ROADS 33 



Yorkshire dales to Kirkby Stephen and the north. The drivers 

 from Garsdale and Grisdale came over the moor to the old Thrang 

 Bridge in Mallerstang, where they were met by strings of pack horses 

 and men coming from the east country by Hell GUI." 



The holts, hots, hults, or creels, as they were variously called, 

 were large wooden or basket panniers, two or three of which were 

 slung on either side of the horses. They were emptied, when their 

 contents would allow of it, by pulling out a wooden pin which secured 

 the bottoms of the panniers — the person performing the work stood 

 close behind the horse's heels and reaching forward released the pins 

 on either side simultaneously. Till about the beginning of the century, 

 almost all the rural produce was conveyed to Kendal Market on the 

 backs of horses ; apples and other fruits in panniers lashed together 

 two or three on each side, with the driver, man or woman, seated on 

 the top. Till as late as 1844 there were still farms on " Stainmore to 

 which there is no carriage road and which consequently possess no 

 wheeled carriages." Their occupiers were obliged to drag their hay 

 into their barns on sledges and " sometimes pack it up in sheets on 

 the backs of the horses ; the manure is sometimes carried to their 

 steep sloping fields in a kind of basket called a holt or hult, by men and, 

 it is to be feared sometimes, by women." 



The first two turnpike roads were constructed soon after the 

 passing of the Act of 1752, between Heron Syke and Eamont Bridge 

 and between Keighley and Kendal. Six others were completed by 

 the beginning of the century, viz. : — 



Kendal to Sedbergh, branching to Kirkby Stephen, 1762 ; Kendal 

 to Tebay, where one branch went through Ravenstonedale to Kirkby 

 Stephen and the other through Orton to Appleby ; Kendal to Amble- 

 side and Dunmail Raise to Keswick, with a branch from Plumgarth 

 to the Ferry on Windermere ; Kendal to Ulverston, by Underbarrow 

 and Cartmel Fell ; Kendal to Milnthorpe and on to Heron Syke (opened 

 1820) ; Stainmore through Brough and Appleby to Eamont Bridge, 

 1774. 



The last turnpike road to be constructed in the county was from 

 Leveng to Penny Bridge in 1819. 



By these roads, with the exception of the few vessels which made 

 Milnthorpe their port of call for the conveyance of the manufactures 



D 



