Chapter VI: Part 6

It has occurred to me, as I stated to the chairman of this honourable Committee some weeks since, that considerable improvement would be found from paving the sides of a road, upon which the heavy traffic is great, in both directions, and leaving the middle for light carriages, the carmen walking upon the footpaths or sides of the road, would then be close to their horses, without interrupting, or being in danger of accidents from light carriages, which is the case when they are driving upon the middle of the road; and the unpaved part being in the middle or highest part of the road, would be more easily kept in good repair. I have prepared a section of a road formed in this way (No. 3 in the plan), but unless the heavy traffic in both directions is great, one width (say ten or twelve feet, if very well paved,) will be found sufficient; and in this case, I think the paving ought to be in the middle of the road. The width of many of the present roads is, besides, such, that ten or twelve feet can be spared for paving, while twice that width would leave too little for the gravelled part. Although the first cost of paving is so great, I do not think that any other plan can be adopted to good and so cheap in those places where the materials got in the neighbourhood are not sufficient for supporting the roads. A coating of whinstone is, for instance, more durable than the gravel with which the roads round London are made and repaired; but much less so than paving; although the freight and carriage of the whinstone, and of the paving-stones, which form the principal items of the expense, are nearly the same. Scotch whinstone, or the granite rubble (that is, rough chippings of granite,) could not, I should think, be delivered into barges in the river, at less than from 14_s._ to 15_s._ per ton, the freight alone being from 11_s._ to 12_s._, while the price of Aberdeen granite, in the same situation, is only from 19_s._ to 21_s._ and 22_s._ Maidstone ragstone in the rubble state, costs about 7_s._ per ton: it is a limestone, and much less durable than the whin. The carriage from the river to the road, of all these, is of course the same. Flint, again, is so much less durable than whin, that it will not bear the expense of carriage (which may be taken at from 1_s._ 6_d._ to 2_s._ per ton per mile) from any distance, to make it preferable to the gravel, or paving, in point of cost, for the roads near London. A double iron rail-road, to suit the London waggons, which some have recommended, would cost about 4,500_l._ per mile, and would be fitted for waggons only of one precise width, and for waggons or heavy carts only; while, from the difficulty of crossing it, it would form rather an obstacle to light carriages. Blocks of Aberdeen granite, twelve inches wide and fifteen inches deep, laid in the way of the wheels (as recommended by others,) would be nearly as expensive; and the eight joints, which would be formed between the stone and the gravel, by four rows of stone, would be found extremely troublesome and inconvenient. Both these substitutes for paving, therefore, though equally expensive as paving, have peculiar disadvantages; and they have this besides, which is common to them both, that they make no provision for preventing the great wear upon gravelled roads, which is caused by the horses’ feet, particularly if (as is the case in a rail-road) they are confined in one track.

Attention in the forming and repairing of roads, will in all cases do much to compensate for the inferiority of the material used for that purpose, of which the improvements in the general state of the highways within the last twenty years affords the best proof. To form the road upon a good foundation, and to keep the surface clear of water after it is formed, are the two most essential points towards having the best roads possible, upon a given country, and with given materials. For obtaining the first of these objects, it is essential that the line for the road be taken so that the foundation can be kept dry either by avoiding low ground by raising the surface of the road above the level of the ground on each side of it, or by drawing off the water by means of side drains. The other object, viz. that of clearing the road of water, is best secured by selecting a course for the road which is not horizontally level, so that the surface of the road may in its longitudinal section, form in some degree an inclined plane; and when this cannot be obtained, owing to the extreme flatness of the country, an artificial inclination may generally be made. When a road is so formed, every wheel-track that is made, being in the line of the inclination, becomes a channel for carrying off the water, much more effectually than can be done by a curvature in the cross section or rise in the middle of the road, without the danger, or other disadvantages which necessarily attend the rounding a road much in the middle. I consider a fall of about one inch and a half in ten feet, to be a minimum in this case, if it is attainable without a great deal of extra expense. It is in the knowledge of the above points, and of the application of them in practice, that what may be called the science of road-making consists, as the observations apply in every case. When a road is to be formed, accurate sections of the rises and falls of the ground should always be taken, in the same way as is done for a canal, before the line is determined, or the levels of the road fixed upon, and when the course and levels of the road are laid down, the derail of the work ought to be particularly explained by a specification and plan, describing the manner in which each particular length is to be formed and completed.

