Turnpike roads

Photographed circa 1880

The original turnpikes date from the 15th century and as the name suggests were spiked barriers but they were designed to be placed across roads to prevent sudden attack by men on horseback. Later examples were horizontal timbers fitted with spikes, a version of what is called a cheval de frise although the Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the mounting timbers of the originals may have been vertical, since a slightly later sense was of a horizontal cross of timbers turning on a vertical pin, set up to exclude horse traffic from a footpath, which is in essence the device we now call a turnstile.

The word itself does not come from turning spikes but from turn and pike, the latter in the old sense of an infantry weapon with a pointed steel or iron head on a long wooden shaft. It is the inclusion of turn here that suggests the pikes were the barrier which could be turned aside about a vertical pivot to allow access.

From the middle of the 17th century onwards, many new toll roads were created in various parts of Britain through acts of Parliament. They were run by trusts, the tolls intended to go towards the cost of maintenance. Early toll gates were modelled on the old turnpike barriers and so the roads became known as turnpike roads, later shortened to just turnpikes.

Turnpike trusts were established in England and Wales from circa 1706 with the intention of establishing a better land transportation system than the existing and limited poorly maintained trails then being used. Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by various Acts of Parliament with powers to collect road tolls for paying off bonds that were used for building, improving, and maintaining the principal roads in Britain.

There were few main roads around Bourne although all were turnpikes, the road from Lincoln to Peterborough being turnpiked by Act of Parliament in 1756, as was the road from Bourne to Colsterworth, while the road to Stamford was turnpiked in 1749 and a Turnpike House is mentioned in the Enclosure Award of 1770, situated on Stamford Hill where the two roads diverge. There was also a toll bar with a house on the northern edge of Bourne on the road to Lincoln, now the A15. On the top rail of the gate at this bar was a notice saying: "Take a ticket to Graby Bar", this presumably being the next toll bar on the route. Pedestrians normally passed through this gate free of charge but tolls were levied on animals and vehicles. A board outside the turnpike house on North Road in the 19th century, pictured above circa 1880 announced that the price for a horse and trap to pass was 6d.

The Bourne to Spalding Road was not built until 1822 when the turnpike for the Lincoln to Peterborough road was renewed by Act of Parliament which also gave permission for this new branch of the road to be built by public subscription. “We congratulate the public on the probable advantage to be derived from this additional link in the communications between the eastern and western parts of the kingdom”, reported the Stamford Mercury on Friday 31st May. “The proprietors of estates in the line of the new road have entered into a very liberal subscription for the making of it: at the head of the list stands the Marquess of Exeter’s name for £500.”

The right to levy tolls was a valuable asset and they frequently came up for sale, usually by auction. A number of several such rights went under the hammer at Bourne on Saturday 15th January 1870 and fetched high prices: Bourne Mills and Graby bars £553 to Mr Bower, Kate's Bridge bar to Mr Higgs for £171, Edenham bar to Mr J Kettle for £173 and the Corby and Birkholme bars to Mr Edward Bullock for £273, and so it was obvious that there was a good profit in owning them.

But the payment of these tolls was extremely unpopular and there is a story that a resident of Dyke who frequently objected to paying at the North Road toll bar in Bourne had a pony which shared his master's sentiments and whenever the animal approached the gate it would rear up on its hind legs and then push through without payment being made. In 1843, John Green was summoned by Mary Harrison for neglecting to pay the toll for his wagon passing through the Bourne Meadow bar five times for the purpose of conveying his men to and from work upon his land in Bourne Fen. He appeared before the magistrates at the Town Hall on Saturday 3rd September and was ordered to pay the outstanding tolls plus 2s. costs.

Turnpiked roads however, were a considerable improvement on those which existed previously although Arthur Young was not impressed with the road surfaces he found when travelling through Lincolnshire in the late 18th century. He was particularly indignant about the so-called turnpike from Grimsthorpe to Colsterworth which, he said, "was either a morass of mud or a bone-shaking sequence of bumps over the pieces of rock which had supposedly been used to mend the road". It was not until 1820 when the famous Scottish road engineer John Macadam (1756-1836) worked as a surveyor in the Bourne area that the turnpikes became satisfactory for wheeled transport.

One of the main difficulties was the availability of suitable materials for the building and maintaining turnpike roads which were usually made from crushed stone bound with gravel and raised sufficiently to improve drainage. In the fen area around Bourne, the only local material was silt which was dug from pits or from ground set aside by the Enclosure Commissioners although gravel from various places such as pits near Horncastle was also used. Granite was later introduced and towards the end of the century, all main roads were being covered by granite chippings. The introduction of tar enabled road surfaces to be consolidated and strengthened and the macadamising of road surfaces soon became the general practice while the arrival of the steam roller in 1890 brought further efficiencies in road construction.

