[109] The town of Brighton is an instance of this. Ordinary red bricks used to be laid as a footpath, no doubt to give a rural appearance for the eye of the jaded Londoner, but these are giving place to more modern materials.
CHAPTER XII.
KERBING AND CHANNELLING, ETC.
For all footpaths both urban and sub-urban a kerb of some description is necessary to be fixed on the outside of the footpath, for the following reasons:
(1.) It acts as a sill against which the material of which the footpath is paved may butt.
(2.) It retains both the foundation and surface of the footpath.
(3.) Whether there is a paved channel gutter or not, a kerb is necessary in order to finish the haunches of the roadway.
(4.) The appearance of a footpath without kerbing is very unsightly.
(5.) Unless a footpath is raised above the roadway it is liable to be flooded.
Many materials are used for kerb, of which granite being the best is generally used in streets where there is much traffic, as the kerb is often subjected to severe blows from the passing vehicular traffic as well as a grinding action from the wheels of waggons and other heavy vehicles, especially on gradients where “hugging” the kerb acts as a drag or break. In such cases granite, although the most expensive in the first case, is certainly the most economical, and no other material should ever be used.