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Wooden Roads

chocks2

chocks2

master brummie
It seems that in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, roads in London were made of wooden blocks soaked in turpentine then coated with tar. Apparently this was better for the horses.
These roads must have lasted for somewhere between 40 and 60 years without replacement for when the Blitz hit, the workmen would come along, remove the tar and allow the house holders a free for all for the wood. It seems that it burned well in home fires, cookers and boilers.
Until I read this article this morning, I never knew of the existance of wooden roads and it got me wondering if this system was used in Brum? Does anyone know where any were and are there any still left anywhere?
 
Chocks i don,t know to any Roads but i do know a lot of the old large factories had these type of floors the Demolition men used to give them or sell them in sacks to the public in the 60s. Dek
 
I found this post on another forum site:

"it was not uncommon for road surfaces to be laid with wooden blocks. Part of the reason was for quietness, when much of the traffic was iron tyred carts piulled by horses. It may be that horses with their iron shoes also got a better grip on wood than on a surface made up basically of hard stone. Outside hospitals was a common place for wood block, but in my home town of Burton upon Trent where the town centre saw a great deal of inter-brewery traffic of heavy wooden iron tyred carts there was a lot of wood block paving. Unfortunately the town centre was also liable to flooding from the river Trent. When wood gets wet it swells and so the wooden blocks expanded , bulged upwards and floated off. Heavy flooding always involved a lot of replacement of blocks. it is very possible that the breweries footed the bill for this paving.
Another area noted for wooden block paving was the roads around the Town Hall in Birmingham. Here there is a fairly steep slope on either side down to the front of the Hall. This was probably alright in the days of horse drawn vehicles but with the increase in motor traffic, the blocks tended to soak up oil which dripped from vehicles. After a shower of rain the roads became skating rinks and there were many minor collisions. I had many a near miss myself when I regularly drove around the Hall.

Monty Python's Terry Jones suggests that Celtish roadbuilders designed " Oak planks were laid on birch runners and they were built broad enough for two carts to pass each other" up to 7000 years ago https://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/article714033.ece
 
There was always wooden setts between the tram lines.
I can remember going with my dad along Lichfield Rd.to dig a few up for the fire,we used to use the babbys pram for transport,we took him out first though.:rolleyes:
 
I took a trip to Ironbridge last year and I remember going over a wooden road to access one of the museums (theres 10), But I cant remember which one it was. if it comes back to me i will let you know.
 
Chocks,
The last time I looked there were a few laid between a short lengh of tram track,near the Hare and Hounds pub, at the Rednal terminus.
 
Hay Mills Bridge over the River Cole was paved with these tarred wooden blocks and were forced up when the river was in flood they were still there post WW2. Len.
 
Were there rubber blocks forming the road in the Minories where the road went through the middle of Lewis's ?
 
im sure there was a pic of these rubber bricks posted...cant recall what thread it was on though...

lyn
 
yes Lyn i remember this not long ago was it something like the flat down by Ickneild St not my side of town. Dek
 
I remember the wooden blocks in between the tram lines in some places in Brum. I particularly remember the grain of the wood and I can remember when they were taking some of them up in the l950's. Here's a snippet from a road making site which makes refernce to the wooden blocks and them burning after a bombing in New Street.

At various times between 1832 and about 1860 experiments were made using wooden blocks for the surfacing of roads in London and other towns. The idea came from Russia where blocks were laid with some success at St. Petersburg. From a modeling point of view most of the British experiments had a top coating of tar from the gas works added, so use either 2mm or 4 mm scale embossed brick card and paint it dark grey. Following a discussion on the uk.rec.models.rail newsgroup I understand that there are in fact several examples of wood block paved areas still in existence in various parts of the country. The blocks are about 6" square laid end-grain up, apparently under traffic the end grain seals itself so it doesn't soak in the rain.
Again Ken Parkes was able to advise . . A lot of the setts in Birmingham were wooden cubes until the 1950s. Quite treacherous in wet weather. Remember seeing them still smouldering in New Street after a blitz. I think they were only used in level areas, sloping surfaces were granite, the irregular edges gave better grip I presume.

This site is very interesting regarding road building through the ages. https://www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/roads.htm
 
There were definitely wooden blocks on The Flat in Hockley as everyone raided it when they took the blocks up before it was relaid. They were great on the fire, but the tar did make them spit a bit.
 
Wow! Thanks for all the info guys. Shame no examples are known to remain in Brum.:smile2:
Funny how reading a snippet about the blitz in London can spark a local interest isn't it?

Chocks;)
 
Chocks out of the area but in the North Somerset Museum there are some original wooden blocks :), I seem to think used in the local Railway Station, Mossy might be able to confirm :)
 
Wood has been used for roads for literally thousands of years, until the coming of the Romans. After that, road-building took a tumble until the break-out of more modern transport (stage-coaches) during the 17th & 18th Centuries, when stone was again used for major road-networks. However, in-town roads were often made from wood ... especially when Russia began to export major amounts of cheap timber...probably the source of the timber-roads mentioned above. Britain sent her 'rubbish' to Russia ... most of Moscow was actually built upon piles of London rubbish during the Victorian period! The returning barges carried Russian timber back to Britain. Now we send our waste to China, and in return we get stuff that breaks the following day....God help us if they ever learn 'quality control' ....or is it: God-help us if they don't!
 
