Part
A; Foundations............................................................................................................................................................3
1.
Introduction...............................................................................................................................................................3
2.
The First Roads through East
Berkshire....................................................................................................................3
2.1
Roman Roads............................................................................................................................................................................3
2.2
Saxon Tracks.............................................................................................................................................................................5
2.3
Medieval Highways & Bridges.........................................................................................................................................6
2.4
Tudor & Stuart Highways.................................................................................................................................................7
2.5
Speculation on the road pattern around Reading...............................................................................................................9
3.
Administration of the Highways..............................................................................................................................11
3.1
The Parish Road
System..........................................................................................................................................................11
3.2
Bridges....................................................................................................................................................................................12
3.3
General Highways Acts...........................................................................................................................................................12
Part B: Turnpike Trusts........................................................................................................................................13
4.
General Features......................................................................................................................................................13
4.1
Creation of Turnpikes Trusts...................................................................................................................................................13
4.2
Structure of Turnpike Acts......................................................................................................................................................14
4.3
Turnpikes around Reading..............................................................................................................................................15
5.
The Bath
Road.........................................................................................................................................................16
5.1
The nature of the route....................................................................................................................................................16
5.2
Reading to Newbury Road......................................................................................................................................................18
5.3 Maidenhead Road....................................................................................................................................................................23
5.4
The Road from Maidenhead to Cranford
and the Kensington Road...............................................................................28
6.
The Salisbury
Road..................................................................................................................................................34
6.1
The Nature of the Route..........................................................................................................................................................34
6.2
Powder Mills on Hounslow Heath to Basingstone..................................................................................................................35
6.3
Bagshot to Basingstoke and Farnham.....................................................................................................................................38
7
Roads Through Windsor Forest...............................................................................................................................41
7.1
The Nature of the Route..........................................................................................................................................................41
7.2
The Windsor Forest Trust........................................................................................................................................................41
7.3
The Forest Road......................................................................................................................................................................42
7.4
Windsor Roads........................................................................................................................................................................43
8
Roads from Reading into Oxon & Bucks................................................................................................................43
8.1
Reading to Shillingford...........................................................................................................................................................44
8.2
Reading to St Albans...............................................................................................................................................................47
8.3
Great Marlow to the Oxford Road..................................................................................................................................49
9
Roads from Reading
into Hampshire............................................................................................................................50
9.1
Reading to Basingstoke...........................................................................................................................................................50
9.2
Roads from Aldermaston
Great Bridge...................................................................................................................................51
10
Improvements in Reading............................................................................................................................................54
10.1
The Streets.............................................................................................................................................................................54
10.2
The Kennet Bridges........................................................................................................................................................56
10.3
Caversham Bridge.................................................................................................................................................................56
Part C: Operation of
Turnpikes............................................................................................................................57
11
The Men who ran the Turnpikes.................................................................................................................................57
11.1
Trustees.................................................................................................................................................................................57
11.2
Officers..................................................................................................................................................................................58
11.3
Toll Collectors.......................................................................................................................................................................60
12
Turnpike Finance.........................................................................................................................................................63
12.1
Tolls.......................................................................................................................................................................................63
12.2
Toll Income...........................................................................................................................................................................63
12.3
Loans & Capital.....................................................................................................................................................................65
12.4
Expenditure...........................................................................................................................................................................66
13
Structures along the Road............................................................................................................................................66
13.1
Milestones.............................................................................................................................................................................66
13.2
Toll Houses...........................................................................................................................................................................68
13.3
Weighing Engines.................................................................................................................................................................69
13.4
The Roadway.........................................................................................................................................................................69
13.5
Lighting.................................................................................................................................................................................71
13.6
Watering the Road & Pumps.................................................................................................................................................71
14
Management of the Road.............................................................................................................................................72
15
Traffic on Turnpikes West of London.....................................................................................................................73
15.1
Carriers..................................................................................................................................................................................73
15.2
Coaches.................................................................................................................................................................................73
Part D: Decline and Fall.......................................................................................................................................75
16
Competition with Other forms of Transport............................................................................................................75
16.1
The Competitors....................................................................................................................................................................75
16.1
The Canals & Rivers.............................................................................................................................................................75
16.2
Railways................................................................................................................................................................................76
17
The end of the Turnpikes and Modern Developments................................................................................................77
17.1
Decline..................................................................................................................................................................................77
17.2
Closure of Turnpikes.............................................................................................................................................................78
17.3
The Legacy......................................................................................................................................................................79
Part A;
Foundations
1.