The quantity of materials necessary to form the road depends so much upon the soil and the nature of the materials themselves, that it is impossible to lay down any general rules for them. The thickness ought to be such that the greatest weight will not affect more than the surface of the shell, and it is for this purpose chiefly, that thickness is required, in order to spread the weight which comes upon a small part only of the road over a large portion of the foundation. When the ground is very soft, trees, bavins or bushes, are applied to answer the same purpose, and to carry off the water previous to the materials of the road being so consolidated as to form a solid body, and to be impervious to water. Bushes are, however, not advisable to be used, unless they are so low as always to be completely moist. When they are dry and excluded from the air they decay in a very few years, and produce a sinking in place of preserving the road; a thickness of chalk is useful for the same purpose in cases where bushes are improper, the chalk mixing with the gravel or stones becomes concreted, and presents a larger surface to the pressure. If the material for making the roads is gravel, the common way is to lay it as it comes from the pit, excepting the upper foot, or 18 inches or so, which is screened; but if whin or other stone is to be used, the size of the pieces into which it is broken should decrease as we approach the surface, the superficial coating not exceeding a cube from 1 inch to 1½ inch. If the foundation is bad, breaking the bottom stone into small pieces is expensive and injurious, upon the principle I have above described, and also for the same reason that an arch formed of whole bricks or of deep stones is to be preferred to one of the same materials broken into smaller pieces, for in some counties the materials will admit of the foundation of the road being considered as of the nature of a flat arch, as well as of being supported by the strata directly under it: but the error in laying the stone in large pieces upon the surface is more common and more injurious. In all cases, whether the material is gravel or hard stone, the interstices between the pieces should be filled up solid with smaller pieces, and the finishing made by a thin covering of very small pieces, or road-sand or rubbish, for those interstices must be filled up before the road becomes solid, either in this way or by a portion of the materials of the road being ground down, which last mode occasions a waste of the material, and keeps the road unnecessarily heavy and loose. This observation applies to the repairing as well as the original making of roads, and the effect of this covering, or as it is called in the country, blinding the loose stones, is so evident, that I have often wondered to see so little attention paid to it. If the material is soft, as some limestone, this is less necessary, and the quantity ought never to be more than is just sufficient for the purpose I have described. In the original making or effectually repairing of a road, it is, I think, best that the whole of the proposed thickness be laid on at once, for the sake of the road as well as of the traveller; the materials of the road then form a more solid compact mass than when they are laid in thin strata, at different times, for the same reason that a deep arch of uniform materials is preferable to a number of separate rings. Though I state that an inclination in the longitudinal section of the road is always desirable for the purpose of clearing it of water, I am not of the opinion of those who recommend the road to be made and kept flat or level in its cross section. The variety of opinions and practice upon this point are very great; both extremes appear to me to be bad. A road much rounded is dangerous, particularly if the cross section approaches towards the segment of a circle, the slope in the case not being uniform, but increasing rapidly from the nature of the curve, as we depart from the middle or vertical line. The over rounding of roads is also injurious to them, by either confining the heavy carriages to one track in the crown of the road, or if they go upon the sides, by the great wear they produce, from their constant tendency to move down the inclined plane, owing to the angle which the surface of the road and the line of gravity of the load form with each other, and as this tendency is perpendicular to the line of draught, the labour of the horse and the wear of the carriage wheels, are both much increased by it.

It is not altogether foreign to the subject to notice here, the error of forming the inclination of the roadway upon bridges, in the direction of their length, or across the river, from a section of a curve for the whole length, rather than from two lines joined together by a curve, as I have recommended for the cross section of a road. It is to this cause that the very heavy pull is owing, which must have been noticed in just getting upon a bridge, which decreases as we advance towards the middle of the bridge, and which would not have been so much felt, had it been spread regularly over the whole length (see No. 5, in the plan.)

The disadvantages of a flat road again are, that even if it is supposed to continue so, it is bad in principle, by doing away the tendency which a road ought to have, in every direction, to clear itself of water; but as the greatest wear will always be in the middle of the road, a level or flat road will very soon be concave; the middle of the road then becomes the watercourse, and the consequence, if the road is upon level ground, is, that the water and mud lie upon it, and injure the foundation and materials; or, if otherwise, that the stones or materials of the road are washed bare, and liable to be loosened and thrown up by the wheels coming into contact with their exposed angular surfaces. Many of the roads in the country afford examples of this, particularly after heavy rains, and if the country is at all hilly.

