Herefordshire 1919-1939 Bennett, R.W.G
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The management of road traffic in a rural county: Herefordshire 1919-1939 Bennett, R.W.G. Submitted version deposited in CURVE March 2011 Original citation: Bennett, R.W.G. (2008) The management of road traffic in a rural county: Herefordshire 1919-1939. Unpublished Masters Thesis. Coventry: Coventry University Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. A number of images, maps and appendices have been removed for copyright reasons. The unabridged version of the thesis can be viewed at the Lanchester Library, Coventry University. CURVE is the Institutional Repository for Coventry University http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open The Management of Road Traffic in a Rural County: Herefordshire 1919–1939 Robert Bennett A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the University’s requirements for the Degree of Master of Philosophy September 2008 Coventry University ABSTRACT The period between the two World Wars, 1919 to 1939, saw a major expansion in the use of motor vehicles on the roads of Britain and a consequent increase in road accidents and fatalities. Studies of road transport in this period have concentrated largely on the expanding urban areas. Little detailed work has been completed in rural areas. This study goes some way to fill this gap in our knowledge. It will examine the rural county of Herefordshire where the use of motor vehicles did increase greatly, although not to the extent of the country as a whole. This thesis will address the management of the safety of road traffic which was exercised by the County Council in the inter war years. The heart of the study is the evaluation of the size of the problem and the efforts of the County Surveyor to improve the safety of the county road network. Increasing use of the road network was encouraged by the decline in use of the rail network. The A40 trunk road in the south of the county saw traffic increases of approximately one and a half times over the two decades. However the secondary roads such as the B4214 north of Bromyard saw much greater increase. Cars increased by six and three quarter times whilst lorries by the even larger margin of nine times over the two decades. The improvements carried out to the county road network consisted of road widening, rather than major road realignments. The County Council members were strongly resistant to the loss of agricultural land. However significant new improvements to the road surface were effected throughout the county albeit in short lengths. Four different types of road surface were tried. In fact the county was at the forefront of road surface development in this period. The County Surveyor’s preferred choice was a bitumen/stone mix laid cold which became the accepted solution for the country as a whole in the 1930s. The attitude adopted by the police force, essentially reactive, in the management of road safety will be examined. Whilst traffic volumes increased in the inter-war years there was no corresponding increase in the 1930s in the recorded number of fatal road accidents. The thesis will conclude with an assessment of the degree of public satisfaction with the efforts of the County Surveyor and the Chief Constable in maintaining a safe county road network in the inter-war years. The public, through the medium of the press and the County Council minutes, indicated that they considered that the efforts of the Surveyor and Chief Constable were acceptable. Acknowledgements This project has benefited from the enthusiastic encouragement of initially Dr Dilwyn Porter my first Director of Studies and latterly Dr John Peters my current Director. Dr Sean O’Connell has also provided me with useful advice. The staff of the Hereford Record Office and the personnel of both Hereford City Library and the Leominster Library have all expressed an interest in my project and greatly assisted. James Elliot-Williams of Malvern has kindly typed the evolving editions of the thesis. Finally I would like to thank my wife for her support in the long gestation period of this study. Contents List of Tables and Graphs ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 – The local scene in Herefordshire 14 Chapter 2 – The Growth of Road Transport 32 Chapter 3 – The Construction of Safer Roads 48 Chapter 4 – Policing the Roads and Road Safety 75 Conclusion – Self Management? 