Have you, in any instance, made the alteration stated by your sons?—Yes, I have; I found the suburbs of Bristol were entirely paved when I took charge of the roads of the district; those suburbs are within the jurisdiction of the commissioners for the care of turnpike roads; and I found the expense of paving was very heavy, and the effect very bad, and I at once took the whole pavement up, and broke the stone that I found there into a stone road, up to the jurisdiction of the magistrates.
Was that granite stone?—No, a kind of stone called the blue pennet in that county, and part of a light stone called Brandon Hill stone; both tolerably good stones: the blue pennet is certainly not so good as granite; the Brandon Hill stone, when broken, is pretty nearly as good as granite. But those suburbs having been taken up, and given great satisfaction the year before last, the magistrates took up half of the street, called Stoke’s Croft, which is the great entrance of the town from Gloucestershire. The inhabitants were very much afraid of dust; and therefore they requested the magistrates not to take up the whole of the street, but to make an experiment on one half of it, and after a year’s experiment they consented to the whole being taken up. When I left Bristol, which is now three months ago, they were busy taking up the remainder of that street; and I understood it was the intention of the magistrates to proceed gradually to take up a great number of other streets in the town.
Do you know what difference it has made in the expense?—That part of the suburbs that was lifted, and laid again with the same stone broken, cost 5d. a square yard for doing it. I took up the stone; I had nothing to purchase; the stone that came out of the streets fully made the road, and we had a little remaining for repair afterwards, and that operation cost 5d. a square yard; paving, in the city of Bristol, cost 5s. 6d. a square yard when stone is found by the paviour, and I believe they reckon the laying down to be eighteen-pence of that.
What would be the difference of expense annually between & paved street and a road?—I think that road required no repair for the first three years after it was done.
A paved street would require no repair for seven years after it was done?—I think we repaired it for about a fifth part of the money, when it required repair, that a pavement would have cost. We seldom find our streets in Bristol last above three years; the pavements become rugged, and full of holes, and so on; they are obliged to be taken up, and they relay them generally once in three years. There is another street in Bristol which has been taken up, but I cannot recollect the name of it; it goes from Stoke’s Croft to Kingston; it has been taken up by the magistrates, not under my direction.
Has any objection been taken by any person to the alteration that has been made at Bristol?—No, except the alarm that the inhabitants of Stone Croft had when it was begun to be done, and they got the magistrates to delay doing more than half of it till they were satisfied that it would not inconvenience them; and the circumstance of their sending a request to the magistrates to finish it induces me to believe that they were very much satisfied with the experiment. Park-street, in Bristol, has been done in that way for, I think, seventeen years; I was then a commissioner for watching and paving the streets of Bristol.
Who did it?—It was done at the expense of the commissioners for watching and paving, at my wish, and I certainly did superintend it, though I had nothing to do with it more than any other commissioner had. It is a street many gentlemen know very well; it is a public road from Bristol to the Park, and very steep; I believe it is a rise of three inches in a yard, and when paved was so very dangerous and slippery that many accidents arose from it, and now it is a very good road indeed, and I do not believe that it cost upon an average, since that alteration, more than one fourth of what it used to do.
What stone was it paved with before?—Black rock-stone, a species of limestone.