Our roads, paths and tracks have developed over thousands of years. Early hunter-gatherers followed animal trails. As people travelled to trade goods, longer tracks to easy river crossings would have appeared.
The Romans probably constructed the first roads here. Tracks developed to link monastic estates. In the eighteenth century, turnpike trusts improved major routes and charged tolls.
The Leeds-Liverpool canal reduced transport costs, bringing cheaper coal and flour to the southern Dales. Then the railways arrived, notably the Settle-Carlisle line, the last navvy-built railway In Britain with its spectacular viaducts and tunnels.