Introduction
Most of our modern
trunk roads are built upon the turnpike roads of the 19th century. Although this earlier road
network appears to be a coherent investment in national infrastructure,
turnpiking was in general the result of many, uncoordinated, local initiatives.
Furthermore, turnpikes were but one phase in an evolving system for repairing
and improving English highways to carry wheeled vehicles. Each generation has
adapted the administrative and physical structures that it inherited. The
Romans adopted ancient tracks and augmented them with new paved roads. In the
Medieval period wealthy benefactors built bridges and causeways to improve
travel between the new communities along the large river valleys. In the
Elizabethan period, with the loss of ecclesiastical management, new
institutions and Statutes provided a civil administration for the highways and
bridges. Parishes were given responsibility for the upkeep of their roads and
this parochial system continued to operate well into the 19th century for local roads. However, it
proved ineffectual for maintaining major highways that ran through several
parishes and were used by travellers who had no responsibility within the
Parish. The turnpike trust was a legal device that evolved during the early 18th century to deal with the inadequacies
of the Elizabethan Statute Labour system and ensured adequate finance for the
maintenance and improvement of main roads.
Although important
turnpikes in East Berkshire ran through Reading,
the town had not become a major transport hub until the medieval period. The
Roman road network had been focused on the provincial centre near Silchester, a
little to the south. The early medieval highways running west from London crossed the Thames to the east of Reading and then diverged to the northwest
and southwest. Nevertheless, this Saxon town grew as a market for local goods
and as an entrepot for goods carried by vessels along
the Thames and the Kennet. The creation of the
Abbey increased the status of Reading and by the
late medieval period the town was firmly established as a place to rest on the
road between London
and the western parts of the Kingdom. This evolving status has left its mark on
the layout of the road network in the Middle Thames
Valley and the adjoining
region.
2. The First Roads
through East Berkshire
2.1 Roman
Roads
The Romans were the
first administrators of Britain
to build roads; paved routes for wheeled vehicles. Prior to the Roman invasion
travellers and traders followed natural features of the landscape when making
long distance journeys. Land travel was easiest over relatively dry, clear
ground and most difficult in the wet alluvial soils through which many of the
rivers ran. Boats provided a better means of transporting bulky goods between
those fortunate towns located by the larger rivers. Through a heavily wooded
region such as Berkshire, the ridgeways
between river valleys were important natural highways (Fig 2.1a). The
Great Ridgeway along the chalk of the Berkshire Downs and Chilterns was part of
a long distance pathway running northeastwards from
Salisbury Plain towards East
Anglia. Another arm of the chalk downland forms the southern edge of the Thames
basin. Along this ridge runs a natural trackway, commonly called the Harrow Way, from
Salisbury Plain, through the Hampshire Downs and North Downs to Kent (Timperley
& Brill 1983). Lesser ridgeways above the Kennet and Lambourn valleys would
have brought some traffic down from the high Downs towards the Thames.
Away from the
ridgeways other natural features were used repeatedly by generations of
travellers who beat out ancient pathways. Modern place names may betray some of
the ancient fords where a firm riverbed permitted travellers to cross the wide,
slow flowing river. Moulsford is conveniently located as a crossing for
travellers on the Great Ridgeway. Wallingford
could be used by travellers following the high ground towards the Corallian
Ridge near Faringdon. Open heath land in Surrey and Middlesex would have
facilitated travel either side of the middle Thames
and the river gravel terraces may have provided short distance paths. However,
heavy London Clay covers the valley east of Maidenhead and floodwater prevented
the creation of any permanent network of tracks. In contrast, the rivers,
particularly the Thames and its main tributaries such as the Kennet, Thame and
Cherwell, provided navigable routes between the coastal trading centres and the
productive lands of Southern England. In
pre-Roman Berkshire the principal route for traffic through the Thames Valley
was probably the River. Any land traffic would have found it easier to use the
heaths and downland along the watershed to the south.
