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All too often, Britain's roads are taken for granted. They're just strips of tarmac that get us where we're going. But behind every road is a small army of politicians, planners, engineers, skilled workers and even protestors. This section of CBRD brings some of those figures into the spotlight to reveal the people who had a major impact on our road network.
Click a name to read more. The list is arranged alphabetically by surname.
Sir James Drake
County Surveyor and Bridgemaster for Lancashire in the 1950s and 60s, Drake was instrumental in the motorway revolution.
Daniel 'Swampy' Hooper
Britain's most famous anti-road protestor, who shot to fame in the mid-1990s and came to represent the whole environmental movement.
Harry Yeadon
A civil engineer, working principally in the North West of England, responsible for many of the area's motorways.
Still to come
- William Rees Jeffreys
Responsible for introducing road numbering to the UK and influential in all aspects of road transport in the early 20th century. - Ernest Marples
Minister of Transport through the early days of motorway-mania, who also introduced many features of the modern road network. - Barbara Castle
Late 1960s Minister of Transport who famously could not drive. - John MacAdam
The Scot responsible for paving our roads. - Thomas Telford
One of Britain's most famous civil engineers, he built bridges and widened roads that are still in use centuries later. - Robert Vigars
A senior figure in the Greater London Council who was a key advocate of the London Ringway plans. - Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert
The two central figures in designing the world-class road signing system we use today.
Visitors to this section of CBRD might also enjoy Histories.
