TRAVEL BY ROAD
The road the Romans built to Silchester continued as
the main artery to the west of England. Away from the
main road lanes led north of the High Street. Half Acre,
(the boundary between old and New Brentford) in the west,
divided into: Boston Land (later Road; its southern stretch
renamed Boston Manor Rd in the 20th century) leading to
Hanwell, and Windmill Lane (later Rd) to Little Ealing.
Drum Lane (later Ealing Road) led to Ealing and Gunnersbury
Lane (which became Gunnersbury Avenue and part of the
North Circular Road) to Acton.
As traffic increased Brentford High Street became notorious
as a narrow crowed dirty and dangerous highway. As early as
1670 local people requested that the footways be lined with
posts and railings to protect pedestrians. The only person
who actually liked Brentford High Street was George II. He
apparently enjoyed driving through it because it reminded
him of his native Hanover. In hot weather clouds of dust
covered everything and the road surface needed constant
spraying with water from water carts; in wet weather the
road was a sea of mud churned into deep holes and ruts.
Ditches either side of the road for carrying excess water
became clogged with rubbish because the landowners responsible
failed to look after them In the early centuries the only
way to maintain the road surface was by spreading gravel.
In the early 18th century, in an attempt to improve the
parlous state of England's roads their maintenance was
farmed out to private enterprise Turnpike Trusts that
levied tolls for using the road The Brentford Turnpike
Trusts set up in 1717 to manage the road from Kensington
to Bedfont. Unfortunately, a combination of the inefficiency
of the trustees, the unforeseen development of Bath as a
place for the fashionable to congregate and the increase
of traffic into London created a road. There was toll
gates all over Kew Bridge and at Brentford End, In 1766,
travelling along the High Street was made slightly easier
when the parish of Ealing applied to light the road with
oil lamps (this extended into New Brentford)
Stagecoaches started running from the late 17th century
but the earl vehicles were slow, uncomfortable and expensive,
only improving when carriage design developed and better
road-building techniques evolved. The heyday of the coaching
era was in the early 19th century. Long distance gaily-painted
stage coaches would have been a familiar sight in Brentford
Nigh Street approaching the first staging post at Hounslow.
In 1836 over 40 coaches a day were pounding through the town
like the 'Tantivy' to Birmingham 'The Monarch' to Bath and
Bristol (which took 15 hours) 'The Magnet' to Weymouth and
'The Mazeppa' to Hungerford. People could also travel on the
faster mail coaches- the first mail coach was tried out on
London-Bath road in 1784.
Local coach services to London left Brentford from the Castle
Hotel, the Three Pigeons and the Red Loin 11 times each day
in 1823-4. Accidents along the road were common place; the
more serious made it to the pages of The times, Plans for a
relief road Brentford high street were deposited in Parliament
in 1837, but no further action appears to have been taken.
This was perhaps because the advert of the railway some what
alleviated the congestion problem Conditions became worse
though 1901 when tramlines were laid in the High street
since these restricted the roadway. A series of letters and
articles appeared in the public press, advocating what was
termed' A Royal Rd to Windsor' to lessen the number of
deaths in Brentford High Street. In 1905 a Commission led
to the setting up of the traffic Branch of the Board of
Trade, which in 1909 published a report pronouncing the
conditions in Brentford as' intolerable'. The scheme for
the Great West rd was adopted in 1912 but had to be put
on hold because of World War 1 It was revived in 1918 as
a means of employing unskilled returning soldiers The
Great West rd from Chiswick to Bedfont was opened by King
George V in 1925. In 1936 the Chiswick Roundabout was
begun. The Chiswick Flyover, the first major two-level
highway scheme to be carried out in the Metropolitan area
since Word War II, was constructed in 1959 and, in 1964
the A4 was linked to the M4 motorway by a two mile elevated
section. At that time it was said to be the longest viaduct
in Europe.

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Last Updated: 21st NOVEMBER 2005