A map of 1825 shows that the turnpike road running southward from Bourne did not leave the town by its present day route but ran down part way of what is now the Austerby before turning once again towards the south. This is probably why there is no reference to the Austerby in the enumeration of roads in the Enclosure Award of 1770 because part of it would be the Bourne to Peterborough turnpike while the road from Bourne to Spalding hardly existed in the 18th century. Bourne Outgang only ran down into the fen and was never mentioned as a through road until 1822 when the Bourne to Spalding road was turnpiked.

At the peak, in the 1830s, over 1,000 trusts administered around 30,000 miles of turnpike road in England and Wales, taking tolls at almost 8,000 toll gates. The trusts were ultimately responsible for the maintenance and improvement of most of the main roads in England and Wales which helped keep agriculture and industrial goods well distributed and prices low. The toll roads had the advantage that they were a source of revenue for road building and maintenance through the tolls paid by the users of the road and did not require a general tax. The turnpike trusts were gradually abolished starting in the 1870s.

During their existence, the trusts exercised a strict code of conduct over the use of their roads with a large number of misuses that were liable to incur heavy penalties for anyone who might commit “a nuisance”. The list of such offences which was published by the trustees of the Lincoln to Peterborough turnpike in 1822 is a lengthy and detailed one but contains the beginnings of the rules of the road we know today and many of the offences itemised now remain enshrined in law.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

NUISANCES ON TURNPIKES

Turnpike-Road from Lincoln to Peterborough, and the several Districts thereof.
Notice is hereby given,

