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Industrial Revolution- Roads by Kat1. Changes were needed because the population was growing fast. People couldn’t keep using stagecoaches and carts to get around the country because it was far too slow. The only way for a person to travel alone was by horseback. Raw materials and industrial items that needed to be taken to factories couldn’t be transported by packhorses anymore and it was dangerous to travel along roads in bad weather.

2. During the development, road engineers built gates across the entrance of the roads as well as building roads; The Menai Straits Bridge for instance. John Metcalf was a famous engineer and he knew one of the main problems with the old roads was that rain made the roads muddy and slippery so he made sure roads were built with good foundations and smooth and rounded surface so that rain would drain into ditches on the side of the road.

3. The new roads meant that newspapers could be delivered around the country, the roads were safer so people could travel whatever the weather (within reason), the postal service was far more efficient and coach services improved so more coaches were travelling up and down the country every day.

4. Unfortunately the arrival of Turnpike Trusts was not all good news because people had to pay whatever the price toll was to use the roads and businessmen were losing money. Only the major roads in Britain were improved so for some people it didn’t make any difference. It was also too costly to move bulky goods so freight traffic did not develop.

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CANALS by Tommy

1. Why were there changes needed ?

The United Kingdom's navigable water network grew as the demand for industrial transport increased. The canals were key to the pace of the Industrial Revolution: roads at the time were unsuitable for large volumes of traffic. A system of very large pack horse trains had developed, but few roads were suitable for wheeled vehicles able to transport large amounts of materials (especially fragile manufactured goods such as pottery) quickly.

2. What was the role of the engineers in the development?

Engineers such as James Brindley where responsible for building the majority of the early canals. Brindley's reputation brought him to the attention of the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater who was looking for a way to improve the transport of coal from his coal mines at Worsley to Manchester.

In 1759 The Duke commissioned the construction of a canal to do just that. The resulting Bridgewater Canal, opened in 1761, is often regarded as the first British canal of the modern era (though the Sankey Canal has a good claim to that title), and was a major technical triumph. Brindley was commissioned as the consulting engineer and, although he has often been credited as the genius behind the construction of the canal, it is now thought that the main designers were Sir Thomas Egerton himself, who had some engineering training, and the resident engineer John Gilbert. Brindley was engaged, at the insistence of Gilbert, to assist with particular problems such as the Barton Aqueduct. This most impressive feature of the canal carried the canal at an elevation of 13 metres (39 ft) over the River Irwell at Barton. (In 1893, on the building of the Manchester Ship Canal, the aqueduct was replaced by the equally impressiveBarton Swing Aqueduct.)

Brindley's technique minimized the amount of earth moving by developing the principle of contouring. He preferred to use a circuitous route which avoided embankments, and tunnels rather than cuttings. Though this recognized the primitive methods of earth-moving available at the time, it meant that his canals were often much longer than a more adventurous approach would have produced. But his greatest contribution was the technique of clay puddling to make the bed of the canal watertight.

3. What benefits did the canals bring?

The canals enabled very heavy loads to be moved around the country using only a minimum amount of labour. 1 barge could move the same as 10 horse and carts and only needed 1 horse and 1 driver.

4. What were the problems?

The problems with canals were crossing hills and valleys. Canals could also leak water.

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Roads by Guilhem

Why were changes needed? Since the population had increased by a lot people needed to travel up and down the country. The problem was, the roads were very badly maintained and filled with ditches and bumps. This made it very dangerous for carriages since they could be thrown all over the place because of the roads. Plus, factories and farms needed to export their goods all over the country as quickly as possible. But the roads really didn’t help. They were slowing everything down!

The Turnpike Trust was set up in 1663. This had to repair some roads then charge to people to go on them. With this money they would be able to repair even more roads. They employed road builders like John Metcalf who built 180 miles of turnpike roads. John MacAdam introduced ‘macadamisation’ which was meant to help roads become harder and less muddy. To make this he used macadam which is made by taking broken stones and then sticking them all together with coal tar. Then there was Thomas Telford who improved the use of macadam and built over 1000 miles of road. Without them, the Turnpike trust would have achieved nothing. Roads would still be like they were hundreds of years ago. Bumpy and filled with ditches.

This improved lots of things which had been a problem before. It was a big help for farmers who needed to take their food to the city very quickly so that when it arrived it would be fresh. All the communication systems were now much faster. You could now what was happening to a town on the other side of England in just a couple of days. People could now travel to where ever they wanted faster than they used. This helped towns develop in size. There were now 500 coaches leaving London every day to take people to other important towns. Many of these roads are still used now.

The thing is only the really major and important roads were repaired. Only 20,000 miles out of 120,000 miles had been repaired. Not enough. One obvious reason is that not many people liked to pay. Some people tried to jump over the toll gate so that they wouldn’t pay. Some people even burnt down some toll houses. When someone took some livestock to the market he had to give some money at a toll house, obviously. But, this money would actually be added the price of the livestock, therefore making it more expensive.