[rogerbinns]

I recommend reading Bill Bryson's book Mother Tongue: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mother_Tongue

One thing he notes was that originally there was no spelling consistency because there was no need due to limited written communication. Then as reading and writing became more widespread there became a need for consistency. This took something like 40 years to complete. Unfortunately half way through that period newspapers and dictionaries came out which resulted in some words being consistent and some not.