Wood block street

Hyde Street in Winchester is an old road that is unfortunately a rat run. I can't complain as I do use it myself sometimes.

The road surface is very poor, with a lot of bumps and potholes, including this deep one where wooden blocks are exposed.

I found this:
"Around 200 years ago Hyde Street was the main road north out of Winchester and the potholes have revealed that it was surfaced for this heavy traffic with wooden setts. This is a fascinating glimpse of a past road surfacing more common in towns during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were protected with pitch before they were put in place which preserved them from the elements, and in this case, were buried when the road was relayed using new bitumen-based road surfaces.