Oak cobbled road surfaces.

[BILDEBORG]

I can distinctivly recall seeing a road being dug up for whatever reason somewhere near the top of Spital Hill.......and the cobbles were made of oak and soaked in pitch, although this was underneath the then road surface it appeared to me a tad strange........this would be circa 1980 ish........so not too long ago. I only found this out by asking one of the workers..............I have to say I was pretty astonished........what with millions of tons of perfect road surfacing material would have been available at that time locally.

 

Anyone know anything about this.........and indeed how widespread it was the use oak cobbles?.......i'm just glad I wasnt riding a motorcycle up that way!

 

Jay in sunny Cornwall.

[lazarus]

Originally posted by BILDEBORG

I can distinctivly recall seeing a road being dug up for whatever reason somewhere near the top of Spital Hill.......and the cobbles were made of oak and soaked in pitch, although this was underneath the then road surface it appeared to me a tad strange........this would be circa 1980 ish........so not too long ago. I only found this out by asking one of the workers..............I have to say I was pretty astonished........what with millions of tons of perfect road surfacing material would have been available at that time locally.

 

Anyone know anything about this.........and indeed how widespread it was the use oak cobbles?.......i'm just glad I wasnt riding a motorcycle up that way!

 

Jay in sunny Cornwall.

 

If you know that Spital Hill is a cut down name of HOSPITAL HILL you can understand as to maybe why the cobbles were made of wood. If anybody was in Hospital one of the cures was as it is to-day rest and quiet --so-- any horse and cart or handcart that passed the noise of iron rims of the wheels would

be quietened down. Ive seen the wooden cobbles in different places in town and I think it was just to cut down the noise.

The Hospital would also put straw on the road outside the wards to lessen the noise of any traffic.

[Strix]

You can still buy them http://www.fountaintimber-midlands.co.uk/content_oakcobbles.html

[BILDEBORG]

Yes I was aware that Spital was a corruption of hospital but I never made the connection, but now you point it out it seems pretty obvious. I recall there was a hospital on West Street that had road signs either side of it with some sort of request that you keep quiet as you were approaching a hospital. I am also surprised you can still buy them!

 

Jay.

[Hopman]

There used to be wooden cobbles on Eldon Street in Sheffield - again this was near the hospital, so the above applies.

[Strix]

I've found a photo with suspiciously smooth looking cobbles in it:

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.id=650

[algy]

Originally posted by Hopman

There used to be wooden cobbles on Eldon Street in Sheffield - again this was near the hospital, so the above applies.

That's right, I can remember seeing the same thing on Devonshire Street many years ago when the surface was dig up. I too was told it was because of the Royal Hospital.

[lazarus]

Originally posted by Strix

I've found a photo with suspiciously smooth looking cobbles in it:

http://www.picturesheffield.com/cgi-bin/picturesheffield.pl?_cgifunction=form&_layout=picturesheffield&keyval=sheff.id=650

 

Those cobbles are made of stone and you can see by their shape they are not wood. The ones in the photo are not square as the wooden ones were and the most probable explaination as to why they look smooth is because of the countless thousands of iron wheel rims that have been over them.

[PopT]

I paid a visit to Cricht Tram Museum recently and noticed some of the roadways outside their workshops are made from Oak cobbles.

 

 

Happy Days

[Dawdie]

my mum can remember such cobbles on Eberneezer St off Green Lane.There's no hospital there just the old Eberneezer Chapel[now burned down]and what was the Lancasterian School

Audreyf