Milestones

(details of each turnpike trust can be reached by clicking on links at bottom of this page)

Devon

County Topology and Wealth during turnpike era

Devon is the second largest English County, extending across the full width of the SW peninsula and bounded to north and south by the sea. The northern coast is steep and rocky, save for the natural haven of Barnstaple Bay, the southern coast is longer and has many small coves as well as the deep drowned estuaries of the rivers Exe, Teign, Dart, Avon and Tamar. Dartmoor and Exmoor are high, thinly populated regions to the west and north; the Blackdown Hills form a high barrier to the east. The valleys of the Culm, Exe and Otter and the rolling hills of the South Hams are productive agricultural areas. Fishing is important along the coast and Plymouth is particularly important as a major naval base. Exeter has been a significant centre of manufacture since medieval times, initially woollen goods but lately a wider range of products. Although Devon is relatively distant from the large urban centres of population there was some tourism during the mid-19^th century and the county gentry maintained large houses.

The rivers run north / south so any traffic along the peninsular is obliged to cross several valleys; the height of Exmoor, Dartmoor and the Blackdowns concentrated travel into the southern edge of the county. Due to the difficult terrain but perhaps also the relative poverty of the area, packhorses were more common than wheeled vehicles for carrying goods, well into the 18^th century. Hence, the roads were particularly narrow and twisting, often running in gullies between steep banks and keeping to the hilly ground rather than the wet, tortuous river valleys..

The county town, Exeter, is 173 miles from London.

Old Routes through the County

Two old Post Road from London converge at Exeter. Ogilby made Exeter as an important regional hub for his 1675 maps, showing Post roads running between the two coastlines, down into Cornwall for Falmouth and Penzance, and eastwards to Bristol. The crossing of the Exe at Exeter was critical to the free flow of road traffic in the County and a good bridge had been there since early medieval times.

Turnpike Pattern

Like other counties that were distant from London, turnpiking came relatively late to Devon. The roads around Exeter itself were the first to be taken under a Devon-based turnpike trust in 1753 but from its inception, this trust had the characteristics of a local market hub, rather than the guardian of a long distance highway. The Devon and Dorset trust created in 1754 was a more traditional Post Road trust, taking responsibility for the London Road from Bridport in Dorset, through to Honiton. However, even this fragmented into several independent trusts after a short period. Within little over decade following the Exeter Act, turnpike trusts centred on all the main market towns in Devon had been created. These trusts took on both major and minor roads radiating from the urban hub and the roads feeding into the market seemed as important as the long distance post roads. The principal radiating roads of adjoining hubs did abut each other but several roads were clearly stubs, only part of one trust network.

The London road from Dorset was turnpiked in sections by urban centred trusts at Axminster and Honiton (1754 Act), Exeter (1753), Okehampton (1760) and Launceston (1760). The roads from Dorchester and Bristol showed the more usual pattern of turnpiking stretches of rural highway, taking tolls from long distance travellers passing through these parishes. On the former, a Division of the Lyme Regis trust (1758) was responsible for two long stretch of the coastal road from Dorset leading towards Exeter. A non-radial part of the Tiverton turnpike (1758) carried the Bristol road from the Somerset border, and beyond Exeter the Ashburton Trust (1754) and Plymouth Eastern Trust (1756) were similarly linear turnpikes. The naval facilities at Plymouth required supplies from within Devon and a number of turnpike roads were built to serve this. Originally a Plymouth centred trust had been proposed, but eventually the responsibility was shared between several trusts. The Plymouth Eastern (1756); the Modbury trust (1759) covered roads to the east, the Tavistock (1762) Trusts dealt with roads from the north and Saltash Trust (1762) was responsible for the road westwards to the Passage over the Tamar. At a similar time roads were turnpiked into the ports of the South Hams; Kingsbridge & Dartmouth (1759) and Totnes (1762). Later, roads within Plymouth were improved by the Stonehouse Trust (1784).