THAT, in and by a certain Act of Parliament passed in the present session, entitled “An Act for more effectually improving the roads leading from the east side of Lincoln Heath to the city of Peterborough, and several other roads therein mentioned, in the counties of Northampton and Lincoln, and for making a new branch of road to communicate with the said roads, from Bourne to Spalding, in the said county of Lincoln, it is enacted that if any person or persons shall ride or drive any horse of other cattle, or any cart or other carriage, or bale, draw, carry, pass, or wheel, any hurry, truck, or any wheelbarrow, on any footway or causeway adjoin to the said roads, in any of the said districts, or cause any damage to be done to the footway or causeway adjoining the said roads, or to the hedges, fences, breast-walls, posts, rails, or paling, set up along the side of or space such footway; or shall break, damage or destroy, any lamp, lamp-post or lamp-iron, set upon or near the said roads, or extinguish the light in any of the said lamps; or shall in, upon, or by the sides of the said roads, kill, slaughter, singe, scald, dress, or cut up, any beast, swine, calf, lamb, or other cattle, or cause or permit any blood to run from any slaughter-house, house, building, butcher’s shop, or shambles, into the said roads; or shall in any part or parts of the said roads, or in any exposed situations near thereto, burn, dress, or sweep, any pieces of cork, or hoop, fire, cleanse, wash, or scald, any cask or casks, or hew, saw, or cut, or cause to be hewn, sawn or cut, any stone, wood, or timber, or shoe, farry, or bleed, any horse, mule, or ass, except in the case of accidents; or if any person shall hale or draw, or cause to be haled or drawn, upon any part of the said roads, any tree or piece of timber, or any stone or plough, otherwise than whole upon wheeled carriages, of shall suffer any part of any tree or piece of timber, or stone or plough, which shall be carried upon wheeled carriages, to drag on any part of the said districts of road, to the prejudice thereof respectively; or if any person driving any pigs or swine upon the said roads shall suffer the same to root up and damage the same, or the fences, hedges, banks, or copse on either side thereof; or if any person shall turn, or suffer any horse, ass, beast, or swine, to be turned, or to be or to remain loose, or be tethered, upon the said roads, to graze or depasture on the sides thereof; or if any person driving any coach, chaise, waggon, cart, or other carriage, upon the said roads, and meeting another coach, chaise, waggon, cart or other carriage, shall not keep his carriage on the left or near side of the road;  or if any person driving or riding upon any horse or beast of draught, carrying crates, cans, or panniers, shall not keep the said horse or beast of draught on the left-hand side of the middle of the said road, or shall ride or drive his or her horse, or other beast of draught, opposite to or abreast of any other person driving or riding on any other horse or beast of draught, carrying crates, cans, or panniers, so that two or more such horses or other beast of draught shall be abreast or opposite to each other travelling upon the said roads, or shall in any manner wilfully prevent any other person or persons from passing him, her, or them, upon the said roads, or the coach, chaise, waggon, cart, or other such carriage, under his, her, or their care; or if any person shall make, or assist in the making, any fire or fires, commonly called bonfires, or other fires, or pitch or erect any tent, canvas, or other convenience  for the purpose of lodging therein, or abiding thereat, or for any other purpose whatsoever; or shall set fire to, or let off, of throw any squib, rocket, serpent, or firework whatsoever, on any part of the said roads, or within eighty feet of the centre thereof, or play at football or any other games on any part of the said roads, or bowl or trundle any hoop or hoops, or raise or fly any paper kite upon or over the said roads, or any part thereof, or on any of the sides thereof respectively, or be aiding or assisting therein, to the annoyance or any passenger or passengers; or if any person riding, attending, or driving any horse or other beast on the said roads, and carrying any iron bar or rod, or basket, pannier, or any other matter of thing, shall place such bar, or rod, basket, pannier or other matter or thing, or any of them, across such horse or other beast, in such manner as that the same shall project more than 80 inches from either side of such horse or other beast, or so as in any manner to obstruct, impede, or endanger the passage or progress of any other person, or any horse, beast, cattle, or carriage, travelling or going along the said road; or if any person or persons, after having blocked or stopped any carriage whatsoever in going up a hill or any other rising ground, shall leave, or permit to suffer to be or remain in the said roads the stone or other thing made use of in blocking or stopping such carriage; or if any person shall leave any waggon, wain, cart, or other such like carriage, in, upon, or on the side of any part of the said roads, longer than may be necessary for loading and unloading the same, either with or without any horse of beast of draught harnessed or yoked thereto; or in case the same shall not during such time be drawn out or placed as near to the side of the roads as conveniently may be; or shall lay any piece of timber, or any stones, hay, straw, dung, manure, soil, ashes, filth, rubbish, or other matter or thing whatsoever, on any part of the said roads, or on the side or sides thereof, or upon the footpaths or causeways adjoining to such roads, to the prejudice, annoyance, or interruption of persons travelling and passing thereon; or shall turn or make and drain or watercourse into, under, or upon the said roads, or any part thereof, or suffer the water from any pump or spout, or from any trough, cistern, or other vessel, to run into, over, or upon the said roads, or any part thereof, to the prejudice or damage thereof; or shall enclose or take in any ditch, drain, pipe, or watercourse, lying on the outside of his, her, or their paling, hedges, or other fences; or take, remove, or carry away any stones, sand, drift, or scrapings from off the said roads, or either of them, or from the sides thereof, or from any place or places where the same shall have been laid or deposited by the trustees, or any person or persons employed by them, without licence or consent in writing for that purpose first had and obtained from the said trustees; or if any person or persons shall lay any hay, straw, or other matter or thing upon any part of the said roads, to be made into manure; or shall, without the consent of the said trustees, scrape off the same any mud, soil, or other matter or thing which shall be or lie upon any part of the said roads, with an iron rake or other instrument with sharp points, whereby the said roads, or any part thereof, shall be damaged; or if any hawker, pedlar, gipsy, or other person or persons travelling with any machine, vehicle, cart, or other carriage, whatsoever, with or without any horse, mule, ass, or other beast, shall pitch or place any tent, or shall encamp upon or by the side or sides of the said roads, or any part thereof; or if any blacksmith, or other person occupying a blacksmith’s shop, having doors or windows to the front of the said roads, shall not, by good and close shutters, every evening after it become twilight, and every morning until after twilight, bar and prevent the light from such shop shining into the said roads; or if any person or persons shall do any other wilful damage or injury to the said roads, ort any part thereof, or shall in any manner whatsoever obstruct or impede the passage upon the raid roads: - every person so offending, shall, for each and every offence, forfeit and pay any sum no exceeding forty shillings, on conviction before a Justice of the Peace.

All gates are not to open upon the said roads, but are to be made or altered to open inward, under the penalty of 40s., besides the expenses of alteration.

The Trustees, Collectors, Surveyors, Officers, and such persons as they shall call to their assistance, are empowered, without warrant, to seize any unknown persons committing offences against the Act, and convey them before a Justice.

By order of the First General Meeting – Will Hopkinson, Clerk of the Middle District.
Bourne Town Hall, 31st Jul 1822.

- public notice reproduced from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 16th August 1822.

CAUTION TO DRIVERS OF WAGGONS: Thomas Hasten, of Morton, near Bourne, servant, was convicted at Bourne Town Hall on Saturday last, before the Rev S E Hopkinson and William Waters, clerks, magistrates for Kesteven, of riding upon his waggon on the turnpike and insolently refusing to tell his name when required, and was committed to Folkingham House of Correction for three weeks to hard labour. The magistrates felt themselves compelled from a sense of duty thus to make an exception, and to show that not even the excellent character given this man by his master and neighbours could excuse a conduct so dangerous to the public and so contrary to law. - news report from the Stamford Mercury, Friday 31st March 1820.

REVISED SEPTEMBER 2013

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