Changes to Transport in 1750

In this essay, I will be explaining how transport changes how they helped British People during the Industrial Revolution. I will be writing about three types of transport: Roads, Canals and Railways.

At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, in 1750, it was very difficult to travel on roads as there were a lot of holes that were full of water, which meant there was no drainage. This waster filled up all the ruts. All of the rough roads made the carriages break down.

Plus, they were not able to carry large, bulky or fragile goods, or otherwise the roads will break!

This image shows the development of roads during the Industrial Revolution. However, after 1750, there WERE some improvements. Like, turnpike trusts were set up. Turnpike trusts were toll roads where people had to pay money to use them. Businessmen/women needed flat and hard roads to allow bigger carriages make use of them safely. These toll roads allowed this to occur.

It was opened in 1761 by its inventor. Factory owners needed to get raw materials like cotton and iron to their factories. Canals to a long time to build, for example, the first canal took two years to build. This is one of the Bridgewater Canal’s.

Some advantages were that animals were allowed to travel on canals. They were deep enough to carry forty tonnes of weight and they did not cause any congestion on rivers. All of the canals were sold AND bought as there was a huge success in England to travel and transport goods to different countries. Also, they were able to carry large, bulky and fragile goods.

Some disadvantages were that canals were breaking down due to heavy instrumental goods which sank it. They could freeze up in the winter and dry out in the summer if they were not topped up with water daily. Foods rotted quickly as refrigerated units were still to be invented. They were to slow and couldn’t carry daily newspapers as they were delivered two-three days after the newspaper’s date. Also, factory owners had to wait a long period of time for the goods to be transported to them.

When the invention of railways came, the use of canals slowly declined. Some canals closed down as a result of the development of railways. This would be problem as the people who owned Canal’s would be poor. In the Industrial Revolution, steam trains were the best transport. This was because they had a lot of advantages. One of them was that they could also carry large, bulky AND fragile goods. They could deliver fresh goods to factory owners and give out daily newspapers. They were faster than canal’s and they were cheap to use. More jobs were created for people as they needed someone to run the railways.

In conclusion, I think the changes to transport 1750-1900 did benefit British People because each change had an impact to the people in Britain. They each had shorter travelling time over longer distances and they each helped business people get more money and to seek different markets in different areas of Europe. They all carried goods and raw materials and transported them town to town. Some of them even helped the transport goods to different countries in the world aswell.