We may complain about potholes but a couple of hundred years ago travelling was a long winded process, indeed it was often much easier to get to your destination by sea rather than by road. Gradually things have improved thanks to great engineers like Telford and Stephenson, but there are lesser known heroes too. Men like William Madocks who built the Cob that I am standing on here, it is easy to forget that at one time the sea would have reached right up this valley all the way to Aberglaslyn Bridge. So a journey from Boston Lodge on the southern side of the Cob to the harbour bridge at Porthmadog would have meant a very uncomfortable 14 miles rather than the three quarters of a mile across the Cob. But that was a small benefit compared to the benefits of the railway bringing the Ffestiniog slates to the quay for export to all corners of the world