Roads were important
in the military strategy used by the Romans to subdue and contain the native
Celtic tribes after the invasion. Straight paved roads were built by military
engineers to facilitate rapid communication and easy transfer of forces around
this new Province. These roads took little account of topological features and
were cut with military precision between the principal garrisons and towns. The
Romans chose to build a local administration centre at Calleva, now Silchester
(Fulford 1995). This had been the tribal centre of
the Atrebantes (hence the full name Calleva Atrebatum) and in pre-Roman times would have been served by
tracks over the dry ground above the upper reaches of the rivers Blackwater and
Loddon. Roman Calleva apparently grew to be the main transport hub west of Londinium (Fig 2.1b). Paved roads radiated from the
gatehouses in the stone walls that eventually surrounded the large Roman town (Fulford 1995). The main road west from Londinium
ran to Calleva via Pontes, presumed to be at an important bridge over the Thames. This entered Calleva by the fortified East Gate.
There were gatehouses at three other points of the compass suggesting these
were portals for main roads radiating from the town. It is commonly assumed
that the road through the West Gate was the Ermine Way, which ran towards Corinium
(Cirencester). A road from the North Gate led to Alchester (near Bicester),
supposedly crossing the Thames near Dorchester
(Oxon.). Three roads are believed to have run southwards from Calleva; the main
road was that to Venta (Winchester)
but another important road ran to Sorviodunum (Sarum) and a less important road towards Noviomagus (Chichester).
These latter two roads may have branched from the Venta
road outside the town or may have used the minor gates in the southwest and
southeast walls.
After the Roman Province
settled into peaceful prosperity, some civil trade routes were also paved.
These were probably less well founded and made more concessions to topographic
features. One of these route, may have branched from the Ermine Way at Spinis (presumed to be
Speen near Newbury) and ran westwards to Cunetio (Mildenhall near Marlborough). This
corridor would in later times be the line of the London
to Bristol
highway but evidence for this Roman road is sparse. In particular the crossing
of the Kennet is a tantalising enigma because it has a bearing on where the
later medieval road might have run. Determining the line of Roman roads is
often little more than informed speculation. South East England has very little
good quality building stone and so paving stones and milestones from these
roads close to Roman Londinium were robbed out fairly
quickly. The aggers or banks on which the roads were
built would have remained as visible features along which tracks might run or
boundaries be defined. This is clearly the case on the road that approaches
Calleva from the east but there is little material evidence of the roads to the
north and west. The Ordnance Survey suggests that the road from the west gate
of Calleva headed northwestwards, implying a crossing
on the lower Kennet and a road westwards along the river valley, close to the
line of the present A4 near Thatcham. Earlier historians had proposed that the
road ran due west, past the monumental Imp Stone (an old Imperial Roman
milestone?) and across the high ground. This perhaps crossed the Kennet to west
of its confluence with the Lambourn. The present author believes that during
the Roman period roads probably followed both these routes; the arguments for
this are given in Appendix R. The line of road north from Silchester is also
uncertain but its precise position is of less importance to the later
development of the main road network.
There is speculation
that a Roman road crossed the Thames near Henley,
presumably heading from Pontes to settlements on the north bank of the river in
the Cotswolds. The name, Exlade Street, suggests that a
stone road passed due west from Henley towards
Moulsford. Alternatively Exlade Street could have been
on a secondary route between Calleva and Dorchester, crossing the Thames in the Pangbourn area. Speculation on these routes
is also contained in Appendix R. Another road may have run northeast from
Calleva along the banks of the southern banks of the Thames
towards Cookham. Here an ancient crossing of the Thames gave access to the
lower slopes of the Chilterns and St Albans.
With the exception
of London, the main Roman towns of southern Britain were
well away from the large river valleys. However, it seems likely that boats and
barges would have used the Thames and the Kennet, perhaps berthing near the
site of Reading.
