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3 - Portrait tablets
2 - PC/landscape tablets
4 - L/scape smartphone
5 - Portrait smartphone
Section 3:
The Roads
The world of long-distance coach travel
The first roads
The Celts were trading across Europe and although nothing remains of their roads, they must have followed fixed routes
The Romans built roads, famously straight. These are the first roads that we in England are familiar with
After the Romans left, our roads fell into disrepair. Find out what happened
After the dissolution of the monasteries, even the church’s work ended
During the Stuart period the first beginnings of improvement appeared
The first proposal to improve Britain’s roads
The first person to take active steps to improve the roads
As pressure for improved transport links grew, this engineer made a real difference
Perhaps the most famous roadmaker, His method is still essentially in use today
Britain’s roads at last allow fast long-distance travel
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Anecdotes written by people who actually travelled on the coaches
The coachmen, the inns, the coach proprietors - they’re all here. Come in and meet them
Britain’s roads were pretty impassable for most of our history. Coach travel was very difficult until they improved
Wheeled transport evolved over many years. Find out how coaches developed
Sources and information about how I came to create this website
Home Page of the Coaching Website
1000BC: In the thousand years before the birth of Jesus, the Celtic peoples traded widely across Europe so they clearly had major long-distance routes of some form, although what they were like is not known. The Romans invaded all of Europe and replaced everything with their own roads and buildings . . . and since the winners write history, we know plenty about Roman roads but little about what was there before the Romans arrived.
Celtic trading routes. The Roman Empire exists but hasn’t yet expanded as far as Britain