a
gradient just worth his while at H. He climbs up that; but though
the gradient is easy on the A side at H on the far side it is very
difficult, so he turns along the ridge to K, where he finds an easier
down gradient: a spur leads him on by its gentle slope, and from the
bottom of the spur he makes straight for B, which is now right in front
of him and plain sailing.
Now, look at that track as established by our primitive wanderer and
see how lengthy and inconvenient it is, how ill fulfilling the object
of the traveller compared with what would have been established by
even a moderately intelligent and cursory survey of the ground as a
whole and the making of a plan. To begin with, it would have paid our
traveller to take a little more trouble in crossing the rather wider
gap in the marsh at L and the rather deeper ford at F, because he would
have gained very much in time and space with comparatively slight extra
effort had he surveyed the whole ground and thought things out. He was
only led on to the ford at D because it was suggested by the crossing
of the marsh at C. The first opportunity made the second. But to
continue the plan: F is nearly opposite the easier up gradients of the
hills, but, having surveyed that bad steep on the far side, he slightly
modifies his road, crossing the ridge at M behind a summit which hid
this way from the first traveller. Then he goes down the practicable,
though steep, slope at N, and so reaches B. The first road produced
haphazard by successive chances gives the lengthy and roundabout
trajectory A--C, D, H, K--B. The second, with very little extra labour,
gives him the far shorter and better trajectory A--L, F, M, N--B.
We see from this elementary example how the thinking out of the theory
of the Road is of advantage in practice. It may be urged that the
discovery of advantages as time goes on gradually improves the Road,
and in this way half-conscious development will always give you the
best road in the long run without studying its theory. But history is
against that view. Europe is full of roads thus established haphazard,
confirming themselves by use and by expenditure, and for centuries
neglecting opportunities which would have been present to the eye of
the most cursory and moderately intelligent survey.
This conflict of principle between _growth_ and _design_ in the
creation of the Road is at the root of half our modern crises in
road-making. The real issue is between those who would gradually add to
or develop from custom and those who would radically impose new plans,
and on a right decision the economic future of this country may well
depend.
When we come to consider even the first of succeeding modifications
we see still more clearly the complexity of any road-formulæ and the
corresponding advantage of plan over habit. The marsh, the river, and
the hill are but the beginning of the affair. There is a modification
due to the fact that the marsh may not be permanent, nor the depth of
the river; that the Road may be of special use at moments when the
river is shallow or flooded, when the marsh is dry or, exceptionally,
impassable. There is the modification of surface. Clay, for instance,
is fairly good going in dry weather, but the worst in wet. There
is the modification due to vegetation: the balancing of the effort
involved in going round a dense scrub against that of cutting through
it and of maintaining the cutting when it is established. There is the
modification introduced by the instruments and science available for
construction and for cutting. In one stage of development it will pay
to take a road by a bridge across a deep river where in earlier stages
of development it would have been necessary to seek a ford. In one
stage of development it would pay to make a cutting through a scar too
steep to climb where, in a lower civilization, it would have paid to go
round it. The whole formula increases in complexity the more we examine
it. It is a formula for the discovery of a minimum of effort. But in
the establishment of that minimum you have to consider not only a very
great number of factors, but the respective value of each to the whole,
and your success in establishing the Road depends upon the accuracy of
your judgment both as to the presence and as to the comparative value
of all those factors.