This may even have been the point at which goods were unloaded for Silchester,
However, it seems unlikely that the Romans had any large urban development
close to the rivers of the Middle Thames and any small hythes
or wharves will have disappeared under later development of the riverbank.
2.2 Saxon
Tracks
The Saxons build
several of their market towns and defended burghs beside the rivers. Wallingford and later Oxford
grew to be substantial urban communities defending crossing points of the Thames. The main overland trade routes from Mercia to the Channel ports of Wessex ran through Oxford. The new Saxon settlements provided a
fresh focus, away from the old Roman centres. Oxford
replaced Roman Dorchester and Alchester, Saxon Marlborough replaced Cunetio and
Reading appears
to have usurped the local role previously fulfilled by Calleva. Like Abingdon
and Dorchester, and to some extent Oxford, Reading owed its initial importance to the crossing of a
tributary to the Thames rather than a crossing
of the great river itself. Any traffic following the southern, relatively flat,
bank of the Thames was inevitably led through Reading, located as it is at the southern-most
sweep of the river.
The routes between
these Saxon communities were not paved roads. Travellers would have been on
foot or horseback and most goods carried on the backs of men or pack animal.
Beaten paths were adequate to carry this traffic for much of the year. The
constant pressure of feet and hooves maintained a clear track through the
vegetation without seriously eroding the surface. Traffic carrying agricultural
goods to load onto river vessel probably formed the initial highways around Reading. The combination
of a thriving market, a good crossing of the Kennet and a convenient route for
road traffic further up the Thames valley
attracted a growing number of long distance travellers through the town. Reading became more significant as the old crossing of the
Thames at Staines deteriorated to merely a
ford. Traffic from London began to travel from
the heathland west of London onto the river
gravel terraces rather than attempting to cross to the south bank at Staines. Consequently, the hub at which the roads to
southwest England diverged
from those to the Midlands moved eastwards
from Calleva to Hounslow Heath (Fig 2.2a).
Nevertheless
travellers to the South Midlands must still
cross to the south bank if they were to avoid a steep climb over the Chilterns.
Hence crossings further upstream became more significant. From a river crossing
at Windsor, all traffic on the south bank was
led naturally towards Reading.
Crossing at Marlow or Cookham, further north, were of limited value for traffic
going west from London.
Claims that Cookham was an important crossing for the Great Western Highway seem implausible
and it is more likely to have been a simple north/south crossing carrying
traffic from the Chilterns to the South coast (effectively the function it
performed in Roman times). Traffic for the southwest would continue to favour
any crossing at Staines since this gave access to the Surrey
heathland and the Hampshire Downs. Hence, although Reading was relatively near to Calleva it
only inherited a part of the role of regional road hub, previously fulfilled by
the Roman town.
The area south of
the Thames was in Wessex
and presumably highways connected the main Saxon towns of the region. Where it
was convenient these would have used the old Roman roads but these paved roads
did not connect new settlements such as Wantage, Wallingford,
Thatcham and Reading nor the Mercian border town
of Oxford.
Several, less than perfect routes could probably be followed between these
settlements. For instance from Reading to the west, the road on the north bank
of the Kennet was over very wet ground but connected with settlements such as
Thatcham. The road on the south bank of the Kennet could take advantage of the
high heathland above the Enborne but ran through less
populated areas. The only evidence of highways in Saxon Charters west of
Reading is for the parish of Brimpton where reference
is made to Weal a Brucge (the bridge of the
Britons or foreigners) (BPRA 1999). It is not clear whether this is over the
Kennet or the Enborne but since latter maps only show
bridges over the Enborne it must be assumed that this
is an early reference to the crossing at Shalford. Most parish boundaries along
the Kennet run perpendicular to the river with no evidence of a Roman road providing
any landmarks. This castes further doubt on the survival of a principal Roman
road alongside the Kennet itself.
2.3 Medieval Highways
& Bridges
2.3.1 Royal
Highways
Reading,
like Abingdon further up the valley, is positioned at the confluence of a major
tributary with the Thames, and both were
favoured with a large Medieval Abbey. Whether the Abbeys were placed at
economically significant places or whether they created that economic power is
difficult to judge. Nevertheless, both Reading
and Abingdon grew in importance and surpassed in status the defended Thames
crossing at Wallingford.
