We have a few references to the condition of parts of the turnpike forerunners of the A151. Arthur Young's book on the Lincolnshire economy(50) was published in 1813, while the first Fosdyke bridge was still under construction. He therefore, will have taken the future A151 between Spalding and Fleet Hargate on his journey from Boston to Wisbech. He wrote of it thus: "In the Hundred of Skirbeck to Boston, and thence to Wisbeach, roads are generally made with silt, or old sea-sand, deposited under various parts of the country ages ago, and when moderately wet are very good; but dreadfully dusty and heavy in dry weather; and also on a thaw they are like mortar. Take the county in general, and they must be esteemed below par." What he is saying is that the turnpike roads in the Townlands were made of the same marine silt as forms the land itself in that part of the country. The heaviness in dry weather to which he refers, arose from the loose, deep, sandy surface through which wheels would have to be dragged.