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Beating the Government MacAdam's Greatest Achievement

5th February 1937
Page 49
Page 49, 5th February 1937 — Beating the Government MacAdam's Greatest Achievement
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How The Colossus of Roads" Persuaded Parliament to Allow Him His Expenses in Experimenting in Highways Construction and Secured an Additional Reward

TOHN LOUDON MACADAM, who .1 died at the Dumfries-shire town of Moffat on November 20, 1830, might be described as '' The Colossus of Roads." Within two decades—from 1816, when he was appointed General Surveyor of Roads to the Bristol Turnpike Trust, until 1836, when he died Surveyor-General of Turnpike Roads—MacAdam transformed our highways and increased the speed of transport to a rate which could be beaten only by the introduction of steam and petrol.

His Greatest Feat.

His name has passed not only into the dictionary of technical terms, hut it is a household word, Perhaps his greatest, but least known, achievement, however, was that he triumphed over the Circumlocution Office of his day and forced the Treasury to pay him all the money that he had spent in his experiments, and 8ornething over.

Valuable and interesting documents to prove the pertinacity with which MacAdam manceuvred the 'Government into settling his just claims have recentlybeen discovered in the muniment room of the General Post Office. By the courtesy of Mr. C. R. Clear, of the G.P.O., I was allowed to inspect them.

It is not surprising, on reflection, • that the Post Office is able to supplement our knowledge of MacAdam's work, for his improvement of the roads affected, to an extraordinary degree, the running of the mail coaches. Charles Johnson, superintendent of mail coaches, made sotne observations on MacAdam's roadmaking for his official superiors in the Post Office. His report is dated December 5, 1819.

Time Vital 100 Years Ago.

" As superintendent of mail coaches," he wrote, "I have abundant reason to wish that Mr. MacAdam's principles were acted upon very generally. If they were, a pace which in winter or any bad • weather cannot be accomplished without difficulty would become perfectly easy, to say nothing of the safety and comfort of the traveller and the credit of humanity in lessening the hard labour of the animals.'

• Johnson then adds a specific in stance of improvement, an instance particularly valuable, because it proves that 100 years ago it was a matter of concern to the Post Office that, owing to bad roads, the mail lost 10 mins. on a certain stage of the journey.

It was shortly after MacAdam had received his Bristol appointment that the Post Office became aware that someone or something was having a beneficial effect on the delivery of His Majesty's mails. In 1817-1818 an acceleration of the mail-coach service was demanded on the Bath Road between Bristol and London.

Road Influence on Speed.

In theory, based on Post Office timing, nothing could be done to increase the speed. Examination, however, revealed that the Bristol coach fairly raced along the Bristol end of the road, but slowed down along' the stages nearer London.

Mr. Secretary Freeing, of the G.P.O., asked the Bristol postmaster to explain this phenomenon. The answer was : "Mr. MacAdam's new road." Freeling brought this matter to the attention of Lord Chichester, who was one of the PostmastersGeneral—there were two in those days, Lord Chichester's colleague being Lord Salisbury.

Lord Chichester asked MacAdam to superintend the repairs on the East Sussex roads, including the road from Lewes to Brighthelmstone (Brighton). In return, he advised MacAdam on the sore subject of squeezing the Government to pay him some money on account.

MacAdam was receiving £500 a year from the Bristol Turnpike, but the improvements which he had made were the result of many years of private study of road-making, and he had made costly experiments at his own expense. He had published pamphlets, and claimed to have travelled some 30,000 miles person

ally investigating the generally appalling condition of the nation's highways. So with Lord Chichester as patron and backer, he approached the Treasury in 1819.

He had started the game of Government Department circumlocution, so perfectlydescribed by Charles Dickens in "Little Dorrit." But MacAdam, perhaps because he was a Scot, perhaps because he had a Postmaster-General behind him, succeeded better with the Barnacles than did Arthur Clenham and the Dorrits, Parliament Moves, By 1823, only four years later, two select committees of the House of Commons had discussed MacAdam's demands for out-of-pocket expenses. He claimed also some recompense in addition, to quote from his memorial found in the G.P.O. muniment room, fOr "having expended a large sum of his private fortune and the most valuable years of his life in a service from which the public are deriving extensive advantage, by which the expediting of the correspondence of the country has been facilitated in a manner that, before this improvement, was physically impracticable and by which the commerce, manufacturers and agriculture of the country have derived incalculable benefit."

In brief, MacAdam asked for at least his expenses, amounting to £6,857 3s. 6d. He finally got what he wanted, including the 3s. (.1.

He first succeeded in obtaining from the Post Office £2,000 .on account, without Parliamentary sanction! The first select committee then agreed that MacAdam deserved reward, but tactfully left it to the Post

Office to suggest how much. , Final Instalment--i10,000.

The Treasury refused to accept anything so vague as this to mean permission to pay MacAdam's full claim, but gave him, after a struggle, £2,000 more. Further effort created the second select committee, and MacAdam was at last paid a balance amounting nearly to £8,000 for expenses and £2,000 as a small reward —which, as Costard the Clown would say, was "better than remuneration," at least " leven-pence farthing better.'


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