Differing Responses to an Industrialising Economy - eTheses ...

eturn journey next day. 303
The route to London taken by the Stourbridge and
Feckenham Forest carriers probably crossed the Arrow at Coughton ford, bypassing
Alcester, (as shown on Ogilby’s 1675 map of the principal roads in the kingdom). 304
The
commercial necessity of maintaining this road was reflected in orders of Sambourne
manor court. 305
Perhaps this route had no regular passenger coaches as yet, for, when a
guest of the Throckmortons wished to return to London, she travelled south to Evesham
to join the Worcester coach to the capital. 306
Quarter sessions documents abound with problems relating to minor roads, which
hindered decent folk from going about their business visiting market or church. 307
In
Tardebigge persuading parishioners to undertake their statutory work on the parish roads
was a long-standing problem despite the provision of ale to encourage participation. 308
From the first quarter of the eighteenth century the zone’s western parishes could
access the improved turnpike roads from Worcester to Birmingham. 309
For their main
link to Birmingham the eastern parishes still had to make do with Icknield Street, which
in places was a narrow, uneven holloway, difficult for carts and wagons, so pack-horses
were still utilised for much of the carrying. 310
303 Gwilliam’s manuscript ‘Coach travel and turnpike roads in Worcestershire’, (WoRO, ref.
388.110942449), p. 226, quoting De Laune in 1681.
304 The London to Bridgnorth road (via Buckingham) in J. Ogilby, Britannia, (London, Ogilby, 1675).
305 For example, SCLA, DR5/2504f, Sambourne manor court papers, (1689), which orders marl pits next to
the road to be fenced and the bridge between the house of William Harrison and William Churchley to be
repaired. Other paths and roads in the needle district were also reported to be in poor repair in manor court
and quarter sessions at this time.
306 WaRO, CR1998/LCB/26, Throckmorton MSS.
307 For example, WoRO, QS234/49, Easter 1715, where John Hill was presented ‘for nuisancing the road in
the town and the church road’ in Feckenham.
308 WoRO, QS93/67, July 1623, highlights the lack of help on highway maintenance. WoRO, QS321/29,
Epiphany 1739/40, shows that of the Bentley highway supervisor’s account totalled £4-1-4, of which 30s
was for ale, but the court only allowed him £2 in total.
309 Lloyd, A History of Worcestershire, p. 85. Stretches via Droitwich and Bromsgrove were turnpiked
between 1710 and 1725.
310 Upton, History of Birmingham, p. 85, and Richardson, The Book of Redditch, p. 75. VCH
Warwickshire, iii, p. 175, states that the Act for turnpiking the alternative route from Spernall Ash and
Studley to Birmingham remained ineffective until a later period.
312