OLD ROADS

Use of familiar names for roads herein and elsewhere does not imply that these are the original ones: few of them are now known. A track running more or less along the ridge-top to Salford was doubtless the oldest of all roads. This was the way later defined by Ashted Row, Bloomsbury Street, and Nechells Park Road. From it tracks led down to a few fords on either side. Heads-of-household from Birmingham and Edgbaston travelled to the Hundred Moot at Coleshill by way of Duddeston, turning off the ancient road and going down beside the boundary stream to Saltley Ford. Cross-ridge routes became the 'churchways' along which parishioners of Bordesley and Saltley travelled to Aston Church: the former by Watery Lane, Lawley Street, and Aston Road, the latter by Nechells Lane (Nechells Place) and Thimble Mill Lane. Aston Church Road, linking up with Pool Lane (Holborn Hill) was little used or usable until a footbridge was provided in the 1830s, while Duddeston Mill Road was apparently not continued on the Saltley side until even later.

The difficulty Bordesleians found in crossing the Rea, and their distance from the parish church, were considered in 1381 to be sufficient reason for granting them a chapelry in Deritend. Saltleians and Ward Enders acquired theirs in the C16th. Rocky Lane was part of a route that led to and from the Black Country iron bloomeries, and much used. There was a footbridge at Duddeston ford from the C15th.

A meadow path led from Nechells Lane to the Park Farm. Love Lane had evidently been a foredrove to 'Rann House' (south end of Rupert Street) which had gone by 1 756 but was recalled in the name of a croft.

The Birmingham to Castle Bromwich Turnpike was established in the year after Tomlinson's survey. Its route followed Prospect and Ashted Rows, Bloomsbury Street, and Saltley Road, crossing the Rea on Saltley Bridge (1738) and continuing via Washwood Heath Road. Tollgates were built at the spot later called Hyde Park Corner, where the turnpike and Nechells Park Road met (now the junction of Nechells Parkway and Bloomsbury Street North) and on Saltley High Street, with keepers' cottages beside. The first milestone was on Ashted Row at Willis Street (Duddeston Manor Road) and the second at Saltley Gate. For some years the road was little improved: an engineer superintended the grudging labour parishioners were still obliged to give annually, and materials were supplied. Road making rather than mending came later, with increased tolls, as canal flyboats began to offer an alternative and smoother way. By the start of the C19th the alignment, surface, and drainage of the turnpike had been much improved.

In 1807 the Birmingham to Lichfield Turnpike was made along the line of the atrocious Aston Road. Tollgates were erected at Aston Cross, the junction with Rocky Lane. This late highway was a better road from the start, straight and well made of watertight macadam layers with proper ditches. On such roads fast coach-services multiplied and prospered for a few decades, as did innkeepers.

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