Was tarmac really invented in Bristol ?
In 1820 a Scottish engineer called John McAdam lived in Berkeley Square whilst working for the Bristol Turnpike Trust who were responsible for Bristol’s Road. McAdam relayed his roads with a mixture of crushed stone bound with gravel and was the first engineer to introduce a camber on a road producing the fast run off of rain water and prolonging the life of the road. These roads were known as macadam roads and his pioneering work in Bristol led to the addition of tar which brought about the name tarmacadam or tarmac as we now know it.