Steam engines on UK roads, 1862–1865: Banning orders, agricultural locomotives and the ‘red flag’ Act

A new law, enacted in 1861, regulated traction engine use on British roads: setting speed limits and introducing a mechanism for imposing ‘Banning Orders’. People opposed to engine danger or nuisance could apply to government for a daytime ban covering roads in their area. From 1862, Banning Orders increasingly handicapped work with ‘agricultural locomotives’. A ‘self-propelling engine’ used for ploughing could not even travel in daytime by road from one field to another where a ban was operative. Campaigning and lobbying brought about legislative change. A new, 1865, law cut speed limits further and combatted engine ‘nuisance’ by requiring a person to walk sixty yards in advance, carrying a red flag to warn of the engine’s approach. The advance lookout was also to signal the engine to stop whenever alarm to horses on the road looked likely. In its time a sensible precautionary measure or an obstacle to technological progress?