PMP2000 > Places > Charnwood History

TRANSPORT

ROADS:
Roads have always been the most important methods of communication in Charnwood, with a history stretching back to prehistoric trackways.

PREHISTORIC TO IRON AGE:
There are several ancient trackways in CHARNWOOD. Although famous as a Roman Road, the FOSSE WAY, which runs North-South through the east of the Borough almost certainly follows the line of a pre-historic trackway.

THE SALTWAY was an ancient route by which salt was brought from the Norfolk coast into the Midlands. It came into Charnwood at SIX HILLS. From there, it ran down what is now PAWDY LANE and into BARROW ON SOAR. Travellers using the SALTWAY may have been among the original inhabitants of BARROW. In BARROW it crossed the SOAR and continued into QUORN. It entered Quorn along what is now STATION ROAD, crossed the Leicester to Loughborough Road at QUORN CROSS and continued along the present day MEETING STREET. It's strategic position, lying on the route of both the SALTWAY and the main Leicester to Loughborough Road could have been on reason for QUORN's growth and prosperity. From QUORN, it probably continued as far as Beacon Hill, where there is evidence of both BRONZE AGE and IRON AGE occupation

. It is also though that an ancient track, THE RIDGEMERE, may have run along the ridge connecting QUENIBOROUGH with SYSTON, TILTON and BARKBY.

ROMAN:
The original line of the FOSSE WAY almost certainly followed that of a pre-historic trackway. The Roman FOSSE WAY itself ran from Exeter to Lincoln and was constructed in about AD46-48 as a stage in the Claudian conquest of Britain. The road is mentioned in a Saxon Charter of 956 and became a major feature of the Roman occupation. There are several differing opinions as to the true significance of the FOSSE WAY. Some think it simply an early line of communication while others regard it as a frontier feature or the axis of a wide defensive area. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Certainly it was and, as the A46, remains an important line of movement.

It forms the extreme north east boundary of the Borough, crossing fully into CHARNWOOD at SIX HILLS. It runs south-south-west, forming the present Parish Boundaries of RATCLIFFE, COSSINGTON, THRUSSINGTON, SEAGRAVE, BURTON ON THE WOLDS and WYMESWOLD and leaves the Borough in THURMASTON. One of the most important indications of Roman settlement was discovered in THURMASTON in 1791 when a ROMAN milestone dating from AD120 or 121 was found by the FOSSE WAY. This was erected to commemorate the visit to Leicester of the Emperor Hadrian in AD120 and and is now housed in the JEWRY WALL MUSEUM in LEICESTER.

The inscription (translated) reads:

"TO THE EMPEROR CAESAR TRAJAN HADRIAN, SON OF THE ILLUSTRIOUS TRAJAN, CONQUEROR OF PARTHIA AND GRANDSON OF THE DIVINE NERVA, THE AUGUST HIGH-PRIEST ENDOWED WITH THE POWERS OF TRIBUNE FOUR YEARS AND IN HIS THIRD YEAR OF CONSULSHIP. FROM RATAE TO THE CORITANI, TWO MILES"

A similar mile stone was found near SIX HILLS in 1854.

The VIA DEVANA, which ran from Leicester to Chester, ran through ANSTEY.

ANGLO SAXON:
The Anglo Saxons were not road makers in any deliberate sense, but their trackways laid the foundations of the road network between villages which is still in use today. It was they who founded the line of the Loughborough to Derby road which was eventually to become the A6. The course of this road was largely determined by the topography of the land although sections of it were straightened out in later periods.

Another reputed Saxon track in CHARNWOOD is the EARL'S DYKE. although no longer traceable for all it's length, it may well have been later used as a boundary between the lands of the Earls of Chester and Leicester. Parts of it can be traced near the junction of Snell's Nook Lane and Ashby Road, running as a hollow way from HOLYWELL HAW, across the line of the old CHARNWOOD FOREST CANAL, through Longcliffe woods and off to GREEN HILL, where all trace is lost.

This period also saw the rise in importance of the route which was later to become the A6. This was one of the most important roads connecting the North to London, ensuring that CHARNWOOD was on one of the main traffic routes in the country. It is located on a series of river terraces to the west of the Soar and became important as a military road when LEICESTER was one of the FIVE BOROUGHS of the DANELAW in the 10th century.

THE MIDDLE AGES:
Many of the Borough's bridges were built in this period but few original examples survive. Two still exist in ANSTEY and REARSBY but there were others at COTES, BARROW, MONTSORREL/SILEBY and COSSINGTON.

Troops marching to or from battles would be seen on the LOUGHBOROUGH to LEICESTER road throughout the medieval period, especially during the Barons wars of the 13th century. In 1485, tradition maintains that the forces of RICHARD III passed along this road on their way to fight the forces of the future HENRY VII.

It was in the medieval period that, with the exception of the SOAR VALLEY crossing at COTES, movement from east to west was essentially limited to local traffic, while the north south route along the Soar (now the A6) became more and more important.

THE SIXTEENTH TO EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES:
During the 1640s, the road which was later to become the A6 was much used by the armies of both sides in the Civil War. CHARLES I himself is said to have travelled this road on his way to subdue Leicester, as did CROMWELL on his journey to Preston.

From 1555, roads had been maintained by the Highway Surveyors, paid for by parish rates. As traffic increased, this became inadequate and was replaced by the turnpike road system. The first such turnpike road in Charnwood was set up in 1726 on the road from Loughborough to Harborough via Leicester (later the A6) but little improvement was actually made until the Act ws renewed in 1746. Tolls had to paid in order to use the roads and the money raised was used for their upkeep. The first two toll houses on the Loughborough section of this road were in Belgrave, just outside the Borough, and at Quorn. The Quorn house moved to Woodthorpe Lane, Loughborough in 1800. The earliest turnpike roads were surfaced with gravel and stone. By the end of the eighteenth century, granite chippings from Mountsorrel quarry were used and the section through Mountsorrel and Quorn were paved with granite.

