To grow, Britain needed good reliable, extensive, cheap transport systems. Heavy raw materials such as coal, cotton and iron had to be brought to factories. Then the finished product had to be delivered all over Britain and abroad. As well as the goods businessmen and woman had to be able to travel to sell their goods.



Between 1750 and 1900 many types of transport were used on the roads: packhorse trains, wide wheeled wagons and mail coaches. Soon many problems grew: road traffic grew rapidly. there were pot holes to fall into. there was no spring in the wheels of the carriages so it made it an uncomfortable ride. the roads weren’t smooth and wheels got caught on rocks. when the soil got wet it went into mud and it was very hard to get the wheels through. the roads were getting damaged. footmen sometimes had to walk in front with an axe to clear the way of bushes and trees. journeys in wagons took twice as long in the winter than in the summer. the fastest coach took six and a half days from London to Newcastle.
There was danger of Highway men (people who mugged carriages for goods). Soon the roads were improved when business people and local people joined together to form turnpike trusts and parliament gave them control over a section of road. The people set up gates and toll houses and charged people to use the roads. The money that they raised was used to improve the roads or even build new ones. The number of turnpike trusts grew quickly and soon they controlled 22,000 miles out of 105,000 miles of important roads. Some trusts employed surveyors who developed ways of building stronger roads that stood up better to heavy traffic. One of these surveyors was John McAdam, who worked for many turnpike trusts. He realised that roads needed strong foundations and good drainage. He provided this by adding a ditch on each side of the road and