Roads and travel
Many interesting features can be found, especially in rural areas, which reflect the history of our highways: this section contains avariety of articles which do not always fit easily anywhere else,including:
Toll-houses: because these often stuck out into the road many have been demolished. The Society also records these.
Packhorse roads, such as our newly-restored section between Marsden and Slaithwaite.
Causeys – see the article on Trods: paved tracks, some in unlikely places; for example, if you look over the pedestrian bridge leading from Bridge Street, Holmfirth to Crown Bottom car-park when the river is low you will see a paved stretch of the river-bed – for this was the main way into the village some centuries ago (pictured below).
Bridge chapels: our first toll-houses?
In mediæval times, bridge chapels served an important function as wayside chapels for pilgrims. Mediæval bridges were often the only way of leaving a town …
A toll-house at Lepton
This house, called Bar Cottage, stands on Rowley Lane in Lepton, just east of Huddersfield. It is readily recognisable as a toll-house: it stands further …
Travelling around Huddersfield 1880-1920
The coming of the railways from the 1840s changed the shape of long distance travel; stage coaches and wagons were slow and cumbersome. However, in …
B6265: the road to nowhere
Anyone attending the Society’s Northern Spring Meetings from south of Hebden will probably have travelled on the B6265. It starts outside the church at the …
Street names and road history
Below is a selection of street name signs with a connection to the history of Yorkshire’s road network. Branch Road: usually …
Trods: flagged paths in North-east Yorkshire
A trod, according to the OED, is a dialect word for a trodden way, a footpath, path, or way. Brockett’s Glossary of North Country Words …
The Sedbergh Turnpike Trust and its milestones
The Sedbergh Turnpike Trust, based in the far north-west corner of the old West Riding, was unusual in that rather than having a single road …