Turnpike Roads in England & Wales

Welcome! This website is a hub for information on the historic turnpike roads of England and Wales.

Here you will also find something of the travellers who used these roads and records of turnpike features that have survived and can still be observed by the curious explorer.

Recently added below; a new study on the Tollhouses of Devon by Dr John Kanefsky

Updating of tollhouse lists for all English and Wesh Counties (both historic and surviving)

This site has page clusters dedicated to;

· the history of Turnpike Roads and their routes (tables listed below)

· Tollhouses that were built at turnpike gates to collect tolls from road users (tables listed below),

· Milestones that informed travellers of the distance to the next town, and

· Road Users who benefited from the improved highway.

· River Crossings – ferries and bridges

Also features that preceded the turnpikes, particularly

· Wayside Crosses that were beside the old highways.

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The site hosts research-based publications by leading historians of British roads. Click on the name for the link

· A definitive study by Dr Keith Lawrence on the Turnpike Roads around Nantwich, Cheshire can be accessed by clicking this link.

· Information on related turnpike trustees and on Tollkeepers nationally is accessed by the Keith Lawrence Data page.

· “Devon Tollhouses; A Gazetteer” by Dr John Kanefsky; a comprehensive list of Devon’s surviving toll houses and some mis-assigned tollhouses, with historic notes; published April 2021.

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Below is a list of summary tables, maps and information pages accessible on this site

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1. Tables and maps relating to turnpikes

*Note these use old county boundaries*

a) List of Turnpike Trusts in England & Turnpike Trusts in Wales and the equivalent modern road

b) List of Toll Bridges & ferries (19^th cent)

c) Town Improvement and Paving Commissions

d) Tollhouse and Turnpike Data for English Counties

Historic list of Turnpike gates by county *	Maps of Turnpike Roads by county	MSS supplemented by
Bedfordshire	Bedfordshire	FG Emmison (1936);
Berkshire	Berkshire
Buckinghamshire	Buckinghamshire
Cambridgeshire/Huntingdonshire,	Cambridgeshire/Huntingdonshire
Cheshire	Cheshire
Cornwall,	Cornwall
Derbyshire	Derbyshire,
Cumberland	Cumberland
Devon	Devon,
Dorset,	Dorset	report by R Good
Durham	Durham
Essex	Essex	P. Taylor (2010)
Gloucestershire	Gloucestershire	map by Gloucs RO
Hampshire	Hampshire	D Viner (1969);
Hertfordshire	Hertfordshire,
Herefordshire	Herefordshire	H Hurley (1992)
Kent	Kent
Leicestershire/Rutland,	Leicestershire/Rutland	A Cossons (2003)
Lancashire	Lancashire
Lincolnshire	Lincolnshire	S Benntt (1993)
Middlesex	Middlesex
Norfolk	Norfolk	P. Taylor (2009
Northamptonshire,	Northamptonshire	A Cossons (1946)
Northumberland	Northumberland
Nottinghamshire	Nottinghamshire	A Cossons (1994)
Oxfordshire	Oxfordshire
Shropshire	Shropshire
Somerset	Somerset	JB Bentley & BJ Murless (1985)
Staffordshire	Staffordshire	report by J. Higgins (2008)
Suffolk	Suffolk	P. Taylor (2009).
Surrey	Surrey
Sussex	Sussex	B Austin (2005-8)
Warwickshire	Warwickshire	A Cossons (1946);
Westmoreland	Westmoreland
Wiltshire	Wiltshire	Victorian History of Wiltshire, (1959)
Worcestershire	Worcestershire	Scaplehorn & Swann ((2008)
Yorkshire East Riding	Yorkshire East Riding	Macmahon (1964)
Yorkshire North Riding	Yorkshire North Riding
Yorkshire West Riding	Yorkshire West Riding

*There was not necessarily a tollhouse at each gate – side, check and chain gates in particular may have had no residential accommodation beside them.

e) Tollhouse and Turnpike Data for Welsh Counties

The data on Welsh tollgates has been reviewed and augmented by information in a dedicated database created by Chris Woodard. Thanks to Chris for sharing this.

Historic list of Turnpike gates by area	Maps of Turnpike Roads by area
North Welsh tollhouses	NW Wales (Anglesey, Caernarfon)
	NE Wales (Denbigh, Flint)
Mid Welsh tollhouses	Mid Wales N (Merioneth & Montgomery)
	Mid Wales S (Radnor, Brecon Cardigan)
South Welsh tollhouses	SW Wales (Pembroke, Carmarthen)
	S Wales (Glamorgan, Monmouth)
	Monmouth alone

f) Detailed maps of turnpike roads/tollhouse sites in specific areas

· Bristol and Bath, Exeter, Ilchester, Plymouth, Sherborne, Sidmouth, Taunton, Teignmouth (with tollhouses)

· Areas of Staffordshire roads; Birmingham, The Staffordshire Potteries, Cheadle, The Black Country (W of Birmingham)

· Areas of Lancashire roads; W of Manchester, E of Manchester, Burnley/Rochdale, Bury/Bolton, Blackburn/Haslingden, Preston/Wigan.

· Areas of West Riding of Yorkshire roads; Barnsley, Bradford, Doncaster, Halifax/Elland, Holmfirth, Huddersfield/Brighouse, Keighley/Skipton, Leeds, Pontefract, Saddleworth, Sheffield/Rotherham, Wakefield, York.

g) List of surviving toll houses in England & surviving tollhouses in Wales ; to see these displayed on Google Earth go to the Milestone Society database http://www.msocrepository.co.uk/ and download the most recent copy of the map file.

h) Material relating to specific turnpike trusts

Cornwall Roads

Devon Roads

Somerset Roads

Dorset Roads

Bodmin

Bodmin and Roche

Callington

Haleworthy, Camelford, Wadebridge and St Columb

Creed and St Just

Hayle Bridge Causeway

Helston