A1-The Great North Road
The salient feature of British roads through the 16th and 17th centuries was mud. As traffic increased repair did not keep pace with wear. The system of statute labour, instituted in 1555 whereby each individual had to provide 3 days labour, was just not up to the task of maintenance. Folk with purely local interests did not have sufficient incentive to provide for the needs of non-local travellers. A feature of the writings of travellers such as Celia Fiennes, John Byng and Daniel Defoe was their lamentation about the state of the roads. Defoe, in particular, campaigned for new legislation to provide money for road-building.
The answer, which transformed the quality of roads in the 18th century, lay in the Turnpike Acts. These were acts of Parliament that authorized a group of people known as a Turnpike Trust, to erect a gate, or turnpike, across a road and levy a toll on travellers who wished to use a certain stretch of the road. The funds thus raised were used to pay for road improvements. The trusts were composed of local groups of landowners, businessmen and gentry who had an interest in improved roads.
The first Turnpike Act, in 1663, applied to a stretch of the Old North Road from Wadesmill, in Hertfordshire, northwards through Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. This was the line of Ermine Street, the main Roman road to the north and was subjected to particularly heavy traffic, both wheeled and hoofed, heading for London. In modern times this road has become the A10 but the section through Wadesmill, High Cross and Colliers End has remained a single carriageway. A bypass was due to be opened in December 2003 but the problems of the 17th century returned to haunt the road engineers. The completed road started settling and subsiding and repairs were required before it could be opened for traffic in the summer of 2004.
Back to 1662, and ‘An Act for Repairing the Highways within the Counties of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire’ got off to a slow and shaky start with only the Wadesmill turnpike raising any revenue. It was another 50 years before the system was widely adopted, but by the mid-18th century the total length of roads subject to turnpike acts had grown to 1500 miles and by 1820 had reached about 22,000 miles. Compare that with the 32,000 miles of motorways and A-roads today. Actually, only about a fifth of all roads were ever turnpiked, the parishes still retaining their responsibility for most local roads.
The coming of the railways, in the 1830s and 40s, saw the beginning of the end of the turnpikes. Stage-coaches ceased operations immediately in the face of the new competition, though the overall picture was mixed, with roads that acted as feeders to the railway stations experiencing an increase in traffic. But gradually turnpike revenues declined, the Trusts were dissolved, and then in 1888 the new County Councils took over responsibility for main roads, the upkeep of local roads falling to Urban and District Councils. The Turnpike Acts have left their legacy on the British landscape. Most milestones and mileposts were set up by the Trusts and the curious little multi-sided houses with windows giving views up and down the roads were once the lodgings of toll-keepers. The word ‘Bar’ is featured in many place-names, marking the position of a former turnpike gate.
Lincolnshire
©Biff Vernon 2004