During the latter part of the 18^th century roads across Dartmoor were improved by the new Moretonhampstead Trust (1772) and by extensions to the existing Tavistock Roads (1772). A new road was built from Roborough to the prisoner of war prison on Dartmoor in 1812 and a north/ south route created by extension of the Newton Bushell roads in 1826.

Major improvements were made to the main London road by trusts set up to build stretches of totally new roads; a new route from Ilminster to Honiton being formed in 1807 and a new section of the route through Taunton was built by the Cullompton Trust in 1813. Cooperation between the Exeter, Ashburton and Plymouth Eastern Trusts resulted in the building of several stretches of new road in 1820 (The Plymouth Exeter Road), completing the series of quite radical improvements to the London Roads through the county. Collaboration between the Exeter Trust and the Barnstaple trusts in 1830 saw the re-routing of the hilly north/south roads into the Taw valley and collaboration between the Exeter and Tiverton trusts resulted in a new road along the Exe valley replacing the old Ogilby road upon the hills. The Wiveliscombe Trust, based in Somerset, collaborated with the Tiverton Trust to improve the roads leading into north Devon, creating a new road through Bampton to South Molton to replace the old Ogilby route in 1825 and connecting with the new Tiverton Road to South Molton road in 1830.

In the early 19^th century the roads around the seaside resorts of South Devon were turnpiked; Honiton to Sidmouth (1816), Teignmouth & Dawlish (1823), Exmouth (1823) and Dartmouth & Torquay (1825). In North Devon, the Barnstaple Trust extended its roads to Ilfracombe in 1828 and a new trust was created at Combe Martin in 1838. However, the NW of the county remained poorly served by turnpikes; even some of the Bideford turnpike roads were returned to parish control. The traffic on these remote roads was probably insufficient to warrant taking on the financial burden of turnpiking. Although the landed interests around Holsworthy had considered turnpiking the main road in 1787 it seems they decide against this and the roads remained toll-free, repaired by a local highways board. The quality of this maintenance was such that in the 1840s, the Holsworthy Roads were held up as a good example of how Highway Boards could manage roads economically.

Bridges were generally the responsibility of the county; stones marked with a C still stand a short distance either side many bridges, marking the limits of County responsibility on the bridge approach. However, several major projects were financed by Private Acts of Parliament and tolls were levied to allow the loans to be repaid. The toll bridge over the River Teign at Shaldon was built in 1827 and in the same year the Laira Bridge was built across the Plym. The turnpikes roads close to these bridges were re-aligned to bring traffic to the new crossings. The wide estuary crossings at Dartmouth, Saltash Passage and Torpoint Passage were improved by floating bridges (steam powered chain ferries) in the early 1830s, though in these cases, turnpikes had already been built to the ferry points.

The turnpike trusts gave up responsibility for sections of road that passed through several towns when these were covered by Improvement Acts for all the streets in particular towns. Paving and Lighting Acts were implemented in Exeter, Honiton (1790), Tiverton (1793) and Okehampton (1800) and Dartmouth (1815); in other places such as Ottery it was judged better for the town to maintain the streets. This should have resulted in all turnpike gates being moved outside the town though in Honiton there was complex revenue sharing between the town centred trust and the Commissioners of the Town Paving Act. Even where turnpike trusts took tolls, the parishes still carried the burden for routine work; for instance on the Wiveliscombe Road through Bampton, the toll income was only sufficient to service the loan made to build the road, the parishes did all the maintenance.

Like other English turnpikes, the Devon trusts were affected by the arrival of the railways in the 1840s and after a period of steady decline were progressively wound up in the late 1870s and the roads transferred to local Highways Boards and later the County Council in 1888.

A map of turnpike roads in Devon shows the roads for which individual trusts were responsible. (the list of turnpikes trusts below gives access to more details on individual Devon-based Trusts and th main table provides information on individual trusts outside the county). This Devon county view is adapted from a line map of roads by Sellman, with information on the individual trusts added in different colours. A list of the Turnpiked routes through Devon is given by Lysons in his Magna Britannica; a correlation of Lysons roads with the respective turnpike trusts is given separately here.

