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.

Updating of historic tollhouse lists for all English and Wesh Counties

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

these use old (pre 1974) 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

Turnpike gates & Tollhouses by county *	Maps of Turnpike Roads by county	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.

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) Details of surviving tollhouses, displayed on Google Earth,

These can be downloaded from the Milestone Society database http://www.msocrepository.co.uk/.

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 Launceston Liskeard Penryn and Redruth Penzance to St Just Saltash St Austell and Lostwithiel Trebarwith Sands Road Truro	Ashburton Barnstaple Bideford Braunton Combe Martin Combe Martin and Ilfracombe Countess Wear Bridge Cullompton Dartmoor and Roborough Dartmouth, Torquay and Shaldon Devon and Dorset (Axminster) Exeter Exmouth Great Torrington Honiton Honiton and Ilminster Honiton and Sidmouth Kingsbridge and Dartmouth Lyme Regis (Charmouth to Whimple) Lyme Regis (Crewkerne Branch) Modbury Moretonhampstead Newton Bushell Okehampton Plymouth and Tavistock (New Road) Plymouth, Eastern Sidmouth to Cullompton South Molton Stonehouse Tavistock Tedburn St Mary to Chudleigh Teignmouth and Dawlish Tiverton Totnes and Bridgetown-Pomeroy Trusts based in other counties Launceston Saltash Wiveliscombe	Bath Black Dog (Bath and Warminster) Bridgwater Bruton Chard Crewkerne Frome High Ham and Ashcott Ilchester Ilminster Langport, Somerton and Castle Cary Martock and South Petherton Minehead Roads Radstock Shepton Mallet Taunton Wedmore Wells Wells and Highbridge West Harptry Weston-super-Mare and Worle Wincanton Wiveliscombe Yeovil Trusts from Other Counties Bristol Sherborne Vale of Blackmoor Trowbridge Honiton Honiton and Ilminster	Lyme Regis (Crewkerne Div) Sherborne Vale of Blackmoor

2. An Index of Pages on this web site

click on the coloured links below to go directly to a page

a) Turnpike Roads - general

Turnpikes; overview of county differences

Details of the turnpikes road in counties of; Berkshire; Cornwall, Devon; Dorset; Somerset.

b) Turnpike Roads - Local Studies

· The text of a booklet on the Turnpikes around Oxford

· The text of a booklet on the Turnpikes around Banbury

· The text of a booklet on the Turnpikes around Abingdon

· The text of a booklet on the Turnpikes around Wantage (Besselsleigh, Faringdon, Wantage & Wallingford, Fyfield St Johns Bridge)

· A study of Turnpike roads around Reading, Berkshire and notes on Roman Roads near Reading

· A study of the Turnpike roads around Nantwich, Cheshire by Keith Lawrence.

· Some Oxfordshire Turnpike Trustees

· Some Cheshire Turnpike Trustees

c) Tollhouses – general notes

Tollhouse Design a review of the styles

Devon Tollhouses; A gazetteer by John Kanefsky

d) Milestones – an overview

Non-Turnpike Milemarkers - a discussion of those markers that were erected before and after the turnpike era

e) Early Way Markers – an overview

Ancient Stone Crosses in Devon - a detailed assessment of the stone crosses that survive in Devon, including Dartmoor

· List of Ancient Stone Crosses surviving in Cornwall and Devon and elsewhere

· A distribution map of Wayside Crosses in Devon

f) Road Users. - the traffic on the turnpikes

London Carriers and Inns – historic records

g) River Crossings Ferries and bridges over English rivers

Photographs are stored on Flickr, not on this website. Go to the Tollhouses page and follow the click-links.

Pictures of wayside crosses, milestones and road structure are sets off the main photostream; http://www.flickr.com/photos/tollhouses/

If you have any questions or more information about particular turnpikes or tollhouses,

please contact me at rosevear1@aol.com.

This page created Jan 11^th 2008 by Alan Rosevear (Tollhouse Alan)

Last revised 29^st March 2023

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