Wooden roads of a different form have been around for a long time. Using logs and planks they were popular with the military. Called courdorey (not certain of the spelling ) roads they were simple to lay and would carry the weight of anything the army had. Any area that had trees you would likely find one of these roads.
Modern traffic does not appear kind to roads made from sets of wood, brick or stone. I have seen town centres laid with these and within 12 months you have potholes, sunken surfaces and edges you can trip over. Worcester and Hereford centres are laid with sets and are very wheelchair unfriendly. Herefords new pedestrian surface is plagued by people falling over a new low kerbs. We produce a lot of cider here but not everyone drinks enough to fall over .
The factory I once worked in had vast areas of wooden sets. After one very wet weekend we arrived to find rainwater had got in after part of the roof had blown off. The surface was undulated and the whole lot had to be removed.It all went to landfill in case it was toxic.
 
This may be a little off thread but in the Jewelery Quarter the wooden floors are cleaned every so often with a Sander that collects all the muck that has accumulated it is then syphoned and filtered and all gold Swarf -dust etc is collected and resmelted. Dek
 
I was always thinking that picture was Station Street Izzy. Where is Queens Drive...don't seem to be able to remember just at the moment.

Wooden roads were used a lot during the American Civil War...in the south I think by the Union forces in their drive against the Confederates. Probably young timber of small diameter, cut to length and laid crosswise. This would cause a ripple effect when driving a cart over them. Probably only used in low soggiy areas which would become a quagmire quickly if not lined.
 
Thank's for the pic's Dave.:)

I'm obviously aware of the use of timber in road building throughout history but it's use in towns in the form I mentioned is a new one to me. I just amazed at it's longevity.
If you look back the success of the old timber walkways and roads was not so great. Even the corduroy (I'm not sure of the spelling either) paths used by the army were not that good. There are many cases of guns and wagons being abandoned because the timber rotted or broke under weight.:shocked:
 
chocks - the current state of the roads near where I live wouldn't be much better to day! I encountered one minor road recently, that had pot-holes deep enough to lie in, and one's nose wouldn't have stuck-up above the road level! I just wished I'd had a camera to hand; I've never seen the like! Just one hard winter and it was ruined; it looked as if the road hadn't been maintained for years; but it was perfect the year before.
 
Removing Ack Ack Gun barrels to be taken for re furbishment at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Nottingham, the Lorries had cranes fitted but they were to big to go through the gate of the Gun compound so we laid old railway sleepers down to make a "road" & covered them in grease and pulled the Gun barrels along our "road" 4 of them, some hundreds of yards to the lorries & when they returned it was vice versa, this was at New Brighton, Merseyside circa 1949. Len.
 
Perhaps we should have kept the wooden roads JohnO

Len, You prove the point. Replace the roads with railway sleepers.
Mind you, I think the Napolionic soldier would have sruggled to carry a sleeper in his pack. It was probably heavier than the 12lb field gun.:D
 
When i left Aston,in the early 70,s,Avenue Road,from the Aston Rd North end,still had wooden blocks,for quite a way down,though not all the way down as far as Chester St.
I remember them from going to school at St mary,s,and playing darts for The Avenue,and also years of walking up and down Aston Road.
I always thought they were unusual,as i never saw anything like it anywhere else,always stuck in my head.
The next time i saw anything like them was about 17 years ago,when i worked in demolition for a while,at the Abbey Park bus depot in Leicester,thousands upon thousands were taken away by the lorry load,for days on end there were that many.
 
I've posted this somewhere before about wooden cobbles.

I can remember cycling up the hill at the old Bull Ring and the whole climb was paved with wooden cobbles that had been soaked in creosote and covered in tar. The years of rain and traffic had worn away most of the tar and the wood. The whole climb was laced with tiny Grand Canyons that when it rained filled with water. I would often go out of my way to ride up this wooden cobbled hill as it was a great challenge for my spindly legs and I always imagined that I was climbing some great Tour de France col in the Alps!:)
 
Rupert said:
I was always thinking that picture was Station Street Izzy. Where is Queens Drive...don't seem to be able to remember just at the moment.

Wooden roads were used a lot during the American Civil War...in the south I think by the Union forces in their drive against the Confederates. Probably young timber of small diameter, cut to length and laid crosswise. This would cause a ripple effect when driving a cart over them. Probably only used in low soggiy areas which would become a quagmire quickly if not lined.
Click to expand...

No it's definitely Queens drive, here's some more 1960's pics
New Street Station
 
I think Time Team did a dig on the Somerset Levels looking for a Stone age walkway across the marshy ground . No blocks just planks and piling.
 
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