The best form for a road, in order to avoid those evils, is,—in my opinion, to form it, and to keep it with just a sufficient rise towards the middle, to incline the water towards the sides; and in place of making the whole width the section of one curve, to form it by two straight lines, forming inclined planes, and joined by a curve towards the middle. I have prepared a section of a road in the manner I have described (No. 4.) and as the lines, excepting at the centre, are straight, the section may be made to suit almost any greater or less width, by merely extending them. The section is taken nearly from a part of a road made under my direction in the country. The dotted line drawn upon it shows the form I alluded to when speaking of the circular road that ought to be avoided. I have seen ridges formed in what I thought well formed land, much after what I would recommend for the form of a road. The object of forming the land into ridges, raised a little in the middle, is the same as that of raising the middle of a road to prevent the water from settling upon it, and what is sufficient for the ploughed land is certainly enough for a road. If the road is of good stone, four to five inches rise in ten feet is sufficient, gravel, and other inferior material, will allow a little more. In this section it may be worth while to notice the situation of the hedge and ditch, or rill on each side of the road, a more common, but I think a more dangerous and worse way, is to form the ditch close to the road, and to plant the quick upon a raised bank beyond it. I have dotted this mode also upon the section. The advantage of having the hedge next the road, consists in its greater safety to the traveller, particularly if a ditch of any considerable depth is necessary, and in the hedge being supported in its growth from the ground under the road, without drawing upon the farmer’s side of the ditch; and it is I believe, this last advantage, which has led the author of an article in the Edinburgh Farmer’s Magazine, with whom I am acquainted, to make nearly the same observations. In a length of road, made eight or ten years since, over a marsh, partly a bog, considerably under high water, where, from the level of the ground, and of the drainage, the ditches were obliged to be deep and wide, and therefore dangerous; I ordered some cuttings of willow to be stuck into the roadside of the ditch. In about two years they formed a blind to the ditch, and are now so thick and strong as to be a complete security from all danger. I may here take the liberty to say, that nothing is more injurious to roads than the permitting high hedges and plantations near them, their effect in keeping the rain suspended and dripping upon the road longer than otherwise it would, and in preventing the air and sun from drying the roads, is most destructive and very general: and as the Commissioners or principal men of the district are often the greatest offenders in this respect, the evil is one in which both the enactments and the application of them require the strictest attention and impartiality. After a road is properly made, the comfort of the traveller and the principle of economy on the part of the road-trust, both demand that it be not allowed to get much out of repair; the adage of “a stitch in time,” applies particularly to the repairing of roads, and though not universally practised, is so well known, that it is, I presume, unnecessary to state reasons, for what no one acquainted with the subject at all doubts. The best season for repairing roads is, I think, the spring or very early in the summer, when the weather is likely neither to be very wet nor dry, for both of these extremes prevent the materials from consolidating, and therefore cause a waste of them, and at the same time, either a heavy or a dusty road; but if done at the time I have recommended, the roads are left in good state for the summer, and become consolidated and hard to resist the work of the ensuing winter.

When I remarked the great improvement in many of the highways during the last twenty years, I by no means meant to say that they are not still capable of much greater, or that many of them have not been much neglected. In many districts this is notoriously the case, and when the materials are the best, the roads are frequently the worst. There is no road round London upon which there is more heavy country traffic, than the first stage of the great Essex or Mile End road; and owing to the well directed attention of the chairman of the commissioners, and of their surveyor, there are few better roads any where, excepting in very wet heavy weather. Indeed I do not think it possible to do much, if any thing, in improving the superintendance and repair of that road, with the material at present in use; for the nature of which, as well as for the exclusion of air and sun by buildings, proper allowance ought to be made in judging of the state of the roads near London, and when this is done, and the great wear considered, we may find that in very many cases, there is but little cause to find fault, and much room for commendation. The traffic upon the Mile End road is however too much for a gravelled road, and the expanse for repair for the first three miles is consequently very great. The same remarks as to conduct and attention, are merited by the commissioners of other districts, and their gratuitous services entitle them to the thanks of the public; while in some parts of the kingdom, including Scotland, where the material is the very best, the roads are often in the worst condition, and the most unpleasant to travel upon. The stone is put in large pieces upon the road, without any covering or mixture of smaller material, and is left to take the chance of being broke and formed into a solid, or of tumbling loose upon the road. When a track is once formed in this stone-heap, it is not to be expected that the horses will be easily made to move out of it; and unless the thoroughfare is considerable, the road in use consists sometimes for a long period, of the two deep wheel tracks, which are always filled with water during the winter, and of the horse’s path between them, the other parts being covered with a body of loose stones, and rendered absolutely useless. These observations apply to some lengths of the most frequented highways, but are more particularly applicable to the cross roads and the parish roads. I had the opportunity of seeing the roads in the West Highlands last autumn; they are formed with judgement, and kept in good repair.

