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This is the area
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Transport in
the 1800s and early 1900
At the beginning
of the 19th century, England's transport
system was in a bit of a state. If you
wanted to get around you'd walk, ride (if
you had a horse) or drove (if you owned a
cart and some animal to pull it).
But as the industrial revolution took hold,
people moved about more - going where the
work was. And the transport system improved.
New roads were built, often by subscription
- so then you had toll keepers collecting
the fees for travelling along the new roads.
Regular stage coaches began to run between
the major cities. It would have been fairly
uncomfortable riding in the things, and
slow, too, as horses needed to be changed
frequently. So posting houses and inns
sprang up along the large roads to
accommodate travellers and horses.
Those well off often travelled in their own
coach or open curricle. A curricle was a
much more 'racy' conveyance than a closed
coach and - as now - young gentlemen loved
to race their curricles along the main
roads. Never mind the rest of the traffic.
Canals were built to transport goods between
cities and were once as important as
motorways are now.
And then, towards the middle of the 19th
century, the railways arrived. And soon
caught people's imagination. A huge rail
network was constructed in the late 1800 and
early 1900s - much of which is still around
today to be admired.
People living over 100 years ago in 1900
were seeing the rapid development of modern
transport. Around 1900, many inventions were
being developed that were making transport
faster, more efficient and more comfortable
than the existing forms of transport like
the horse and cart.
As cities grew,
the need for public transport increased.
During the 1800s, trams were developed as a
means of transporting people. They were a
faster and cheaper option than using a
horse-drawn bus. The first trams to use
electric power from overhead cables appeared
in America and Germany in the 1880s.
The first
internal combustion engine-powered vehicle
was designed by the German engineer, Karl
Benz in 1885. These engines used petrol
instead of steam and were more compact and
powerful than the steam engines. The
internal combustion engine is still used
today.
By 1910, the
motor car and the motor truck were a common
sight in almost every city in the Western
world. The horse and buggy were slowly being
replaced.
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PLEASE NOTE
Some of
the above wording has been
extracted, with permission, from
Essentially
England
Click on to
Essentially England to go to their informative
website
A big thank you to
Sue Marchant
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