The rebuilding of the road network
The majority of goods carried across England were transported on the backs of pack horses. This only changed when the canals arrived in the 1700s. A pack horse is much safer on an uneven track than a cart. Caravans of pack-horses would pick the most direct routes across country, especially through the uplands of Lancashire and Yorkshire. How many pubs can you count called the Pack Horse? They're a legacy of the pre-canal transport system.
Turnpike roads were created by local business consortia, or 'Turnpike Trusts', from the early 1700s onwards. The first ones in our region radiated out from Liverpool to Wigan, then northwards to Preston, in the 1720s. As you can see, the Wigan-Walton turnpike follows the line of an earlier Roman road. Both the Romans and the turnpikers were possibly utilising the same good bit of land, for similar traffic needs. |
Two different turnpike trusts took and and revamped the section of the A6 through Horwich and Blackrod, and the Chorley road. The Manchester and Duxbury Trust operated turnpikes and took tolls on what was to become the A6, and the Chorley and Nightingale Trust upgraded both the Chorley Roads by 1820