114 Appendices 120 Bibliography 130 i List of Figures and Tables I-1 The Romance of the Great Outdoors 3 I-2 The Austin Seven ‘Think it out’ (1930) 3 I-3 Herefordshire and The West Midlands in relation to England and Wales (scale 1:2,000,000) 4 I-4 Speed the Killer (1937) 10 I-5 Road Safety Campaigns 11 I-6 Pedestrian Safe Streets 11 1.1 Physiographic regions and settlement agglomeration and dispersal. Herefordshire 1931 15 1.2 Two early adaptations of ex-WD Ford T vehicles 22 1.3 A works outing at the Elan Valley Reservoir in 1921 23 1.4 An early advertisement in the Hereford Times. 24 1.5 Omnibus Operators in Herefordshire 1919-1939 25 2.1 Road traffic census in Herefordshire – August 1938 33 2.2 Traffic counts A40 (east of Ross) for 1928 and 1935 34 2.3 Traffic counts B4214 (north of Bromyard) for 1923 and 1939 36 2.4 Traffic counts at six locations in the area of Hereford City for 1925 and 1935 38 2.5 Traffic counts at St Martin’s War Memorial – 1925 and 1935 39 2.6 Traffic counts at White Cross – 1925 and 1935 39 2.7 Traffic counts A44 at Cholstrey – 1928 and 1935 40 2.8 Traffic counts A465 at Burley Gate Schools – 1928 and 1935 41 ii 2.9 Traffic census totals on Class 1 Roads by division 1935 42 2.10 Motor vehicle licences 1920, 1930 and 1938 42 2.11 New vehicles licensed 1920, 1930 and 1938 43 2.12 Location of licensed motor vehicles 1920 44 2.13 Driving and first time vehicle licences 1934 – 36 44 2.14 Vehicle sales Fryer’s Garage 1927 – 1939 45 3.1 Variation in class and lengths of Roads in the County 1923 52 3.2 Variations in road construction in the County 1923 52 3.3 Road Construction A40 (Lea) 56 3.4 Road Construction A49 Broadwood Bridge 1931 56 3.5 Itemised Highway Department Quarterly Costs for 10/4/20 60 3.6 Roads Quarterly Income from county budget 1921 – 22 60 3.7 Gross Expenditure for highway departments in Herefordshire and neighbouring counties for 1923/24 and 1929/30 61 3.8 Gross Expenditure and receipts for the years 1935/36 to 1937/38 62 3.9 The average cost per mile for each class of directly maintained county road 1935/36 10 1937/38 62 3.10 Works completed by the County Highways Department 1920 – 27 65 4.1 Cases brought to County Courts 1920 – 1938 86 4.2 Petty sessions at Dore 1919 – 1938 88 4.3 National Traffic offences 88 4.4 Petty sessions at Bredwardine 1929 – 1939 89 4.5 Petty sessions at Hereford City 1922 – 26 and 1933 – 36 91 iii 4.6 Traffic Accidents Herefordshire 1928 – 1938 92 4.7 Traffic Accidents Herefordshire 1937 92 4.8 Police Force statistics for 1928 100 4.9 Herefordshire Police Force statistics for 1935 101 iv INTRODUCTION The transport studies of the period 1919 to 1939 in British history have largely concentrated upon the national scene and urban areas where the increase in the use of motor vehicles were greatest and their effects most noticeable. Little detailed work has been completed on rural areas in this period. This study goes some way to fill this gap in our knowledge. It will investigate the management of road traffic from the point of view of safety, in the rural county of Herefordshire, to ascertain principally through the medium of the committee reports of the County Surveyor and Chief Constable to what extent the county followed national trends. To assess the extent of the new problem the County Surveyor ascertained the level of use, the type and weight of the vehicles using the county road and centred his efforts on improving the road widths and alignment together with strengthening the road surface. Analysis of this data provides a clear picture of changing road use in the county. Attention then moves to investigate the occurrence of road accidents in the county to ascertain the effectiveness of the County Council’s efforts to provide a safe road network. Initially the study examines the social changes which occurred in the inter- war years and the effect these had on the increased use of motor vehicles in the county. Pollard has provided an analysis of the changes in economic and consequent social aspirations of the public in the inter-war years in Great Britain. He notes that there was a dual reaction to events: on the one hand there were greatly improved amenities, a widening of horizons which had been available hitherto to only a small minority. On the other hand there existed prolonged unemployment combined with social stagnation and the personal hopelessness associated with it. 1 In Herefordshire motorised road transport, both the motor car and the omnibus, was adopted with enthusiasm.