Road Transport in Cumbria in the Nineteenth Century

Road Transport in Cumbria in the Nineteenth Century (1975) is a detailed study of transportation by road in one region of Britain. By the middle decades of the nineteenth century, roads are being superseded by railways as the main form of land transportation, but until then roads had carried the main proportion of the nation’s passenger traffic as well as freight. Their importance in the early years of industrialisation and rapid urban and population growth are examined, as is way in which road transport interests reacted to the challenge posed by a faster, cheaper and more efficient form of transportation. In addition, as ‘through’ traffic on the roads decreased as the railways expanded, short distance traffic increased considerably.