The determined opposition of the Newcastle tradesmen and inn-keepers, afraid of loss of traffic, prevented the full scheme being carried out. The Bill, as passed in 1763, provided for the turnpike from Lawton as far as Burslem only. A Newcastle and Leek turnpike through the future Etruria and Cobridge followed. On February 1, 1765, we find Josiah Wedgwood writing to his brother John in London, “we have another turnpike broke out amongst us here betwixt Leek and Newcastle, and they have, _vi et armis_, mounted me upon my hobby-horse again.... He carried me yesterday to Leek, from whence I am just returned much satisfied with our reception there. Tomorrow I wait upon Sir Nigel (Gresley) to beg his concurrence, and on Monday must attend a meeting to settle the petition etc. at Mony Ash at yr frd Isaac Whieldons. We pray to have the Utoxeter and Burslem turnpike joined [i.e. Cliff Bank, Shelton, Cobridge and Burslem], and to have the road made turnpike from Buxton and Bakewell to Leek, and from Leek to Newcastle. Whether or not our good friends at Newcastle will give us battle on this occasion we do not know, if they do there will be some probability of my having a commⁿ and seeing the great City again. £2000 is wanting for this road. My uncles Thos. and John (of the Big House) have, I am quite serious, at the first asking subscribed ... _five hundred pounds_. I have done the like intending 2 or 300 of it for you, and if you choose any more you must let me know in time.”[93] What these roads were like one can gather from Arthur Young’s travels. He describes the road from Knutsford to Newcastle as “in general a paved causeway, as narrow as can be conceived, and cut into perpetual holes, some of them two feet deep; a more dreadful road cannot be imagined.... Let me persuade all travellers to avoid this terrible country....”[94] Yet even these roads and lanes seem to have been moving with the times, for we hear, in 1763, of one Daniel Morris introducing wagons and carts for the first time, and acting as carrier.[95] “Pot-wagons” now took crates of ware to Bewdley on the Severn and to Willington Ferry on the Trent. The general rate of transport was 9s. per ton for 10 miles. To the port of Liverpool the rate was 28s. per ton, but flint and clay up from Liverpool cost only 15s. a ton.[96] To Willington the charge was 35s. a ton; and the transit down the river to Hull was almost as expensive.