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

At what time did you commence the alteration in the system of management?—At the latter end of December 1817, when the roads were put under the superintendence of Mr. MᶜAdam, senior, and when his son commenced the management.

What alterations have since taken place in the state of the roads?—By a newer formation of the road; the materials being properly broken; and the water carried under the road by trunks, or drains, with proper gratings.

Referring to the particulars of the expenditure given by Mr. MᶜAdam, jun. in his evidence this day, can you confirm the accuracy of those accounts?—Yes; and I can explain that the items for tradesmen’s bills include the wharfing and repairs of Bridges in each year; I can add, that the statute labour for 1815, 1816, and 1817, amounting to one hundred pounds each year, which Mr. MᶜAdam has not availed himself of in their improvements.

Had the system of management pursued by Mr. MᶜAdam proved the means of giving employment to labourers in the district, and thereby lessening the poor’s rates?—Very much so; and they have occasionally employed from twenty to thirty persons, stout able-bodied men, who otherwise would have been obliged to have been supported out of the parish rates.

Have you in consequence had any persons who were able to work who have been out of employ?—Between twenty and thirty persons have been employed for the last three months in breaking flints, and in repairing and improving the roads, who otherwise must have come upon the poor’s rates; and all the persons who have been enabled to work have found employment in consequence of this improvement; that has been the means of greatly relieving our poor’s rates.

Has the same system been extended to the private roads in that district?—It has been adopted in some of the private roads of that district, and with the same beneficial effects.

Can you state any particulars with regard to the necessity there has been for carting additional materials for these roads?—At present Mr. MᶜAdam having lifted the roads, has found more than sufficient material for the support of those roads.

What have been the materials that have been used?—The materials that have been used are flints chiefly.

During the state of improvement of these roads, have the tolls been increased or reduced within your trust?—At our last meeting, we agreed, that at the next letting, the tolls should be reduced from May next, for the benefit of agriculture in general; and that where two shillings and eight-pence is now paid, they will have now to pay one shilling; that with relation to the agricultural interest, will be a reduction of twenty five pounds per mile.

Within your own personal observation, have you known any other instance in which a road has been formed upon the same principles as those adopted by Mr. MᶜAdam?—I had an opportunity of observing in Sweden that the roads were more beautiful than any I ever beheld; they are formed in the same manner as by Mr. MᶜAdam, the materials broken extremely small. The material is the best in the world, as it is rocks of Granite; and so well do they understand the necessity of breaking them small, that you never behold throughout Sweden, a fragment of granite larger than the size of a walnut, for the purposes of the roads.