Is The A57 Snake Pass 200 Years Old?

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

BBC News believes so- see clip today, at

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-58329767?ns_mchannel=social&ns_source=twitter&ns_campaign=bbc_live&ns_linkname=58329767%26%27Marmite%27%20road%20marks%20200%20years%262021-08-25T10%3A43%3A58.040Z&ns_fee=0&pinned_post_locator=urn:bbc:cps:curie:asset:33453dc7-ab29-46ed-ae4f-84d56f542a3e&pinned_post_asset_id=58329767&pinned_post_type=share

[spilldig 188]

I thought it was constructed by the Romans. Could be wrong but that would make it around 2,000 years old.

 

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

Yet I was told previously that it dated from when Ashopton Village- and the transpennine road though it, along the bottom of the valley- disappeared beneath the reservoir: much less 200yrs ago!

[1978 14]

Engineered as a toll road (turnpike) by Thomas Telford construction was financed by the Dukes of  Norfolk and Devonshire and opened in 1821.  It was never a commercial success and was lightly used.

 

The Snake Inn sign came from the Arms of the 6th Duke of Devonshire which depicted a serpent.

[sadbrewer 20]

The Snake Inn was there from at least 1826, but there are no references in the newspaper archives to the road being called Snake Pass until the late 1880's.

 

   The Roman Road mentioned above was known in later times as Doctor's Gate and went from a Roman Entrenchment known as Melandra Castle at Wooley Bridge,

although this is disputed in some sources, it was mentioned as early as 1843.

Edited September 7, 2021 by sadbrewer

[altus 540]

On 26/08/2021 at 16:54, Jeffrey Shaw said:

Yet I was told previously that it dated from when Ashopton Village- and the transpennine road though it, along the bottom of the valley- disappeared beneath the reservoir: much less 200yrs ago!

Most of the road is above the level of the reservoir so wouldn't have been affected by the building of it. Whilst a section of it was likely relocated because of the reservoir that bit is only a small section of about 4km so it would be more reasonable to say a section of the road was moved for the reservoir rather than claim the road didn't exist before it.

 

As for earlier than Snake Pass routes, you could look at the National Trust site's details for Doctor's Gate. Whilst some of it is overlaid by Snake Pass, most of it isn't (and it goes to Hope in any case).