Remarks on the Present System of Road Making / With Observations, Deduced from Practice and Experience, With a View to a Revision of the Existing Laws, and the Introduction of Improvement in the Method of Making, Repairing, and Preserving Roads, and Defending the Road Funds from Misapplication. Seventh Edition, Carefully Revised, With an Appendix, and Report from the Select Committee of the House of Commons, June 1823, with Extracts from the Evidence

by John Loudon McAdam

And those plans which you have adopted, have been entirely conformable to the evidence which he has given before this Committee?—Entirely conformable to those principles which my father has stated in his evidence before this Committee.

Can you give the Committee any information with regard to the revenues of the different roads under your management?—The gross revenue of the trusts I have mentioned, of which I am general surveyor, is about 19,550l. per annum.

Please to state to the Committee, the state of repair in which these roads were when they first came under your management?—The roads in general were in a very loose, rough, and heavy state, much overloaded with materials, the watercourses much stopped up, and the roads in general in a very bad state.

What improvements have taken place upon them since your undertaking the care of them?—The Epsom and Ewell roads were put into a perfect state of repair during the last spring and summer; the Reading road has also been put into a perfect state of repair during the last summer; and the Cheshunt turnpike roads have been put into a good state of repair, notwithstanding that the improvements commenced in October, and have been carried on through the whole winter: the improvement is proceeding rapidly in the other districts; but the three roads I have mentioned, are the only trusts that are brought into a perfect state of repair. I venture to speak freely and with great confidence, of the good state of repair of these three trusts; for the reason, that no credit whatever is attached to me, except what may be considered due by the careful attention and zealous execution of my father’s commands. The merits of the improvements are wholly his own.

Can you state to the Committee the expense with which these improvements have been accompanied?—The expense upon the Epsom roads amounted to 1,929l. 8s. 1d. in the year 1818; that is the only trust upon which I am enabled to state the twelvemonth’s expenditure.

In what proportion has the expenditure been divided between the labour of men, women, and children, and the price of cartage and of materials?—I have paid for labour upon the Epsom roads, 1,146l. 1s. 2d.; for materials, 98l. 10s.; for cartage, 227l. 16s.; for tradesmen’s bills, 342l. 0s. 11d.; for land to widen the roads, 115l.; which makes up the expenditure 1,929l. 8s. 1d. I beg here to state, that I did not avail myself of any statute duty upon the Epsom and Ewell roads.

Can you state to the Committee the expenditure upon these roads, in the years preceding your having the charge of them?—I can; in the years 1815, 1816, and, 1817, which are the three preceding years to my having the charge of these roads. In the year 1815, there was paid for labour, 379l. 14s.; for cartage, 1,019l. 14s.; for gravel, 486l. 15s. 5d.; for tradesmen’s bills, 178l. 6s. 3d.; making a total of 2,064l. 9s. 5d. In the year 1816, there was paid for labour 340l. 16s.; for cartage, 1,070l. 7s. 6d.; for gravel, 563l. 1s. 10d.; for tradesmen’s bills, 382l. 4s. 5d. making a total of 2,375l. 19s. 9d. In the year 1817, there was paid for labour, 339l. 16s.; for cartage, 1,103l. 16s. 3d.; for gravel, 551l.; for tradesmen’s bills, 681l. 6s. 1d.; making a total of 2,675l. 18s. 4d.; independent of the statute duty upon the several parishes, which were called forth by the former surveyor.

Do you know the value of that statute duty?—Not having had occasion to call it forth, I am unable precisely to answer the question; but the parishes are wealthy, and the statute labour must form a very considerable amount.

I presume the comparative smallness of the expense which you incurred for materials must have arisen from making use of the old materials upon the road, by lifting them according to the plan which your father has described?—That was the case.

In what state did you find the executive department of these roads when you took charge of them?—I found at Epsom a person as surveyor, who had been an underwriter at Lloyd’s Coffee-house, at a salary, as I am informed, of sixty pounds per annum, and who was permitted to keep the carts and horses, and do the cartage for the trust. At Reading, I found an elderly gentleman as the surveyor, who was also one of the commissioners, at a salary of twenty or thirty pounds per annum. I found at Cheshunt three surveyors, the trust being divided into three districts. One of the surveyors was an infirm old man, another a carpenter, and another a coal-merchant. I found on the Wades-mill trust three surveyors also, and the trust divided into three districts; one of these surveyors was a very old man, another a publican at Buckland, and the other a baker at Backway, with a salary of fourteen shillings a week each. I found on the Royston road a publican as surveyor there; and I found at Huntingdon a bedridden old man who had not been out of the house for several months, and who had been allowed by the commissioners to apply to a carpenter in the town for assistance, and to whom the commissioners allowed twenty pounds per annum; this person, who accompanied me in the survey of the roads, stated, that he could give but little attention to the management of the road, the salary being so small; and the state of those roads bore evidence to the truth of his assertion.