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In the early 1700s Britain鈥檚 road networks were simply not up to the task of moving the goods around the country which needed to be moved. Most of the roads were ancient, potholed and too small for modern business to be carried out. As Britain began to industrialise, this lack of transport made it very difficult to transport raw materials like coal or cotton.

It was especially difficult for a businessman like Josiah Wedgwood, who reckoned that he sometimes lost one third of his shipments of pottery on Britain鈥檚 terrible roads. In 1706 Parliament passed the Turnpike Act which allowed private road builders to build new roads and charge tolls for using them. It was a first, important step towards the road transport network we know in Britain today.