When the highways in a county are under the management of trustees, it is common to divide them, and to assign a particular length to the trustees who live near it, without employing any person in the capacity of a surveyor. When this is the case, the state of repair depends much upon the observation and attention of the trustee; and the change in the state of the road often marks out the change of superintendence. A relative of mine has given up a good deal of his time and attention to a part of the roads in Stirlingshire, of which he is one of the trustees: no professional man could, perhaps, do the business better; and the effect of this attention is very visible. Instances of the same kind are frequent, but it is not to be expected that trustees generally can both understand, and have so great a relish for serving the public, as that the detail of the repairs of roads, if imposed upon them, will be always executed with the attention they require.

The case of parish roads is still worse, where the inhabitants are, without much regard to their habits of life, obliged in their turns to serve the annual office of surveyor of the highways. If such persons mean to signalize themselves during their being in office, the first step is often to undo what their predecessor has done, or has not perfected; and the love of self and of friends determines them to make sure while they have it in their power, that some favoured roads or lanes are put into proper order. If the surveyor is, on the contrary, an unwilling officer, or if the attention to his own affairs prevents him giving his time to the duties of the office, he avoids the fine by accepting the charge, pays the bills and wages without much knowledge of their nature or accuracy, and one of the labourers becomes, in fact, the road-surveyor; but in every case of annual nominations there is this evil, that so soon as the surveyor has, by a year’s apprenticeship, begun to know something of the nature of the business, his place is filled by another, who comes in for the same time to take lessons at the expense of the parish. Thus, while many simple trades require, by law, an apprenticeship of seven years, before the person is thought qualified to practise with his own capital, the road-surveyor is supposed fit, the very hour he is named, for an office which requires at least as much understanding and experience as the average of trades, and in which he has the capital of all the parish to speculate with. For these reasons, I have always been convinced of the propriety of an intelligent accountable officer in each district, but I do not see to whom he can be responsible with so great propriety, or in other words, in whom the chief control can be so well vested, as in the gentlemen who live in the county, who are almost daily witnesses of what is doing, and are chiefly interested in keeping down the expenses, at the same time having their roads in good repair.

Whether a board of roads, appointed by parliament, meeting once every year, and forming a report of the expense and state of the roads in each county, to be presented to parliament, with such observations as present themselves, as to improvements, or otherwise, taken from general surveys made by persons appointed by them, would be useful, by exciting a spirit of emulation and attention on the part of the different trusts, every member of this honourable Committee is as able, and perhaps more able, to give a disinterested judgment than I am; for I conclude, that if surveys are to be made, engineers will think they have some chance of being selected as the most proper persons to be employed on the occasion, under the board. The state of the roads continue to improve throughout the kingdom. Every friend to his country will be pleased, if the march of this improvement can be accelerated by a moderate reform, and carried into remote corners and parishes, where it appears most to be wanted; but I much question the propriety of such a revolution as would lessen the interest, which, in their present situation, the commissioners ought to feel in the repair of their roads, and the consequence which the appointment tends to give them.

If country road-surveyors are appointed throughout the kingdom, the nomination might be with the commissioners of the county, and if friendship or local interest is supposed to operate too far, the nomination, or the examination previous to election, or the _veto_ after it, might be with the central or other board, the members of which might be supposed not to be connected with the individual, in the same way as pilots and the masters of men of war are examined by the elder brethren of the Trinity House. And sub-surveyors or surveyors of parishes, might in the same manner be appointed, or undergo an examination by the county commissioners and county surveyor, to qualify them to be elected; for it is to be lamented, that in cases where parishes have, from the reasons I have mentioned, made the office of road-surveyors permanent, with a salary: the election being popular, has fallen, not upon the candidate who was really the best qualified, but probably upon some honest decayed tradesman, who, having proved himself unable to manage his own business, which he ought to have known the best, has thereby, and by his long residence, qualified himself for managing a public business, of which he probably knows nothing, but whether he does, or does not, rarely enters into the consideration of the majority of the voters.

In what manner do you think the extra toll for overweight ought to be regulated; whether by the weight, or by the number of horses used, without regard to the weight?—I think by the weight most certainly; unless the object is to discourage the breed of small horses, and encourage the over-loading and straining, of horses of all sizes. The number of horses is a very imperfect measure, or rather no measure at all of the injury done to the roads; for a load of three tons, drawn by one horse, injures the road as much, to say the least of it, as if two horses were used. It is not out of place to mention the extreme disproportion between the penalties for overweight, and the injuries which they are meant to compensate for, or to prevent; particularly when this over-loading is the effect of ignorance, which is almost always the case. When the tolls are in the hands of trustees, the penalty is almost always reduced; a proof that that fixed by law is exorbitant; but when the tolls are farmed, and the trustees do not reserve the power of mitigating the penalty, the poor carman has less chance of being saved perhaps from ruin.