They both eventually had bridges across the Thames but, whereas at Abingdon
this was an important component in the Great Road to Gloucester,
for Reading the Caversham
Bridge served a more
local function.
Henry I founded
Reading Abbey in 1121 and was buried there in 1123. An analysis of the journeys
made by subsequent Plantagenet Kings of England (RUTV 9) illustrates how
important Reading
became as a stopover for Royal travellers. The most frequent itinerary for
monarchs from King Henry II to Edward III (a period from 1154 to 1333) was to
travel on four or five consecutive days from London
to Windsor, Reading,
Wallingford and Oxford
or Woodstock.
Except for Reading, all these resting-places on
the road to the royal hunting lodge at Woodstock,
were royal castles. The king presumably travelled through Windsor
Forest to reach Reading and there cross the Kennet. To reach Oxford the party had to reach the north bank of the Thames
and it is proposed that they would use Wallingford Bridge,
the strategic crossing used by William the Conqueror in 1066. Wallingford Bridge
lay in the shadow of the large royal castle and it may be assumed that
travellers from Reading
could still use part of the old Roman road remained through Streatley.
Nevertheless a single record of a stop in Basildon (and no record of stopovers
on the north bank) is the only direct evidence for this being the preferred
route towards Woodstock.
From Reading the Plantagenet
kings frequently travelled westwards to the royal castle at Marlborough
(RUTV9). They may have followed the road along the Kennet valley through
Aldermaston and Newbury but there is more direct evidence for them travelling
over the high ground through Crookham and Hampstead Marshall. Reading
was at the junction of these major routes north and west, making it the most
important transport node west of London
for royal travellers between the 12th
and 14th centuries.
The royal party may
have used boats to travel between London and Windsor or could have travelled by road to cross the
Thames at Staines or Windsor.
Any remnants of the Roman Bridge at Staines had disappeared and the Barons used
the ford on their journey to meet King John at Runnymede
in 1215 (Phillips 1981). However, a clause in the Magna Charta transferred the
responsibility for upkeep of bridges from individuals to districts,
facilitating the construction of new crossings. A new wooden bridge was erected
at Staines in 1222, assisted by the gift of an oak from the Royal Forest
at Windsor. The
king donated wood to repair bridges at Windsor and Marlow in the early 13th century but there is no evidence of the
royal progress using the north bank of the middle Thames before the Edward the
first’s reign (after 1272). By 1223 there was a new bridge at Henley and this
created a better highway for Gloucester traffic,
avoiding the southern sweep through Reading.
A new bridge close to the river hythe at Maidenhead,
aligned with the Henley bridge, was in place by the early 13th century and Edward I used this road as
much as the Reading road. Nevertheless, Gough’s map, reputed to be from 1360,
still shows the two routes to Oxford being
through Reading
or over the Chilterns through Wycombe. However, the road through Maidenhead was
well placed to become the principal crossing of the Thames for all traffic
heading along highways to the West and South Midlands.
This trend reduced Reading
to merely an intermediate stop on the highway to the west.
2.3.2 Maintaining
the Highway
The maintenance of
particular medieval highways depended on charity and sponsorship by the
powerful interests of church or nobility. Wealthy dignitaries often left
bequests to pay for work on specific highways or bridges. The King sometimes
granted pavage or pontage to local lords so that users of the road or bridge
could be levied for a specified period of time to pay for the repair or
maintenance work (e.g. see below for Pontage on Staines
bridge and Pavage on Basingstoke
Road). Longer-term arrangements could involve the
installation of a hermit who would collect alms from travellers. The hermit
might occupy a small chapel or chantry (see Maidenhead Bridge
below) and hopefully collected more than enough to sustain their humble life
and to pay for the upkeep of the structure.
