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WELSH
ROW has been made lorry-free at last. No longer need the old
buildings
 shake as heavy transport vehicles make their way through
the town centre to other towns of areas in the vicinity.
I took a stroll along the street
shortly after the £300,000 project - which started in January and
ran for 10 weeks - was completed. I saw the re-laid
and widened footpaths and the priority give-way points. But I missed
the dropped kerbs and "tactile paving" in the side roads (mainly
because I forgot I was supposed to be looking for them).
But one thing I did see was
a new arrangement for the kerb in the area of Tudor Cottage on a
bend in Welsh Row. Gone were the posts and
 chains which protected a
drop on the bend where some time in the past the camber had been
improved. In their place were two steps created from dark bricks.
All very nice, but I think
I preferred the 10 or more posts and chains (left, here are three of
them outside Tudor Cottage). It's not the end of the world, and the
steps are nice enough. But it is a piece of history that is lost to
us.
I have an old picture of
Nantwich (which I can't show you for copyright reasons*) taken in
1898 showing the road level is the same as the pavement. There is no
camber on the bend.
I don't know when the road
authorities decided a camber would help drivers. The chains always
seem to have been there as far as I am concerned.
The measures to keep the
road for lighter vehicles include the priority give-way points that
I mentioned earlier. Motorists driving away from the town centre in
the Queen's Drive area of the street are confronted with give-way
road markings and a physical traffic island (as well as a further
pedestrian crossing point a couple of yards further on).
This means that vehicles
driving towards the town centre have a right-of-way priority. But
that's only fair as a similar arrangement outside Malbank School
meant they had to give way to traffic head out of town.
There is an added bonus for
motorists as there is more parking following the introduction of the
new measures. Actually, I suppose, the parked cars are playing their
part in the traffic calming.
*O.k., I mean I don't want
to pay a fee to the famous firm whose photographer took the picture!
Here are some pictures of the changes
in Welsh Row |
