On the road, 120 years ago

[Jon Lucas]

I have dipped into several books by Charles G. Harper over the years, and have just read one right through, his treatise of the Somerset Coast, published in 1909. He wrote many Road books describing the old main routes across Britain at the turn of the 19th to 20th centuries, and also wrote a lot of books about specific parts of England, especially the south-west. As far as I can tell, his main (perhaps only) means of travel was by bike, and he certainly didn't approve of the increasing dominance of roads by motorists that he was witnessing at the time.

His writing style is obviously very old fashioned, and can be very annoying, not to mention straying over the line of what would now be seen as culturally acceptable. But amidst that, they are usually fascinating reads, and give a perspective of a time now lost.

I came across this piece in his description of Minehead, which I found fascinating. At that time, it was just beginning to be developed into a seaside resort, having been up to that time a small fishing village and port.

"Among other up-to-date doings is the covering of the roads with asphalte, so that visitant motor-cars shall not stir up the dust; the result being that the roads so treated have an evilly dirty appearance and a worse stink. They look, and probably are, dangerous to health."

[reohn2]

And we've come to just lurv smooth asphalte

[Nearholmer]

I’ll let the editor of the CTC 1913 route book for SW England speak for himself:

As I noted in the other thread, the book summarises surface conditions for each route, noting any tarred sections, plus town hazards like tramways rails and wood-block paving, and outside of towns “hard” surfaces are very rare indeed.

The default road construction pre-WW1 was “water bound macadam” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macadam which by modern standards required a huge amount of maintenance to keep it good if traffic was heavy or (motor vehicles) aggressive to the surface.

Here is a section of water bound macadam road as recreated at the Chiltern Open Air Museum (it’s actually a bit too flat in cross section for a really good section, so wouldn’t drain well in a wet area).

[Nearholmer]

This is a very interesting read.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roads_I ... ssociation

(The quotation within it from Christian Wolmar implies that he has misunderstood the meaning of “macadamised”)

If I get time, I shall attempt to work out a bit of detail around how early motorists played into this, how their lobbying operated etc.

[Nearholmer]

Another good read https://www.racfoundation.org/wp-conten ... aper-1.pdf

In this one you can trace the way in which motor vehicles were the decisive factor in getting roads ‘hardened’, through the agency of the Roads Board, established in 1910, with revenue coming at least partly from taxing motoring.

[Bmblbzzz]

Here is a section of water bound macadam road as recreated at the Chiltern Open Air Museum (it’s actually a bit too flat in cross section for a really good section, so wouldn’t drain well in a wet area).

3EC7D3FF-EF33-4409-9A6F-EE365A0A0C45.jpeg

A photograph only gives surface appearance of course, but it looks like one of the better Sustrans routes of today!

[Nearholmer]

The construction is, I think not dissimilar, and the comparison very fair.

More reading, this time the early history of the RAC, which is a brilliant example of lobbying and string-pulling by the rich and powerful (who were the only ones who could afford cars!). Helps massively to have The King on your side, which I don’t think the CTC ever did.

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Royal_Aut ... Club_(RAC)

[Bmblbzzz]

This is a very interesting read.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roads_I ... ssociation

(The quotation within it from Christian Wolmar implies that he has misunderstood the meaning of “macadamised”)

If I get time, I shall attempt to work out a bit of detail around how early motorists played into this, how their lobbying operated etc.

Perhaps he has but I'm not sure. Carlton Reid's book (and others) describes how highways became deserted after the coming of railways, and turnpike trusts lost money until they were finally disbanded in 1888. So although the turnpike roads would have been macadamised historically, by the late nineteenth century they would have been in very bad repair. A properly macadamised road then must have seemed a vast improvement on mud and holes!

[Nearholmer]

You might be right. Re-macadamising the main roads and macadamising the byways for the first time, perhaps.

Here is the RAC membership list for 1913. If you click on each name you get biog. They are real movers and shakers, some of them eminent engineers, some industrialists, some well-connected aristos, and a fair few clearly progressed from cycling into motoring.

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/1913_Roya ... Club_(RAC)

Tucked away somewhere I’ve got a very good history of early motoring in Suffolk, which includes lists of who registered cars when, and the initial take-up was in two broad camps: rich technophiles, so classic ‘early adopters’ of any new consumer technology; and, doctors and vets, who previously kept a pony and trap on hot standby and found the motorised version cheaper to run and quicker off the mark.

[ChrisButch]

Helps massively to have The King on your side, which I don’t think the CTC ever did.

On the contrary:
https://www.cyclinguk.org/article/cycli ... al-patrons

[Nearholmer]

I live and learn! Thank you.

Well done on George V particularly.

Interesting too that CTC membership had fallen sharply in the Edwardian period.

[Bmblbzzz]

Here is the RAC membership list for 1913. If you click on each name you get biog. They are real movers and shakers, some of them eminent engineers, some industrialists, some well-connected aristos, and a fair few clearly progressed from cycling into motoring.

Objection! Inappropriate verb.

[Jules59]

Every day is a school day.
Thanks - very interesting

[Nearholmer]

I like it!

The thing is, I’m a not very secret retro-technophile, so I can quite identify with Edwardians with their heads under the bonnets of motor cars, or tinkering with flimsy biplanes, or whatever. We had a paradise day out last summer at the family air show at Shuttleworth, where all sorts of things were to be seen, a Dursley Pedersen and other early HPVs, cars, planes …… wonderful.

Here are two of the younger members of the family testing a machine under the watchful (nervous?) eye of its owner.

[Bmblbzzz]

How odd that the boy-side has the pedals arranged normally at 180 degrees to each other, whereas on the girl-side they appear to be side by side, kangaroo style. What was the point of that, I wonder?