Yorkshire Almanac The road surface between Yarm to Guisborough; freight transport in the north

10 October 1760: The road surface between Yarm to Guisborough; freight transport in the north

Richard Pococke. 1915. The Northern Journeys of Bishop Richard Pococke. North Country Diaries (Second Series). Ed. John Crawford Hodgson. Durham: Surtees Society. Get it:

Excerpt

I went on to Guisborough through a very pleasant country, and near the Cleveland hills the foot of which is improved in fields and roads. All this road from Yarm is mostly a clay ground without stones; the roads in winter are excessive bad ; and they have narrow paved cause-ways for one horse… As in these northern parts they draw with oxen and horses before them, two and two, so here, when the roads are bad, they draw with four oxen and two horses before them.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Original

I went on to Gisborough through a very pleasant country, and near the Cleveland hills the foot of which is improved in fields and roads. All this road from Yarum is mostly a clay ground without stones ; the roads in winter are excessive bad ; and they have narrow paved cause-ways for one horse… As in these northern parts they draw with oxen and horses before them, two and two, so here, when the roads are bad, they draw with four oxen and two horses before them.

88 words.