_Jovis, 1º die Aprilis, 1819._

Mr. _James Dean_, called in; and Examined.

What is your profession?—I am a land agent and civil engineer, and am occasionally employed to solicit bills in parliament as an agent.

Where do you reside?—I reside in London about half the year, and the other half in Devonshire.

As an engineer, have you had the means of becoming acquainted with the roads of the kingdom?—About twenty years since, I had the appointment of surveyor to the trustees of the turnpike roads from Oxford to Henley upon Thames, and from Dorchester to Abingdon, in Berkshire; since then I have been employed about several roads in Devonshire and Cornwall, and, latterly, in surveying and reporting on an extensive district of the roads in Somersetshire.

From the observations which you have made in this employment, are you able to give the Committee any information as to the best mode of improving the roads of the kingdom generally?—The first and most obvious improvement is to shorten distances; but even that must be governed by circumstances often of a local nature; a sound foundation, and the contiguity of good stone or gravel to a road, should not be overlooked in choosing a new line, or departing from an old one. In forming a new line in a level country, the transverse section should approach as near as possible to the form of the accompanying sketch No. 1, and in a hilly country to that of No. 2; in the former, the water from one half the road would be carried into a ditch on the field side, and that of the other half into a ditch between the footpath and hedge-bank. When it is necessary to form a road on the side of a hill, the ditch should be on the higher side of the road, where it will receive the water falling from the high ground, and so keep the foundation of the road dry. I have figured the breadths of a good average turnpike road on sketch No. 1, but the breadth will frequently depend upon circumstances of a local nature. Near to great towns, it would be highly advantageous if the centre of the road, for about twelve feet in width, were to be paved with hard well-squared stones, nine inches deep, and the sides made with hard rubble stones or gravel. I need scarcely mention, that in applying the materials to a new line of road, the stones should be broken into pieces of an uniform size, as near as may be; that the larger should be laid of nearly an equal depth over the whole surface of the road, and the smaller, mixed with gravel, should be placed upon them. The repairing of roads should be conducted in the same manner as far as it is practicable; but, after all, the only sure way of getting good roads is, for the trustees to employ men of education and science as their surveyors. In a few instances, where this has been done, the best consequences have resulted, and in no case is if more conspicuous than in the neighbourhood of Bristol, where Mr. MᶜAdam is the surveyor.

Will not a consequent impediment arise to the employment of men of education and of superior ability as surveyors, from the smallness of the funds upon small trusts or districts?—For that reason, I would recommend the consolidation of the several trusts, in each county, into one general trust, under the authority of one general act of parliament, leaving the adoption, however, of the acts to the discretion of the several trusts respectively in each county, making it compulsory only on the minority, at the expiration of a time to be limited, when a majority in amount of toll shall call for its adoption, and after insertion in the provincial papers and London Gazette.

Supposing parliament to adopt your suggestion as to the passing of such an act, and supposing that afterwards the trusts of none of the counties should adopt it as a general trust, would there be any objection to the act being so framed as to admit of adoption by such of the trusts as might prefer it to incurring the expense of a renewal of their then local acts?—I do not think there would be any well founded objection to an act made capable of being so applied; and I am of opinion, that the making it optional on trustees to adopt it or not, would render the measure extremely popular, and in the end be highly beneficial to the country.

Have you not lately prepared a bill for the trustees of an extensive trust in Somersetshire, including in it nearly all the improvements which you would recommend to be introduced into a general turnpike act?—I have prepared such a bill; and it was intended that the same should have been brought before parliament in the present session, but the clerk to the trustees having omitted to put the notice required by the standing orders of parliament upon the sessions-house door, at the Michaelmas sessions, the trustees resolved to defer presenting their petition until the next session.

In what respect does the bill which you have prepared differ from the generality of local turnpike acts?—Many of the clauses of the bill are not so remarkable for originality, as their combination is calculated to produce extensive benefit to the country, by conferring larger powers than have heretofore been given to any one body of trustees; among others, it empowers the trustees to appoint committees, and make bye-laws; it binds them to provide a fund for buying up outstanding securities; and to pay off the further sums proposed to be raised under the new act, within the term of the act; the tolls on wheel carriages are made referrible to the breadth of the fellies, and description of wheel, and to the weight drawn, rather than to the number of horses, drawing, and are founded on a statement which I had the honour of delivering to a Committee of the House of Commons in 1809. The standing orders of parliament require that on or before the 30th of September next, preceding any application to parliament for any Turnpike Act, a plan &c. of the roads proposed to be made or altered, shall be deposited with the clerk of the peace. It often happens, that in the Committee alterations are made in the proposed line, when the plan deposited becomes mere waste paper; the seventy sixth clause of this bill provides for the depositing of a plan, &c. last determined upon, with the clerk of the peace, signed by the Speaker, and being an authentic document can be referred to with safety. The bill also provides for the making of commodious footpaths by the sides of the roads. And as the paving, cleansing, lighting, watching, &c. of the liberty or borough of * * * * is placed in the trustees of the roads, the trustees are empowered to rate the inhabitants, and are also empowered to light the streets, &c. with gas, and to allow gas to be taken from their mains for the lighting of private dwellings, manufactories, &c.; so that in all probability the latter indulgence may pay the greater part, if not the whole, of the expense of lighting the public lamps. The ninety-third clause empowers the trustees to pave, light and watch any town, village or place through, which the roads pass, upon application of two-thirds of the inhabitants, and is in my view extremely important.