Pavage was granted
for the road from Hartford Bridge to Basingstoke
in 1406 (HRO). The petition stated that this highway was so deep and mirey that various losses and dangers have resulted before
this time to things being sent by that road and will result with greater
probability in consequence, unless for the amendment of the same, repair and
improvement are quickly arranged. Richard Spencer of Salisbury and William the
parson of Newenham were empowered to supervise the
taking of tolls from things for sale coming by the said road, with the
exception of wool, skins and woolfells. The toll was set at a farthing for each
horse loaded with skins (fresh salted or tanned) or for each pig. A halfpenny
was to be charged on each horse carrying corn for sale, or cloth, or seafish, or other merchandise for each casks of herring
(worth more than 5 shillings) and for each head of cattle or horse. Six sheep
were to be charged at a penny, each cask of woad or
load of cloth or merchandise by cart, four pence. The taking of tolls had to
cease after three years. This arrangement seems remarkable similar to that of
the turnpike trust that was to administer this road over 300 years later;
financing the upkeep of a main highway by local parishes levying long distance
travellers who were carrying goods for sale. However, in this medieval case the
local landowner and the church rather than a trust drawn from the wider
community supervised the activity. More importantly pavage was only granted for
a relatively short period and for a few sections of road with particular
problems. The petition implies that the majority of goods were carried by
packhorse with only woollen manufactured goods going in a wheeled vehicle, and
that only by cart (a rigid vehicle with poor manoeuvrability and limited
capacity). The exceptions for raw wool and skins (as opposed to treated hides)
suggest that local agricultural producers were being protected from the toll.
2.4 Tudor &
Stuart Highways
In the Tudor period,
Henley was effectively the head of navigation for the large Thames
barges. This must have reduced the importance of river-borne trade at Reading but would have increased the importance of the Thames crossing at Caversham. The bridge and a highway
along the northern bank allowed products to be carried by road and loaded on
the London bound barges at Henley.
Saxton’s map of 1574
does not show roads but does identify important bridges. Bridges were not only
costly to build but required a long-term, local commitment to maintain the
structure. Hence the presence of a medieval bridge implies either a very
important trade route or proximity to a very wealthy institution. Saxton’s
Tudor map shows Thames crossings at Windsor,
Maidenhead, Marlow, Henley, Sonning, Caversham and Wallingford. There are bridges over the main
tributaries at Twyford, Reading
and Aldermaston (Fig 2.4a). Higher up the tributaries there are bridges
on the Loddon at Loddon
Bridge and two bridges at
Swallowfield. On the Enborne there are bridges at
Shalford and Knightsbridge. The latter was probably on the highway along which
English wool was carried from the Cotswolds for export to the Continent through
ports such as Southampton. The latter
corresponds to the line of the Newbury to Basingstoke road described by Ogilby
but may incorporate an old the old Roman Road to Silchester, the western end of
the Devil’s Highway.
By the late 16th century the pattern of the main
highways radiating westwards from London
had been established. William Smith’s A particular Description of England of 1588 shows the Salisbury
road through Staines, the road west through Maidenhead and Reading,
with the Gloucester Road
branching off at Maidenhead and the Road to the South
Midlands through Wycombe. This same pattern is repeated in
Ogilby’s more comprehensive description of the main highways of England in his
strip maps of 1675.
In his commentary on
the Road from London to Bristol Ogilby’s wrote
that the Post Office made this one of their six Principal Roads of England. He
describes the route from the Middlesex/Buckinghamshire border as follows:
Enter Longford, a
village of 4 Furlongs; where passing 4 separate branches of the Coln, at 18’5. Cross the Coln
itself.
Here at once you
enter Buckinghamshire and Colnbrook (the Pontes in Antonine
[not now thought correct] a very good Thoroughfare, with a Market on
Wednesdays, about 4 furlongs long, at the end of which, branches out the direct
way to Windsor; with at Slow 3’4 beyond this place, appears pleasantly at right
angles on the Left, at 2 miles distance. From Slow a level Road brings you to
Maidenhead, first crossing the Thames at 27 Miles, and entering Barkshire, and 3 furlongs farther the Town, extending half
a Mile on the Road, of Great reception for Travellers, has a well frequented
Market on Wednesdays, and a Key to which Barges come from London.
