Shropshire Routes to Roots

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Routes | Transport and communication | From trackways to motorways

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From trackways to motorways

1. Introduction

How have Shropshire's roads been influenced by the landscape?

Introduction

From the time the first cave dweller walked out to hunt, humans have been making a mark on the landscape as they moved. As transport developed from feet to horse-drawn wheels to motor driven cars, so roads have improved to cope with increasing demand. This theme looks at the history of Shropshire's roads, from their earliest beginnings as trackways through to modern motorways.

But we start by looking not at how new roads have affected the landscape, but how the landscape has influenced where we build roads.

The landscape

The Stretton Gap [Opens in new window: image size 33kb]

The Stretton Gap
Larger image, in a new window [33kb]
[Shropshire Archive reference:PH/C/19/1]

The history of Shropshire's roads has been heavily influenced by topographical features. Most routeways in antiquity followed the ridges and longitudinal valleys. This was particularly the case in the south of the county, where the Stretton fault was the defining factor, running from Ironbridge to Craven Arms with the Long Mynd on it's western side. As a consequence early routes tend to run northeast to southwest. The image taken from near the Long Mynd Hotel shows the Stretton gap looking out towards Caer Caradoc and the Lawley.

As man began to become more settled a more comprehensive network of trackways was established, linking settlement to settlement. Many of these can still be traced as rights of way, hollow ways, bridlepaths and green lanes. This green lane is today a quiet country walk which runs from Meole Brace village to the Rea Brook near Shrewsbury.

The Green Lane at Meole Brace [Opens in new window: image size 66kb]

Green lane running from Meole Brace to Rea Brook
Larger image, in a new window [66kb]
[Reproduced with kind permission of Secret Shropshire]

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Page created January 2004 and last updated 1 August 2007

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