Describe the problems faced by road travellers in the 18thC and the 19thC
History coursework
Describe the problems faced by road travellers in the 18thC and the 19thC
There were many problems faced by road travellers in the 18thC and 19thC as roads were in very bad condition due to the fact that nobody would take responsibility for them. There was no organisation to maintain the roads so the public would have to repair them themselves. Most people, however, did not want to do so and consequently the job would not be done well and no new improvements would be made. The result was that the roads were in a treacherous condition. An act was passed in 1555 which stated that each parish was responsible for the repair of roads within its boundaries. There were many potholes as nobody would repair them as they were not being paid. There were no bridges over the rivers so when people wanted to travel past they had to find the shallowest part and walk through the water and this became known as the fording point. The government was not interested in road repair because of the cost.
Many of the roads were narrow and filled with trees often preventing two carriages from passing at one time. Many people would get coaches to different destinations but they were not safe at all. Highwaymen would often hold up coaches and take people by surprise. They would attack and rob and take many people's money. Some people would be prepared for this by keeping a purse with false money in and keeping the money somewhere else. Highwaymen could get away with it as there was no police before 1849. Poor people were forced to sit on the top of carriages and would sometimes fall off if it turned round a corner too quickly and this would be extremely dangerous. They would also get very wet when it rained.
Due to bad weather conditions coaches would get stuck in the mud. Roads at that time did not have tarmac so when it rained the roads would be a mess. There was no maintenance so roads would get very dirty.
Coaches were not reliable at all and journeys were very long, as the coaches were extremely slow. For example, a journey from London to Brighton would take 11 hours (despite this, some people thought that 11 hours was brilliant). This, consequently, made charges higher as there were more stops.
Tolls and turnpikes were later introduced and this improved roads but people had to pay to use them and this significantly increased the cost of journeys. Furthermore, many people were unable to afford the travelling costs. Once travellers left the toll road, the other roads would frequently be of very poor quality and uneven and this caused problems for people. The rates of toll were: Horse, mule, cart or carriage 1d, coach or chariot 6d (2.5 pence), unladen waggon 3d, drove of calves or sheep 1d per score.
Roads needed to be improved, as there was a growing population, a war going on and the industrial revolution was starting. More things needed to be transported faster so roads had to be better.
How did transportation links to Brighton change in the period 1750 to 1870?
Transport improved greatly over this period as it became faster. The original transportation links were carriages, horseback and roads. People wanted to go to Brighton because the royalty were there a lot and also as Dr Richard Russell had stated that seawater was good for your health. Many of ...
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Roads needed to be improved, as there was a growing population, a war going on and the industrial revolution was starting. More things needed to be transported faster so roads had to be better.
How did transportation links to Brighton change in the period 1750 to 1870?
Transport improved greatly over this period as it became faster. The original transportation links were carriages, horseback and roads. People wanted to go to Brighton because the royalty were there a lot and also as Dr Richard Russell had stated that seawater was good for your health. Many of the roads had now become Turnpike roads; this greatly improved the condition of them. There were three main road designers: they were John Metcalf, John McAdam and Thomas Telford.
John Metcalf (1717-1810) had been blind since the age of six and was known as blind man Jack. Before he became a road engineer he began with packhorses which he led over hills himself. He tested the roads and had ideas on how the roads could improve. He had also been a fish dealer, waganer and musician. He first became interested in road repair when he began with packhorses. He built his first Turnpike road when he was 50. Metcalf saw the main problem facing road builders was drainage and foundations. His road design was special because he used bundles of heather which acted as foundation so that the road 'floated'. He supervised the construction of 180miles of turnpikes, mostly in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Metcalf was important because he was the first of the great road builders. He believed that a good road should have a good foundation, be well drained and have a smooth convex rounded surface to allow water to drain quickly into ditches at the side of the road.
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John McAdam (1756-1836) spent most of his life in New York but was originally from Ayr in Scotland. He was appointed Surveyor General in Bristol in 1815. McAdam's ideas of road building were different from Metcalf and Telford because he believed that solid stone foundations were necessary. It was possible to use 'unskilled labourers' because they only did simple tasks. The average cost of a McAdam road was £88 per mile. Many turnpike trusts replaced their roads with McAdam style roads because one did not have to build new roads, they just had to repair the old ones. Tar was introduced into road construction because it is waterproof. On McAdam's advice the General Highways Act of 1835 was passed, abolishing compulsory labour on roads. The act stated that each parish was instead to levy a rate to pay for the proper upkeep of the highway.
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Thomas Telford (1757-1834) came from Dumfriesshire in Scotland. The building projects he was involved with were canals, docks in London, bridges, lighthouses, harbours and Turnpike roads. The government needed a good road from London to Holyhead because England and Ireland had been united in 1801 and the Irish MP's complained about the mail service from London to Holyhead. A disadvantage with his method was that it was too expensive. Telford is often described as Britains 'greatest civil engineer'. He built nearly 1000 miles of roads using the Romans ideas. He introduced the use of a base of large stones surfaced with compacted layers of small stones.
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In 1840 the railway station was built and in 1841 the railway links to Britain started. This brought all kinds of people to the seaside. London to Brighton was the South coast railway which ran frequently. There was 1st, 2nd and 3rd class travels, this allowed poor to travel. This would be a penny a mile. Rail transport was faster and cheaper than coaches were and was available to almost everybody. Brighton train station had a roof over it emphasising the importance of it. In 1871 a bank holiday act was passed and this attracted lots of people to the seaside as they had a day off. More and more people were now coming to Brighton. The made the little fishing town larger and increased the amount of jobs.