A quarter of a
Mile beyond the Town the Great Road to Gloucester branches out on the Right,
whence through the Commons and Woods called Maidenhead Thicket, you pass Harehatch, and at 35’1. Enter Twiford,
a village of 4 Furlongs, and good Entertainment, whence a pleasant way brings
you at 39’7. To Reading, so call’d from the
Confluence of the Rivers as seated on the Navigable Kennet, near its influx
into the Thames, and here crossed by 7 Bridges; the fairest and largest Town of
the County, with 3 Parish Churches; is a Corporation electing Parliament Men, Govern’d by a Maior 12 aldermen,
&c. Eminent for Clothing and Malting, and once beautified with a rich
Monastery and strong Castle.
You pass the main
Town on the right, which leaving at 40’4. a pleasant Lane conveys you to Theal, vulgo Dheal,
q.d. the Vale, a discontinuous Village with 2 or 3
good Inns, Extending to 44’7. thence passing Inglesfield,
the pleasant Seat of the Marquess of Winchester’s near a Mile on the Right, a good
way through broad Lanes and open Arable, brings you at 50’3. To Woolhampton, vulgo Woollington, small but of
good reception; whence a pleasant way and Prospect conveys you at 53’4. To Thatsham, vulgo Thacham, 3 Furlongs long and a reasonable Thorough-fare,
whence having touch’d upon the Kennet, at 56’5. Enter
that part of Newbury, called Spinhamland, the relicts
of the ancient Spinae, whose ruins gave Rise to the
present New Town.
At 57’4. You pass
by Spein on the Left, and Donnington
Castle on the Right; whence between Craven Park
and Wickham Heath, at 62’2. You come to the parting of the Roads, the Left
being the Post-way by Hungerford, but the Right the more usual being both the
Coach and Plow-way by Ramsbury;….
[clearly west of
Newbury the Bristol traffic normally used the
more northerly sweep route through Ramsbury road rather than the present Bristol, Road through
Hungerford. This junction of the two roads is now lost but was close to the
present Barton Court.
From here the old road ran along the side of the spur over the top of Eddington
Hill and down Gypsy Lane
to Leverton and Chilton.]
Unlike the
description of some other roads, the adjectives pleasant and broad
are generously applied, suggesting that this was a relatively good road for the
time. The accommodation is generally praised, even though this was well before
the growth of mass travel to Bath.
Notes on other Roads indicate the quantity of traffic using roads leading to
the riverside; e.g., Henley…having a great Market on Thursdays, where
oftentimes above 300 Cart Loads of Corn are sold in a Day. Basingstoke on the road to Lands End is similarly
described as having a great Market on Wednesdays for Corn &c.
Morden’s map of 1695
is the first to show a detailed road network in this area. Morden is thought to
have consulted local gentry to confirm the veracity of his information and so
the roads should reflect the main routes in use in the Stuart period. On his
Berkshire map Morden shows road converging on the Thames crossings at
Maidenhead, Henley, Caversham and Wallingford.
Roads head for crossings of the Loddon at Twyford and at the Kennet crossing at
Reading. Reading, rivalling Oxford
as a road hub, has two roads approaching Caversham
Bridge from the north and six roads
radiating from Reading along the south bank of
the Thames towards Twyford, Loddon
Bridge, Arborfield,
Shinfield, Theale and Pangbourn. It suggests that Oxford
was reached from Reading by crossing Caversham Bridge,
and in fact Leland (1530-40) used this route on one of his journey between London and Oxford
(Toulmin Smith 1964). Wallingford
Bridge had been in
decline since the medieval period and two centre arches had been destroyed by
the Royalists in the Civil War; the bridge was not restored permanently until
the 18th century. Hence, it is
not surprising that this 17th
century map does not show a through route along the south bank of the Thames. East Ilsley, where a large sheep market was held,
is the most prominent hub for roads north west
of Reading,
with a track running through Pangbourn and another to Woolhampton to connect
with the Bath Road.
Morden portrays the
roads south of Reading towards Basingstoke
truncated near Spencers Wood and the Forest
Road is only shown as far as Wokingham. The only
through route into this region is across the southern edge of the Forest to
join the Exeter
road at Blackwater. The absence of roads using crossings at Shalford or
Padworth, west of Reading
or at Swallowfield to the south, suggests that the old Roman road network
centred on Silchester had declined to insignificance since the medieval period.