Have you any further suggestions to offer to the Committee that would tend to the improvement of the roads, or the laws relating to them?—Upon the subject of turnpike roads, and of wheel-carriages generally, I am of opinion that such a spirit of improvement has gone forth as, with the assistance of judicious legislative enactments, will in a few years carry both to a state of very great perfection; but I cannot close these remarks without observing on the injurious effect which the large fees paid to the higher officers of both houses of parliament has upon the growing improvements of the country, by preventing a recurrence to parliament to remove obstacles which the prejudice of some will not, and the incapacity of others cannot permit. The periodical expenses of renewing turnpike acts is really enormous, when it is considered that between the fees of parliament on the one hand, and a two month’s residence in London of the country solicitor, to manage the business, besides a parliamentary agent in town to assist him, four or five hundred pounds are soon swallowed up; but I also feel it right to suggest, that if parliament would allow affidavits to be made before two magistrates in the county, of the notices directed by the standing orders of parliament, having been duly given, of plans and of books of reference being lodged with the clerk of the peace, and of the names of the persons assenting to, dissenting from, or being neuter in respect of any proposed new road, the solicitor need not remain in town more than three days, and the expenses, except in cases of opposition, need not exceed 200_l._

Would you, as a parliamentary agent, undertake to prepare and conduct an ordinary road bill through parliament for 200_l._, to include all expenses, where there is no opposition?—I would undertake any number at that sum, provided the proofs before mentioned were admitted to be made by affidavit in the county, in like manner as the proofs are now given to facilitate the passing of inclosure bills.

_Jovis, 6º die Maii, 1819._

_Thomas Telford_, Esquire, called in; and Examined.

You are, I believe, a civil engineer?

Yes, I am.

The roads which have been formed by direction of the Parliamentary Commissioners for the Holyhead road, and under your management, having been described to this Committee as being very perfect, will you have the goodness to state your opinion as to the present condition of the different turnpike roads of the kingdom, and what improvements you would recommend in their direction and management. In the first place, state to the Committee in what respect you consider the roads of the kingdom at present to be defective, either in their formation or management?—

With regard to the roads in England and Wales, they are in general very defective, both as to their direction and inclinations, they are frequently carried over hills, which might be avoided by passing along the adjacent valleys; at present the inclinations are inconveniently steep, and long continued. I might instance many principal lines, over which I have had frequent occasion to travel: I shall select the great road from Holyhead, through North Wales to Shrewsbury; and from thence by Birmingham and Coventry to London. On the Welsh portion of it, those parts which have been improved under the direction of the Parliamentary Commissioners for the Holyhead road, the inclinations were formerly (in many instances) as much as one in six, seven, eight, nine, and ten, the width at the same time frequently not exceeding twelve feet, without protection on the lower side, and the roadway itself of improper construction. The improvements which have lately been made in North Wales, I beg leave to submit as models for roads through hilly countries, although these improvements have been made through the most difficult and precipitous district of that country, the longitudinal inclinations are in general less than one in thirty; in one instance, for a considerable distance, there was no avoiding one in twenty-two, and in another, for about two hundred yards, one in seventeen; but in these two cases, the surface of the roadway being made peculiarly smooth and hard, no inconvenience is experienced by wheeled carriages. On flat ground, the breadth of the roadway is thirty-two feet, where there is side cutting not exceeding three feet, the breadth is twenty-eight, and along any steep ground and precipices, it is twenty-two, all clear within the fences; the sides are protected by stone walls, breast and retaining walls and parapets; great pains have been bestowed on the cross drains, also the draining the ground, and likewise in constructing firm and substantial foundations for the metalled part of the roadway. From Shrewsbury upwards, the road at present is encumbered with many hills, all of which might be avoided, or much improved. There is a very long one between Shrewsbury and Heygate, several between that point and Shiffnal, two between Shiffnal and Wolverhampton, one between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, viz. at Wednesbury, &c. Maiden Hill, between Birmingham and Coventry; Braunston Hill, between Dunchurch and Daventry; a continued succession of hills between Daventry and Towcester; afterwards the well-known Brickhill and Hockliffe hills, besides the very circuitous and imperfect road between South Mims and Barnet.

