There can be no doubt that modern man is obsessed by travel. Many of us make long commutes to work, and then when it is time for a holiday, we decide to travel to some distant destination. What is is about travel that we find so appealing? Carl Jung described the road trip as a "Persistent element element of human culture." I think that it is a sort of throwback to primitive man, part of our survival mechanism, the idea that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence.
And yet, this travel idea is a relatively recent phenomenon. Apart from the roads we inherited from the Romans, trunk roads only really came in with the turnpike acts of the eighteenth century. Before that, we had only a network of local roads, which were poorly maintained, and often impassable during the winter months. Travel was difficult and expensive before the coming of the canals and railways, and goods that needed to be transported, were often carried by means other than roads. We had coastal shipping, and cattle were driven on the hoof from the highlands of Scotland, all the way to the London markets, taking over a month. It is a wonder there was enough meat left on them to sell.
The coming of the canal network, swiftly followed by the railways, began to change things. But for the working classes, particularly in the North, rail travel was an expensive luxury, not to be undertaken lightly. The bicycle was the thing that first changed things for the working man. Initially a toy for the well-to-do, it eventually became the personal transport of the working man. But not until after the first world war for most. I remember a story my father used to tell about going for a job on a farm in the 1920s. His friend advised him to hide his bike behind the hedge, some distance from the farm. It was said that if he arrived on a bike, the farmer would assume that he was used to a high wage, and he would not get the job.
I spent a large part of my life as a long distance lorry driver, which to an extent met my desire for travel. Owing to poor eyesight, I no longer drive. Virtually all my travelling now is by e-bike or pushbike. This has taught me a couple of things. One is that the faster we travel, the less we see. The other is that we do not know our local area as well as we think we do.
Talking of roads and travel, has anyone else noticed that hitch-hiking has become a thing of the past? Owing to the changes in society, few drivers now would give a lift to a stranger. I met some really interesting people by giving lifts. Before the coming of sleeper cabs, lorry drivers would give each other lifts. If you ran out of driving hours, and you were only forty or fifty miles from home, you would park your lorry, stand at the side of the road and hold up your log book. The first lorry to come past would stop. When I was first married, I always used to say that if I was within 100 miles, I would come home. Of course you had to be up very early the next morning to hitch-hike back to your lorry.
So for me nowadays, travel means on-yer-bike. Long may we all continue to enjoy it.
And yet, this travel idea is a relatively recent phenomenon. Apart from the roads we inherited from the Romans, trunk roads only really came in with the turnpike acts of the eighteenth century. Before that, we had only a network of local roads, which were poorly maintained, and often impassable during the winter months. Travel was difficult and expensive before the coming of the canals and railways, and goods that needed to be transported, were often carried by means other than roads. We had coastal shipping, and cattle were driven on the hoof from the highlands of Scotland, all the way to the London markets, taking over a month. It is a wonder there was enough meat left on them to sell.
The coming of the canal network, swiftly followed by the railways, began to change things. But for the working classes, particularly in the North, rail travel was an expensive luxury, not to be undertaken lightly. The bicycle was the thing that first changed things for the working man. Initially a toy for the well-to-do, it eventually became the personal transport of the working man. But not until after the first world war for most. I remember a story my father used to tell about going for a job on a farm in the 1920s. His friend advised him to hide his bike behind the hedge, some distance from the farm. It was said that if he arrived on a bike, the farmer would assume that he was used to a high wage, and he would not get the job.
I spent a large part of my life as a long distance lorry driver, which to an extent met my desire for travel. Owing to poor eyesight, I no longer drive. Virtually all my travelling now is by e-bike or pushbike. This has taught me a couple of things. One is that the faster we travel, the less we see. The other is that we do not know our local area as well as we think we do.
Talking of roads and travel, has anyone else noticed that hitch-hiking has become a thing of the past? Owing to the changes in society, few drivers now would give a lift to a stranger. I met some really interesting people by giving lifts. Before the coming of sleeper cabs, lorry drivers would give each other lifts. If you ran out of driving hours, and you were only forty or fifty miles from home, you would park your lorry, stand at the side of the road and hold up your log book. The first lorry to come past would stop. When I was first married, I always used to say that if I was within 100 miles, I would come home. Of course you had to be up very early the next morning to hitch-hike back to your lorry.
So for me nowadays, travel means on-yer-bike. Long may we all continue to enjoy it.
