Roads Matter; West Riding of Yorkshire : booklet issued by the Roads Campaign Council/British Road Federation : c.1957 : Foreword
The Roads Campaign Council, an umbrella group that comprised a wide range of parties interested in road transport, was backed by the British Road Federation and seems to have been active in the post-war years as road transport began to grow and investment in roads was seen as being tardy. The 1950s saw the serious development of schemes for major routes such as motorways and ambitious plans for new roads as part of urban redevelopments and these would, of course, be brought to fruition in the 1960s onwards.
The Campaign issued a series of publicity or propaganda booklets and this is called "Roads Matter - West Riding of Yorkshire" and is in the same format as other regional booklets issued in this series. The booklet has text and a series of images showing congestion in urban areas such as Skipton, Pontefract and Hebden Bridge. Although many of the plans shown here came to fruition, such as the regional motorways, it is strange to think that many of the roads seen here as still traffic magnets due to the growth in motor vehicles and the dramatic increase in so many 'short distance' road journeys.
The photos are of good quality and show street and roadscapes now lost along with many contemporary vehicles and period features that prove to make for fascinating research! The county referred to is the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, an authority that covered a vast geographical area and that in 1974 was divided into two new Metropolitan Counties (West and South Yorkshire) and one new County Council, that of North Yorkshire along with other smaller changes. The book credits a designer - John Denison-Hunt FSIA - and although not dated appears to be 1957.
"Known but not praised as the A1" is a reflection of the state of the Great North Road, the A1 trunk road, that at the time ran along the eastern side of the county and mostly followed its original line through numerous towns and village centres.
Roads Matter; West Riding of Yorkshire : booklet issued by the Roads Campaign Council/British Road Federation : c.1957 : Foreword
The Roads Campaign Council, an umbrella group that comprised a wide range of parties interested in road transport, was backed by the British Road Federation and seems to have been active in the post-war years as road transport began to grow and investment in roads was seen as being tardy. The 1950s saw the serious development of schemes for major routes such as motorways and ambitious plans for new roads as part of urban redevelopments and these would, of course, be brought to fruition in the 1960s onwards.
The Campaign issued a series of publicity or propaganda booklets and this is called "Roads Matter - West Riding of Yorkshire" and is in the same format as other regional booklets issued in this series. The booklet has text and a series of images showing congestion in urban areas such as Skipton, Pontefract and Hebden Bridge. Although many of the plans shown here came to fruition, such as the regional motorways, it is strange to think that many of the roads seen here as still traffic magnets due to the growth in motor vehicles and the dramatic increase in so many 'short distance' road journeys.
The photos are of good quality and show street and roadscapes now lost along with many contemporary vehicles and period features that prove to make for fascinating research! The county referred to is the historic West Riding of Yorkshire, an authority that covered a vast geographical area and that in 1974 was divided into two new Metropolitan Counties (West and South Yorkshire) and one new County Council, that of North Yorkshire along with other smaller changes. The book credits a designer - John Denison-Hunt FSIA - and although not dated appears to be 1957.
"Known but not praised as the A1" is a reflection of the state of the Great North Road, the A1 trunk road, that at the time ran along the eastern side of the county and mostly followed its original line through numerous towns and village centres.