Another instance I would beg leave to mention to the Committee, is the road between the towns of Shrewsbury and Worcester, on the way to Bath, which consists of nearly a succession of very high and inconveniently steep hills, although very easy inclinations might be obtained by passing along the side of the river Severn.

I have mentioned these two instances as examples of the present imperfections of main roads, and it is quite evident they might all be readily avoided by lines of new road, easily to be accomplished. These, I presume, the Committee will admit are sufficient to show the present state of many other roads in the kingdom, they not having been selected as more particularly defective than others.

The shape, or cross sections and drainage of the roads, are quite as defective as the general direction and inclinations; there has been no attention paid to constructing a good and solid foundation for the roadway; the materials, whether of gravel or stones, have seldom been sufficiently selected and arranged; and they lie so promiscuously upon the road as to render it inconvenient to travel upon, and promote its speedy destruction. The shape of the road, or cross section of the surface, is frequently hollow in the middle; the sides encumbered with great banks of mud, which have accumulated sometimes to the height of six, seven and eight feet; these prevent the water from falling into the side-drains; they also throw a considerable shade upon the road itself, and are gross and unpardonable nuisances. The materials, instead of being cleansed of the mud and soil with which they are mixed in their native state, are laid promiscuously upon the road; this, in the first instance, creates an unnecessary expense of carriage to the road, and afterwards nearly as much in removing it, besides inconvenience and obstruction to travelling; the materials should therefore be cleansed on the spot where they are procured, from every particle of earth, by screening, or if necessary, even by washing; some additional expense might in the first instance be incurred by these operations, but it would be found by much the most economical and advantageous mode in the end. In all cases, materials in their native state are composed of particles and pieces of different sizes, it is most important that those should be separated, and that the largest size should be reduced to not more than six or eight ounces in weight, and laid in the bottom part of the road; those that are under that weight or size may be laid on the top or surface of the road; the surface itself should be made with a very gentle curve in its cross section, just sufficient to permit the water to pass from the centre towards the sides of the road, the declivity may increase towards the sides, and the general section form a very flat ellipsis, so that the side, at the time, should (upon a road of about thirty feet in width) be nine inches below the surface in the middle. Connected with the cross section are the side drains which are to receive the water, and which drains, in every instance, I particularly recommend to be on the field side of the fence, with apertures in that fence for the water to pass from the sides of the road into them.

The fences themselves on each side form a very material and important subject, with regard to the perfection of roads; they should in no instance be more than five feet in height above the centre of the road, and all trees which stand within twenty yards from the centre of it ought to be removed. I am sure that twenty per cent. of the expense of improving and repairing roads is incurred by the improper state of the fences and trees along the sides of it, on the sunny side more particularly; this must be evident to any person who will notice the state of a road which is much shaded by high fences and trees, compared to the other parts of the road which are exposed to the sun and air. My observations, with regard to fences and trees, apply when the road is on the same level as the adjacent fields; but in many cases, on the most frequented roads of England, more stuff has been removed from time to time than was put on; the surface of the road is consequently sunk into a trough or channel from three to six feet below the surface of the fields on each side; here all attempts at drainage, or even common repairs, seem to be quite out of the question; and by much the most judicious and economical mode will be to remove the whole road into the field which is on the sunny side of it. In cases where a road is made upon ground where there are many springs, it is absolutely necessary to make a number of under and cross drains to collect the water and conduct it into the aforesaid side-drains, which I have recommended to be made on the field side of the fences.

In constructing the bottom part of a road, (which would, of course, be made of an elliptical form) if it is upon clay, or other elastic substance, which would retain water, I would recommend to cover the whole bottom of the road with vegetable soil, in cases where the natural shape of the ground admits; I would not remove the original surface, and where there are inequalities I would fill them up with vegetable soil, so as to cut off all connexion with clay. Where gravel is the material to complete the road with, I have already mentioned, that it ought to be completely cleansed of every particle of clay or earthy substance, and its different sizes ought to be selected and arranged by means of riddling or washing; in the use of the riddle, the particles of earth or clay adhere so much to the stones that it frequently requires to be exposed to the sun, air, and frost, for several months, and then riddled over again. In this gravel, the stones are of different sizes and different shapes; all those that are round ought to be broken with a small hammer, and in mentioning hammers, I beg leave to draw the attention of the Committee to their weight, shape and manner of using, which is of much more importance than any one can conceive who has not had much experience in road-making; the difference in managing this operation being not less than ten per cent. and is, besides, of equal importance towards the perfection of the road; the size and weight of the hammer I would apportion to the size and weight of the stones, and the stones should be broken upon the heap, not on the ground; it must be evident that using round stones will be the means of deranging the position of those near them, and of grinding them to pieces.

