pavement / footpaths in urban environment

[Hugh Norwood]

When did distinct footpaths for pedestrians come into being in towns - as opposed to the roadway going right up to house and shop doors etc., and pedestrains having to dodge out of the way of vehichles?

Many thanks

[Graeme Dunbar]

Roman times?   :D (I'm sure I've seen photos where they also had "zebra crossings" or stepping stones with gaps for cart wheels to pass.)

Just checked the George Washington Wilson print in the staff tea room. Aberdeen definitely had them in Victorian times, but when small country towns and villages had them is anyone's guess. Perhaps when there was significant motor car traffic?

[garrywhiting]

When did distinct footpaths for pedestrians come into being in towns - as opposed to the roadway going right up to house and shop doors etc., and pedestrains having to dodge out of the way of vehichles?
Many thanks

Depends on location, perhaps the earliest extant example of separation of pedestrians from other traffic is the Rows in Chester, which appear to date from about 1400, if not earlier. Other locations appear to have started serious consideration of the matter from c1650 onwards, there are references to "Paving Acts" from c1670 onwards. In major towns, sidewalks ( originally English terminology, now almost exclusively American ) and causeways became increasingly common from c1750 onwards, particularly in providing some separation of the property from the roadway. The more expensive the property, the more likely it became that a pedestrian pavement would be provided, see the Royal Crescent, Bath, completed about 1790. In certain parts of the country, causeway, or causey in some dialects, is still the preferred terminology over the more common pavement. Certainly the provision of pavements became increasingly common from 1820 onwards, perhaps as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution, with the consequent increase in urban populations.

[Graeme Dunbar]

Roman times?   :D (I'm sure I've seen photos where they also had "zebra crossings" or stepping stones with gaps for cart wheels to pass.)

Just checked the George Washington Wilson print in the staff tea room. Aberdeen definitely had them in Victorian times, but when small country towns and villages had them is anyone's guess. Perhaps when there was significant motor car traffic?

That's a relief, I wasn't imagining it!

[Isle of Stoner]

I constantly marvel at the depth and breadth of people's knowledge.

John W

[Hugh Norwood]

Many thanks.
Food for thought there...
As you may guess I'm paving the streets of Angst. TP does not mention footpaths as such in the books, just that Sam Vimes could tell where he was by the feel of the road surface under his feet...

[Graeme Dunbar]

Aha...! Well then I can confidently suggest that the Shades probably didn't have them, but Upper Broadway possibly did.  ;D

[JulienW]

Many thanks.
Food for thought there...
As you may guess I'm paving the streets of Angst. TP does not mention footpaths as such in the books, just that Sam Vimes could tell where he was by the feel of the road surface under his feet...

Not that is ansewrs your question Hugh but as far as the Departmeny of Transport is concerned the "Roadway" is the strip of land between the front of the plots of the houses and includes the pavements.  There was a case recently here in Birmingham where a number of car owners who had declared their vehicles 'off the road' (SORN) where fined as the cars were parked on the driveway crossing the grass verge that was outsdie their house, but between the pavement and the road.  As this was still 'on the highway', i.e. not on their own property, they got a nasyt surprise.

Another aside is that if you look down whilst walking throygh a city you can often see little metal studs in the pavement.  These mark the boundary between the 'highway' and the land occupied by the building you are walking alongside.  Once upon a time the line of studs would have been a curbstone to stop road vehicles (horse drawn) from getting too close to the side of the buildings and being higher up would have been convinent places for people to walk, out of the mud / muck of the roadway.  The other way to do this was to wear wodden "patterns" (imagine a block-soled sandel) worn over the shoes.