Finance of Turnpikes

Several Devon trusts had quite large incomes (Exeter £9k and Tiverton £4k in 1824). However, they also had relatively large debts (£55k and £32k respectively, or 6 time and 8 times there annual income) and heavy operational costs due to the large mileages they had to maintain and the many tollgates needed on the radial roads. When judged on an income per mile basis or income for each toll point, then most of the Devon Trusts were financially very weak. For instance, in 1824 the Newton Bushell Trust had an income of £260/a, with 26 miles to maintain and 10 tollhouses to operate and a debt 5 times its income; the Great Torrington had income of £380/a with 70 miles to maintain and 11 tollhouse. Although they also received Statute Duty from the parishes, the rural trusts in particular, were unlikely to have sufficient income against which to raise loans for major improvements to the roads. Several trusts relied upon the parishes to maintain the roads once the initial improvement had been made (e.g. Newton Bushell and Wiveliscombe roads).

Tollhouses

Click on the highlight to reach a table showing the tollhouses that have been recorded in Devon. About 100 of the original 400 still survive in some form; this is one of the highest number of survivals in any county in the country.

Rothern Bridge Tollhouse, Great Torrington

Milestones

The majority of milemarkers erected by the Devon Turnpike trusts were milestones. In the east of the county, good carvable stone such as limestone was often used but in the west, harder and less workable stone such as granite was sometimes used. Each trust adopted a different pattern of milestone, presumably because they contracted with local stonemasons who used individual designs. Despite the large mileage covered by the town-centred turnpikes, only a small proportion of the milestones have survived from these. However, the Barnstaple Trust, in a final gesture before handing over responsibility to Highway Boards, commissions new stones to a common design for the 104 miles of turnpike road for which it was responsible; many of these Barum stones survive. Devon is unusual in the number of Turnpike Terminus stones that have survived – particularly from the Okehampton Trust but also from the Exeter Trust. Devon also has several of the rare surviving examples of Take-off stones which were placed at the top and bottom of hills where extra horses could legally be added to aid waggons on steep hills. The few cast iron mileposts are found mainly in the south west of the county, on roads serving Plymouth. The South Molton trust attached cast iron mileplates to many of its stones and several of the Tiverton markers had gabled plates attached to existing milestones, presumably as a cheaper alternative to re-engraving the stone.

Milestone at Ashcombe, erected by the Teignmouth and Dawlish Turnpike Trust

Individual Turnpike Trusts in Devon

Documents and notes relating to individual Trusts are summarised on pages reached by clicking the links below (only those highlighted in colour are currently on-line).

Combe Martin

Combe Martin and Ilfracombe

Countess Wear Bridge

Cullompton

Dartmoor and Roborough

Dartmouth, Torquay and Shaldon

Devon and Dorset (Axminster)

Honiton and Ilminster

Honiton and Sidmouth

Kingsbridge and Dartmouth

Lyme Regis (Charmouth to Whimple)

Lyme Regis (Crewkerne Branch)

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 but having significant mileage of roads in Devon

Launceston – (Cornwall)

Saltash (Cornwall)

Wiveliscombe (Somerset)

The numbers of milestones and tollhouses surviving beside roads in Devon

(note this excludes features such as guidestones and boundary markers and non-road markers)

