©/ design/ maintenance Anthony Green 2014
Before the 19th century there were no regular road services to Redditch and, even salt had to be transported by pack horse from Droitwich. However, by about 1820 there were coach services to Birmingham, Alcester and the canal at Tardebigge. In 1826 the turnpikes came to Redditch when the Pershore Road turnpike opened. This was originally to run from Birmingham to Pershore and the Vale of Evesham to provide transportation to carry produce to feed the growing city. Due to financial problems it was never completed and came to an end at Dunnington Heath where there is, not surprisingly, a right angled bend.
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The Turnpike Roads in England is a new web site and has a general history of Turnpike Roads plus some links. |
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The Francis Frith collection of postcards give a good vision of the roads which made up the town centre. |
Since early times, the centre of Redditch was the crossroads formed from the road from Birmingham going south and the road from Bromsgrove going on to Alcester. This is now the pedestrian crossing (right) in the town centre, but, until the construction of the New Town, Evesham Street continued through what is now the Kingfisher shopping centre and continued to Mount Pleasant and along Evesham Road through Headless Cross, Crabbs Cross, Astwood Bank and on to Evesham, and the road from Bromsgrove passed along what is now the pedestrianised Market Place and Alcester Street.
New roads introduced by the development of the new town have completely transformed the town’s road system and it is difficult to imagine how it was before. However, examining old maps shows that all the roads are still there but, clearly, they could not have supported today’s traffic levels
The Cassini Past & Present map for Redditch & Bromsgrove (available from local bookshops) has four maps from 1831 to the present day and is a good way of looking at the evolution of the roads (and railways) around Redditch.
The Web doesn’t have specific information for Redditch, but try....