The road between COTES and Nottingham (now the A60) was turnpiked in 1737.

The first express stagecoach route in the country started on this same road in 1760, taking travellers from London to Nottingham (via LOUGHBOROUGH) in just two days. The eighteenth century was the heyday of coach travel, with 32 coaches a day passing along this route. This led to a great increase in trade in the villages on the road, including the establishment of many Coaching Inns for travellers.

In 1758, SIR JOHN DANVERS requested the Trustees of the LOUGHBOROUGH TURNPIKE to lay a granite road 18 feet wide through MOUNTSORREL. By 1790, this had also been done around Leicester.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
In 1822, the LEICESTER-DERBY road was surfaced with tarmac and in 1831, granite chippings were used.

E COX started a horse drawn coach service between Leicester and LOUGHBOROUGH in 1875, a journey which could now be done in under two hours. However, there were allegations of cruelty to horses being used to keep speeds up. Years later, COX came to fame after he was the first man in the country to successfully prosecute a motorist who failed to stop when requested to by a horseman. He was awarded £10 in damages.

The increased popularity of the railways led to the end of the Turnpike system in 1878, when local councils became responsible for the upkeep of roads in their areas. LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL was set up in 1889 and roads now become the responsibility of the County Surveyor. Roads remain the responsibility of County Councils.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY:
In the 1960s, CHARNWOOD had a completely new addition to it's road network in the shape of the M1 motorway, the Lutterworth to Nottingham section of which was opened in 1965. However, this was not original route for the motorway; that was fiercely contested as it would have run through the heart of CHARNWOOD FOREST. The actual line passes through only a short section of the west of the Borough but has brought tremendous changes to the whole area. It has meant a huge growth in the distributive industries and the building of many warehouses on the industrial estates close to the route. Access was further improved with the opening of the M/A42 and Junction 23A in 1991. The motorway reaches a height of 213 at Copt Oak, just west of the Borough boundaries.

By ironic coincidence, Junction 23, the main LOUGHBOROUGH / SHEPSHED turn-off, coincides almost exactly with the former intersection of the disused CHARNWOOD FOREST RAILWAY and the ill-fated CHARNWOOD FOREST CANAL.

The route of the motorway runs through the former GARENDON estate, cutting off the western edge of HIND LEYS (now part of SHEPSHED) from the main estate. Interestingly, the estate itself is still connected to the SHEPSHED side of the M1 via a private road which crosses beneath the motorway. The building of this bridge was one of the conditions laid down by the DE LISLE family before agreeing to sell their land to the motorway builders. And motorists passing the GARENDON ESTATE are much closer to history than they may imagine. During the Second World War, GARENDON HALL and had been used as a billet for soldiers. By the time the war ended, the constant wear and tear of housing thousands of troops meant that the house was no longer habitable. When the DE LISLE family sold land in the west of the estate for the building of the M1 motorway in 1964, they saw the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. In return for the motorway contractors agreeing to demolish the shell of the hall for nothing, they were given permission to use the rubble as hardcore for the foundations of the new motorway! The contractors agreed and the 3,500 tons of Palladian Mansion are now regularly driven over by motorists on one of the busiest roads in Europe!

QUORN/MOUNTSORREL BY-PASS:
Ironically, the road which over the centuries had brought MOUNTSORREL and QUORN much of their prestige and wealth - the A6 - had by the twentieth century become overcrowded and dangerous. Pressure to build a bypass of the two villages dates back as far as 1920 and in 1938, the first Government orders were issued to protect the possible line of a bypass.

Progress, however, was very slow and conditions on the A6 worsened with each passing year. Local discontent was so high that in October 1976, a campaign was launched under the name of THE MOUNTSORREL BYPASS ACTION GROUP. Founder and leading campaigner of this group was Parish Councillor RH WOODWARD. The group lost no time in publicising their cause and quickly gained the support of the then MP, MICHAEL LATHAM.

1977 saw the formation of the joint PARISH COUNCILS BY PASS COMMITTEE, which included representatives of QUORN and BARROW as well as MOUNTSORREL. After much research and investigation, the Committee's first report was sent to the County Council and the DEpartment of Transport in February of 1978. The Council met with the ACTION COMMITTEE but there was no let up in the campaign. Copies of a petition signed by 95% of the population of MOUNTSORREL was sent to the County Council and to the Government Departments responsible for decision making on road transport.

Things progressed further in 1981 when KENNETH CLARKE, the then Under Secretary of Transport met with the Action Committee in MOUNTSORREL to hear their case for a bypass. THis meeting was pivotal as in December of the same year the Government agreed to include a bypass in it's programme of road building. This was a great victory both for the Committee and the people of the affected villages.

Two possible routes were suggested and in 1984, after much consultation, 68% of those who responded voted in favour of the Eastern (Blue) Route which followed the line of the Soar Valley. This decision, however was not popular in BARROW and several other routes were suggested to try to please everyone. However in 1988, after a long enquiry, the Inspectors of the Department of Transport opted for the Blue Route and construction of the long awaited bypass began in March 1990.

The project was completed, ahead of schedule, at a cost of £37 million and the QUORN - MOUNTSORREL BYPASS was opened to traffic on October 28th 1991. A few days before the opening, clergy from both villages conducted a thanksgiving service on the bypass itself.