Road communication up until the nineteenth century was extremely primitive. Few main highways would have been in a tolerable condition. It was not until the introduction of tarmac in the 1820s that any real progress was made. The earliest roads through the village were ancient trackways, such as the Salt Way which linked Droitwich with Stow-on-the-Wold and beyond, and the White Way which ran from Cirencester to Stratford-upon-Avon.
Today the main road that runs through Mickleton is the B4632. It incorporates Stratford Road as it enters the village to the north, the High Street through the village, and Broadway road as it leaves the village to the south. It had, however, previously been the A46 until it was downgraded to a B Road. The road from Mickleton to Chipping Campden is also a B road, the B4081.
Under the 1936 Trunk Roads Act the A46 was designated a Class I road and went from Bath to Cheltenham and on to Warwick. The classifications of roads at the time in order of importance were: Trunk roads, Class I roads - both of which were designated A roads, Class II - designated B roads, and Unclassified roads. The classifications have now changed with the introduction Motorways and major Trunk roads.
Nowadays an A road is a major road, usually connecting two or more cities or other significant places, which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic. Even within the A route designation there is a hierarchy of importance depending on the number of digits, e.g. whether there is one (e.g. A1), two (e.g. A46), or three digits.
On the other hand a B Road invariably has a lower traffic density than an A road, may link less large towns or other settlements, or be a collector route for an A road. The B classification supposedly has nothing to do with the width or quality of the physical road. B roads follow the same numbering scheme as A roads, but almost always have 3- and 4-digit designations.
Some B roads are former A roads which have been downgraded owing to new road construction or when superseded by an upgraded road following a similar route. This is the case with the B4632; the A46 now runs via Evesham and is designed for a higher density of traffic and is the main route for HGVs. However, the link with the former A road is retained in the B road designation - i.e. 46xx. One might reasonably assume this is intentional.
The declassification of the road through the village has not necessarily meant a reduction in traffic. The number of HGVs passing through the village may have reduced but it remains a busy road. Presumably though this is predominantly local traffic rather than long distance travellers. A life-long resident of the village can remember as a child in the fifties playing football for many hours on the road in the centre of the village as there were very few cars passing to disturb the game. Even these cars would also have been travelling at relatively low speeds compared to today.
The major roads around Mickleton in the eighteenth century were possibly turnpiked. A turnpike is a toll road for which a fee (the toll) is levied for passage be it by foot, horse, cart or carriage. It is a form of pricing typically levied to help recoup the cost of construction and maintenance of the road be it private or public. A map of Gloucestershire from 1824 shows a toll bar at the Butts. There may have been others such as at Paul's Pike (pike is probably short for turnpike) at what is now the junction of the B4081 from Mickleton and the B4035 to Chipping Campden.
It is interesting to speculate that the old A46 could possible, in part at least, be a successor to and follow the route of the ancient highway - the White Way - that went through Mickleton and followed the Cotswold escarpment south.