[Picture of Brighton train station]
Why did Brighton become increasingly popular during this period?
Brighton became increasingly popular during this period because of health, Royalty and leisure. The town developed in the 18th century as a fashionable health resort patronised, from 1783, by the Prince of Wales (later George IV). The Prince of Wales visited Brighton in 1783 for the first time aged 21, staying with his notorious uncle the Duke of Marlborough. The following year the prince met Mrs. Maria Fitzherbert, a devout Roman Catholic who at the age of 25 had already been widowed twice. He fell hopelessly in love but she would entertain no liaison other than marriage, and so they were secretly married by a young Church of England curate (who was paid handsomely for his illegal services) in 1785.
Prinny, the Prince of Wales, would stay in a farmhouse when he visited Brighton. He liked the area and in 1786 decided that he would buy some property there. On the 6th July 1787 George took possession of the new Pavilion, an elegant, graceful timber framed villa designed by Henry Holland in a record time of five months. It was then a simple Georgian villa which was later the nucleus of the building we know today. Later the Royal Pavilion was extensively remodelled by John Nash. In 1815 work began on John Nash's improvements to the Pavilion and the main structure was finished in 1818, complete with fairy-tale interior and the new exterior gaslights. The pavilion was supposed to be designed in a mixture of classical and oriental styles.
Prinny had made a big impact and the royal interest established Brighton as one of the most fashionable places to visit. It was mainly a resort for the wealthy upper classes from 1800 to 1830. The Prince simultaneously acquired a reputation in Brighton both for his liberal generosity to local charities and worthy individuals and for the riotous pleasures that the town remains noted for even to this day. Prinny would go to Brighton so he could he could see Maria Fitzherbert, this way they would be away from the public eye.
It was forbidden for Catholic and Protestant to get married because of the Act of Settlement, Prinny was a Protestant and Maria was a catholic so they had to see each other in private. George IV was crowned King at Westminster on 19th July 1821. The fabulous chinoiserie decorations were completed a year later. The underground passage from the Pavilion to the Royal Stables was excavated in 1822 giving rise to rumours that persist to this day of the existence of similar passages to various Brighton houses, most famously that which supposedly went to Mrs. Fitzherbert's dwelling on the Old Steine.
Prinny attracted the rich to Brighton as it was now the 'in' place to be. He liked Brighton so much that he kept returning there until his death in 1830. He was succeeded by his brother William IV who loved Brighton almost as much as his colourful elder brother. He also kept coming and did so until his death in 1837. Queen Victoria visited Brighton but did not like it as there were too many middle and poor classes about. She did not stay in Brighton and moved away in 1845. Queen Victoria was the last monarch to use the Pavilion and it is now a municipal property.
[Picture of pavilion]
The turning point in Brighton's fortunes came in1749 when Dr. Richard Russell published a book called 'The Use of Sea Water in Diseases of the Glands', proclaiming the medicinal qualities of seawater, in particular Brighton seawater. He advocated sea bathing and sea drinking as a cure for most ills and established a hydro where the Albion Hotel now stands. Dr Russell of Lewes managed between 1750 and 1780 to popularise the area as a salt-water spa. The fashionable of the time started to flock in to be dipped in the seawater by bathers making use of 'bathing machines'. The transformation from the fishing village of Brighthelmstone to the liberal and fashionable resort of Brighton, dedicated to pleasure had begun.
How did Brighton change during this period?
Before Prinny arrived in Brighton it was just a small fishing town. It had been rebuilt in 1512 after French had burnt it down. As more and more people began coming to Brighton the area grew and grew. In 1780 the population had been 3,600, already a sizeable town for this period. By 1794 it had risen to 5,669; by 1801 to 7,337 and by 1821 to 21,429. More churches had to be built as one was not big enough. This church was built, one could see how big a town was by the size of the church.
[Picture of church]
People were afraid that Brighton would decrease after Queen Victoria left but it did not. Brighton was first just a small fishing village but was now a place of leisure. Originally a fishing village mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086 as Brighthelmstone or Brithelmeston, the town became known as Brighton at the beginning of the 19th century. During 1750 to 1870 it grew enormously and had now turned into a place of leisure for all classes.
The houses changed a great deal, the original were the fishermen houses they were made in the 18th century. They were quite old-fashioned houses, they were squashed together, square and flat. I thing middle class people would have lived here. These houses had no gardens due to the fact that there was not a lot of room. There is room in the attic for the servants, I believe that the residents were permanent members of the community.
After the fishermen's houses there are the railway workers houses these were built in the 1820's. These houses were terrace houses and were quite small, they had about 3 bedrooms and were for poor people. Just like the fishermen's houses there were no gardens. There are not any rooms for servants because they could not afford them. The properties were very close together and in front of their house there is no road just a small alley. These residents were permanent members of the community. These houses were built at this time due to growing population.
[Picture of house]
After the railway workers houses there are wealthy houses, these were built in about 1847. The houses were very big and had about 10 rooms. The houses were very big and had columns and Greek pillars. The social class that lived here were the very rich and posh people. The depth of the properties were very deep. They had very big and lovely communal gardens in the centre of all their houses. There was room in the basements for the servants. The location of properties were not close together at all they was a lot of space.
[picture of house]
Harpreet Sekhon
