Shropshire Transport History

The earliest remnants of man in Shropshire have been dated to the Neolithic period, around 4000 BC. Many of the stone tools recovered from their sites have been found to originate in the Lake District and in Leicestershire. At this time people were changing the way of life from being hunter-gatherers to farming. Just as tools and materials were being imported from distant places it is likely that the people of Shropshire were exporting their goods and produce.

Where possible routes developed across high ground, avoiding the wooded and boggy valleys. This type of road is known as a ridge way.

A number of routes still survive from this period relatively untouched by modern man. Amongst them are the Kerry Ridgeway and the Portway. The former runs across the top of the hills from the village of Kerry (Ceri) to Bishop's Castle and the Portway runs along the top of the Long Mynd. Both have seen thousands of years of use by Neolithic traders and cattle drovers. They are still in use as a foot and bridle ways.

The major Roman road in the county was Watling Street (now the the A5 and the B5061) which provided the main route to London (Londinium) from the major settlement at Wroxeter (Viroconium). They built a bridge across the River Severn at Wroxeter which carried the road to Leintwardine (Bravonium) in Herefordshire. Parts of this road are still in use as the A49 between Church Stretton and Craven Arms and as minor roads.

Other roads from Wroxeter (Viroconium) went north to Whitchurch (Mediolanum) and west into Wales. A further major road headed south-eastwards from Whitchurch to Water Eaton (Pennocrucium) in Staffordshire. The present A41 uses the same alignment for some miles near Tern Hill.

As with the rest of the country there were no significant transport improvements in Shropshire for the next thirteen hundred years or so. A few short distance horse drawn railways were laid down for private use, the first was from pits around Broseley to the Calcutts on the River Severn where the coal was transhipped into barges for transport to more distant places.

The Severn was the main transport for hundreds, possibly thousands, of years until superceded by the railways.

The first land transport improvement available for all to use was a stretch of Watling Street eastwards from Wellington which was improved from a muddy quagmire by a turnpike trust in the 1720s.