Turnpike Trust	Miles of Road in 1840	Milestones found	survival rate	Tollhouses in 1840	Tollhouse sites identified	Surviving tollhouses	survival rate
Ashburton (Ashburton & Totnes Consolidated)	28	11	39%	11	10	2	18%
Barnstaple	104	76	73%	12	31	6	50%
Bideford	42	0	0%	10	17	3	30%
Braunton				9	5	2	22%
Combe Martin	21	0	0%
Combe Martin and Ilfracombe	5	0	0%	2	2	0	0%
Countess Wear Bridge	2	0	0%	1	1	0	0%
Cullompton	6	0	0%	1	2	1	100%
Dartmoor and Roborough	7	4	57%	2	2	0	0%
Dartmouth, Torquay and Shaldon	38	17	45%	14	13	8	57%
Devon and Dorset (Axminster)	26	0	0%	6	9	1	17%
Exeter	147	64	44%	25	44	8	32%
Exmouth	2	0	0%	2	2	2	100%
Great Torrington	69	1	1%	11	11	5	45%
Honiton	49	8	16%	17	16	4	24%
Honiton and Ilminster	15	0	0%	3	2	0	0%
Honiton and Sidmouth	7	2	27%	3	2	1	33%
Kingsbridge and Dartmouth	56	36	64%	19	20	6	32%
Launceston	8	6	75%
Lyme Regis (Charmouth to Wimple)	39	8	20%	14	12	5	36%
Modbury	16	7	43%	5	6	3	60%
Moretonhampstead	16	9	58%	4	4	0	0%
Newton Bushell	26	16	62%	10	8	4	40%
Okehampton	38	14	37%	5	9	2	40%
Plymouth and Exeter Road (New Road)	42		0%	3	3	1	33%
Plymouth and Tavistock (New Road)	16		0%	6	7	2	33%
Plymouth, Eastern	16	3	19%	2	3	1	50%
Saltash (Devon)				5	2	0	0%
Sidmouth to Cullompton	16	1	6%	2	1	1	50%
South Molton	42	1	2%	7	19	11	157%
Stonehouse	4	4	100%	3	9	0	0%
Tavistock	51	50	98%	12	20	9	75%
Tedburn St Mary to Chudleigh	9	0	0%	1	1	1	100%
Teignmouth and Dawlish	27	16	60%	9	9	5	56%
Tiverton	88	5	6%	27	31	7	26%
Totnes and Bridgetown-Pomeroy	44	30	69%	12	22	5	42%
Total for Turnpikes	1123	389	35%	275	355	105	38%
Non-Turnpike (excl canal and railway)	8	4		2		2

For further reading;

Bennett F. (2007) The Roads of Devon & Cornwall, publ by author Menryn

Burd E.P. (1936) Okehampton Turnpikes, Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 68, 307-323.

Hawkins M.R. (1988); Devon Roads, publ by Devon Books (Exeter).

Jenkinson, T. (2007) Old Toll-houses of Dartmoor towns and villages Part 1: North and west Dartmoor Magazine No 87 Summer.

Jenkinson, T. (2007) Old toll-houses of Dartmoor towns and villages Part 2: South and East Dartmoor Magazine No 88 Autumn.

Kanefsky, J. (1976) Devon Tollhouses, Exeter Ind Arch. Group, University of Exeter (ISBN 0 9501778)

Kanefsky, J. (1977) Railway Competition and turnpike roads in east Devon, Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 109, 59-72.

Lowe, M.C. (1990) The Turnpike Trusts of Devon and their Roads; 1753-1889. Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 122, 47-69.

Lowe, M.C. (1992) Toll Houses of the Exeter Turnpike Trust. Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 124, 87-99.

Lowe, M.C. (1995) The Exeter Turnpike Trust; 1753-1884. Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 127, 163-188.

Rogers W.H. (1942) Barnstaple Turnpike Trust, Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 74, 139-167.

Sheldon G. (1928) From Trackway to Turnpike – an illustration from East Devon; publ. Oxford University Press.

Sheldon, L. (1933) Devon Toll-houses, Trans. Devon Assoc. for Advance of Sci. Lit. & Art, Vol LXV, pp 293-306.

Walker H.H. (1963) The Petition for making of the Torbay Road, 1836; Rep. Trans. Devon Ass. Advan. Sci, 95, 208-218.

Return to Turnpikes Home Page

This page created by Alan Rosevear 16^th Oct 2008.

Last Edited 2^nd Feb 2009

A Take-off stone at Lydford; this indicated where the extra horses used to haul a waggon up a particularly difficult hill had to be taken off – note that this stone may no longer be in it’s original location and is probably a copy made to replace the old stone, which was stolen.