Are you of opinion that the gravel which is found in the pits in the neighbourhood of London is calculated for making roads capable of bearing the heavy weights which the great traffic round London occasions to be used upon them?—I am of opinion that the materials in the whole valley or plain around London being entirely silicious, or flints, and easily ground, to dust, are very improper. This must be evident to every person who travels near London in any direction.

Are you of opinion that it would be advisable or practicable to procure from any particular part of the country, either by canal, or by river conveyance, better materials, so as to form perfect roads, without the necessity of paving them?—That those materials could be procured both by the canals; and by sea is evident; but I am satisfied that the most economical and preferable mode would be by means of paving.

Do you consider that it would be advisable to pave the whole of the roads, or that the paving of the centre or sides, as has been recommended by some witnesses, would be sufficient?—I apprehend that the paving a proper width in the centre would be quite sufficient, gravel might be proper enough for the sides, upon the same principle that we, in all new roads which are constructed, make use of metalling, or broken stones on the middle part of the road, for about from sixteen to eighteen or twenty feet in breadth, and leave the sides gravelled and kept dry; this, in general, forms a very perfect road.

Is there any principle which you would think proper to recommend in regard to the shape of the stones to be used in paving roads?—I am of opinion that the general shape of the stones at present used for paving, and the modes of distributing them are very imperfect, the lower part of the stones being of a triangular wedge-like shape, which, instead of enabling them to resist the weights which come upon them; easily penetrate into the substratum; the stones are also broken of an unequal size. The remedies for these defects are obvious, they should be as nearly as possible of a cubical form, its lower bed having an equal surface with its upper face; they should be selected as nearly as possible of an equal size, and they should never be of great length on the face.

In quarrying and preparing the stones would there be any additional expense in forming them into the cubical shape now recommended?—There would certainly be an additional expense in the preparation, because there would be more work required in the dressing, and many stones must be rejected which are now used; but I think the additional expense would be very well bestowed.

Are you of opinion that great injury is done to turnpike roads by the heavy weights carried in waggons upon them?—I am.

Are you of opinion that any breadth of wheels for those waggons will justify the present exemption from tolls?—It certainly ought not.

In what manner would you recommend that the tolls should be apportioned to the weights carried by waggons on those roads?—I am of opinion that the most advisable mode would be to apportion the tolls to the weight carried on each wheel, without reference to the breadth, provided it is not allowed to be less than four inches.

For the purpose of assessing the tolls in this instance would it not be necessary that the waggon should be weighed at every turnpike gate?—There ought to be a power to do it, but there might be a check by means of toll tickets, similar to what is done upon navigable canals.

With a view of establishing good roads generally throughout the kingdom, and of keeping them in repair upon the most economical plan, what limitation would you propose as to the actual weight each carriage should be allowed to carry?—I should think it should never exceed four tons, which should be a ton upon each wheel; when it exceeds that weight the best materials which can be procured for road-making must be deranged and ground to pieces.

_Martis, 11º die Maii, 1819._

Mr. _Robert Perry_, called in; and Examined.

You hold a situation in the Post-office?—Yes, under Mr. Johnson, inspector of the mails in the Post-office.

Since the examination of Mr. Johnson before this Committee, has the Post-office received any further report on the state of any of the roads near the Metropolis?—Yes; one that is between Staines and Bagshot, which I have brought with me.

[_Delivered in, and read:_]

“State of the Turnpike Road between Staines and Bagshot, May 4th, 1819.

From Staines Bridge to Egham the form of the road has been considerably altered for the better, with plenty of watercourses and arched drains: through Egham town the dirt has been entirely removed, and a very plentiful supply of well-sifted gravel laid on, which will in a short time make a good hard road. The hill likewise has recently been covered with a thick coat of good stones, which will require a little time to cement; from thence the road is greatly improved; the sides are pared down, and kept particularly clean.

At Virginia Water every thing appears to have been done to the hills, that the time and sandy nature of the soil would permit; it is now in a good form, and level.

From Virginia Water Hill, by Broom Hill Hut, the road has been well scraped, the watercourses opened, and the sides kept clean, and is in a very good state all the way to Bagshot.

(Signed) _Samuel Maddocks_.”

ABSTRACT OF RETURNS OF TURNPIKE TRUSTS ROUND LONDON.