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A brief history
(According to Rob)
Getting around
The first form of transport was walking and many footpaths still exist
in the area, as shown on the footpaths
map. The gentry, farmers and some dealers would have used horse
and cart, during this period there appears to have been a large amount
of incidents of either riders or carts either maiming or killing themselves
or pedestrians as can be seen in the Quarter
session accounts.
As the roads became more widely used tolls were introduced to pay for
their upkeep, the only tollhouse or gatehouse that I know of still standing
within Ercall Magna is in High
Ercall. There is evidence within the parish registers to suggest
that there was also a gatehouse near the Mill and also one in Walton although
there exact location is unknown to me. The collection of Tolls seems to
have ceased some time after the introduction of the railways
In 1862 the Wellington and Drayton Railway Company, backed by the Great
Western Railway Company developed the 16-mile branch line between Market
Drayton and Wellington, this opened in around 1867, with the nearest
station being at Crudgington. In 1897 the Great Western absorbed the
Wellington
and Drayton Railway Company. Passenger numbers on this line were low
so in the 1930s the company added several Halts
along its route, one being at Rowton, and another at Ellerdine. In September
of 1963 all passenger services were withdrawn and the line was used
for
freight only. The line had short reprieve during the mid 1960s as a diversionary
route when the West Coast line was being electrified, and through a
proposed
new marshalling yard at Walcot, which didn't come to fruition. In 1967
the line was closed down for good. There’s still evidence of the
old route in the form of unused bridges and tracts of land where the
rails
once laid. I don’t remember the trains using this line, only the
metal work left behind, one thing that makes me think of the old railway
is a hedge between Longdon on Tern and Bratton at the junction of Long
Lane and Rushmoor Lane were one of the old bridges was removed in the
early 1970s, with the road being leveled a hawthorn hedge was planted
shortly after that. To this day (May 2008), to my knowledge its height
has never been cut back.
The buses were the other form of transport with High Ercall being a midpoint-changing
place between Wellington and Shrewsbury, originally ran by the Midland
Red Bus Company and now by Arriva, the service over recent years has gradually
dwindled although minibuses were put on to collect passengers from outlying
villages and bring them to connecting buses at High Ercall. Reasons for
its decline, I guess, is that those that can rely on their own transport
for convenience and that the limited timing of bus journeys for some is
also inconvenient.
Back to the roads. The road layout within this area hasn't really changed
a great deal since the dogleg was taken out of the road between Cotwall
and Tern before the 1880s and the improvements to part of the A442 which
took some of the bends out of, and widened the old road and makes up the
eastern boundary of Ercall Magna. The 2 main roads are the B5062, Newport
to Shrewsbury and B5063 Wellington to Wem (although it goes on through
to Welshampton), which meet at the top of Cotwall Bank and part again
at the T junction with the Cleveland Arms on it, other than those, some
are narrower than the B roads with few markings and the rest single track.
Most of the roads in the area, like so many other areas, are not particularly
well maintained and because of this the quality of the roads in the area
don't seem to be what they used to, some people put this down to road
usage having increased but in my opinion with the opening of bypasses
around Shrewsbury, the extension of the M54 coupled with the closure of
MOTEC / CENTREX at Osbaston, general road traffic through this area seems
to have decreased. Most problems are potholes, occasional flooding and
surfaces that seem to lose adhesive qualities far to quickly or perhaps
complete lack of periodic 'gritting' as they used to be after being re-laid
being a cause of accidents.
Knowing where you were could also have been a bit of a problem. In the
past the signposts were cast, and many still survive off the busier ‘B’
roads, these had what I've always referred to as a ‘polo’
with the name of the village of it. As these cast signs became damaged
and broken they were gradually replaced by new tin ones, but the ‘polo’
in most cases was not and this, due to the lack of any other signs was
the only indication to where you were. Along with these signs came the
name Telford with Wellington being removed off some completely, even
though Wellington is the nearer Town. (Telford in my opinion is not
a town at
all but rather a commercial and administrative centre). In early 2011 some
new road signs are now being put up.
In recent times (up to Apr 2011) there have been what I assume some call
'road improvements', likely the parish and borough councils, I
don't share their definition of this.
Firstly there are now an excess of ridiculously and in the main unnecessarily
low 30 mile per hour limits, not even most modern tractors go that slow,
with that there’s the decrease in speed limits from 40 to 30 in
certain areas, those being Roden and Longdon on Tern. Both of these had
the area extended, I can only assume because by doing so it could be
reduced within the guidelines of the Dept of Transport. Longdon on Tern
has also had the bridge messed up with kerbs being laid over it where
once vehicles could and did so drive safely (Ok it could be for the odd
pedestrian to use, but what a waste of resources if so). There’s
a new 40 limit near Walton, which in my opinion is there partially
(mainly?) due to a lack in ability of the highways dept, their inabilities
in no small way some time ago aiding in the death of 2 persons. The A442
at
Cold Hatton has also had the 40 mph treatment, that too is a mess with
the road having to be widened where they had put unnecessary bollards,
I assume to prevent over taking.
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