by Heather Ballantyne
Orton and Tebay
Local History Society welcomed Jean
Scott-Smith to their January meeting to give them an illustrated talk
called
“Over Shap by Track, Road and Rail".
The routes
featured covered a period
from Roman times to the present day starting with the two Roman roads
that pass
to the east and west of the area. We were given details about the
packhorse and
drove roads and, probably the strangest, The
Assize Road between Kendal and Appleby.
This route runs up Long Sleddale then via Mosedale and Wet Sleddale to
Shap. However it was almost certainly an
old
well-established road prior to 1199 when it is mentioned in the grant
of lands
to Shap Abbey, but why?
Then we looked at
the old road from
Kendal over Shap Fell. This is often referred to as the “Roman road” (a
title
often given to any old fairly straight road) and it is still quite
navigable,
with some sections accessible by vehicle.
This road was abandoned when the Heron Syke turnpike was
built in 1753
with this new road running through Westmorland from Burton-in-Kendal to
Eamont
Bridge. It was constructed under the supervision of John MacAdam, who
was
surveyor of roads in the area and he lived at Cockell House in Penrith.
This road had
distinctive mileposts,
some of which survive. The Shap tollbar at the junction with the Orton
road
survived until the mid 1950s when it was demolished to make the road
wider. A
slide showed tables detailing the revenue at the toll houses and
showing the
impact on income when the railway opened in 1846. Because of this
change the
turnpike was dissolved in 1882.
This same route
became the A6, with familiar
landmarks such as the Jungle Cafe, Leyland Clock, and Fell Top Cafe
made
from
two buses.
Images of vehicles
on the road and
stuck in the winter snow were shown. One slide showing Shap with wagons
backed up
through
the village and the WVS ladies, who provided refuge and food in the
memorial
hall for the stranded drivers.
The next part of
the talk dealt with
the building of the Lancaster and Carlisle railway between 1844 and
1846, this
being a great feat of engineering given the tools available, and there
were
many iconic images of trains climbing Shap Bank and of Shap station.
The
railway affected many areas of trade but it opened up new trading
opportunities
and gave Shap a new prosperity.
The last
development was the building
of the M6 between 1967 and 1970. This had a great impact on Shap’s
fortunes,
with several businesses closing as a result of the decrease in passing
trade.
This brought us to
the unveiling of the
Shap Fell memorial in
1994, and a special vintage commercial vehicle run to mark the 20th
anniversary
of the unveiling. We also saw a slide of part of the millennium window
in St.
Michael’s Church, Shap, showing the routes which had featured in the
talk.
Jean was thanked
for an interesting
talk given to a full house which brought back many memories.
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