Historic Roads
Roads go back as far as people where on the earth, one of the first mention of roads is in the bible book of Genesis, clearly they have been around for a long time. Roads in Britain go back to pre historic times, many of todays roads where once early tracks between villages, however the first serious road building in Britain was the Romans, added to by the Anglo Saxons as the built new villages this evolved to be eventually be taken over by the Turnpike system and finally the modern road system.
Historic Roads that Became The A6
In this section we try to trace the routes of the A6 back to Roman times and look at how the route has changed. For example in Cumbria the A6 follows a Roman Road from Carlisle to Penrith, however the Roman road then continues along the pennine's past the village of Tebay to a place called Old Borough Bridge. then continuing along the pennine's. From Penrith to Kendal the Roman traveler would have had to follow this road (nearer to the line of today's M6), then followed another road from Old Borough Bridge to Kendal (roughly along the A685). Another route could be followed as a Roman road went south easterly from Penrith to Ambleside (near to the A592) however neither of these roads cross Shap fells on the A6 route. When did the shap route supercede these other two? It is questions like this we hope to answer in this section.
Many Different Vehicles have traveled Britain's Roads over the years
Other Useful Sites
Roman Roads. An educational site showing the makeup of a Roman Road
Anglo Saxon Times a site giving a timeline of the Anglo Saxons who where responsible for many of today's roads in Britain
Turnpikes. Part of the BBC website giving facts about turnpikes