This pattern of
routes is repeated on maps of the 1750s (e.g. Kitchen and Bowen –RUTV13),
although this is probably a reflection of plagiarism by later mapmakers rather
than the absence of any changed emphasis in transport priorities. It must be
remembered that maps were made principally for the educated classes who used
coaches and not for the common carrier that transported heavy goods and
merchandise. It is clear from the discussion of turnpikes below that by the
middle of the 18th century,
roads converging on the Thames from Hants, Oxon and Berks, though not
illustrated on the maps, were gaining in importance for the carriage of
agricultural products to the Thames side
wharves.
2.5 Speculation on
the road pattern around Reading
2.5.1 The Initial
Foundation
The position of Reading has affected the road pattern in East
Berkshire, but the historic pattern of the main highways has
itself influenced the network of streets in the town. The Roman roads close to
the Thames did not meet the needs of later
generations and were abandoned in the region north of Silchester. Reading seems to have
developed initially on a north/south axis focussed at a crossing of the Kennet
(Fig 2.5a). The main road south of the crossing leads to Hampshire and
the Channel coast (Southampton) and to the north roads head along the southern
bank of the Upper Thames; Caversham rather than Reading
is crossing point of the Thames. A short
distance before reaching the banks of the Kennet, the road from the south forks
at Whitley. One branch is aligned with the old market centre the other with the
gate to the abbey. The more westerly crossing is called seven bridges on
Speed’s map of 1610 (Fig 2.5b) and crosses the Kennet where it splits
into a series of small rivulets and islands. High bridge, leading to the abbey,
is a single span approached along Silver
Street, now London Street. Since the town pre-dates
the abbey, seven bridges must be the older of the two crossings. This is
approached along what is now called Southampton
Street, though not much weight can be attached to
this apparent link with the Channel port since it was called Horn Street well into the 19th century.
The origins of this
north/south route must lie in the early Saxon history of the town. An important
Saxon highway from Mercia to
Wessex, the Northampton
to Southampton road, crossed the Thames at Oxford. Two of the great Benedictine Abbeys
founded in Saxon times, at Oxford
and Abingdon lie on this road. This highway crossed the Kennet at Newbury, well
to the west of Reading.
A road that crossed to the north bank of the Kennet at Reading
would probably have crossed the Thames at Wallingford;
indeed all the evidence is that the Plantagenet kings used Wallingford Bridge
as one of their principal crossing points on the middle Thames.
Although Wallingford
was later to be regarded as an east/west river crossing, its earliest function
appears to have been on this north/south axis. It replaced the supposed Roman
crossing near Dorchester but still gave access to the old Roman road from
Alchester to Silchester and on south to Winchester.
This begs the question of where the Romans crossed the Kennet and whether later
a substantial detour from this was needed to pass through Reading. There are no obvious hints in the
place names, in fact the lower Kennet, unlike other rivers such as the
Lambourn, is devoid of settlements with names indicating a ford (Fig 2.5c).
The heavy soil does not make it an easy crossing in this area (Fig 2.5d),
but a crossing at Padworth, where a bridge was shown in Saxton’s map, aligns
reasonably well with a road heading generally northwards from Silchester. A diversion
from the old road at Pangbourn would have brought travellers to the protected
crossing of the river at Reading.
Roads feeding the estates to the south of Reading
then carried traffic to the old network of roads at Silchester and highways to
the south coast.
2.5.2 The Great Western Road
The east/west roads,
that were to become so important to the later development of Reading, were secondary features in
determining the street pattern of the town. The London Road joins Silver Street and Horn Street at a right angle, just south
of the Kennet bridges (Fig 2.5b). This line of the old London
road as it approaches Reading
suggests that it came into use after the north/south road across the Kennet was
well established.
The origin of this
road from the east is also ambiguous and it could have served the river
crossing at Cookham/Maidenhead or the Windsor Forest
road. Before 1200 the Forest Road
would have been the more convenient and direct road for travellers from London. Even the 1610 map
refers to the London Road
as Ort Lane,
the same term applied later to the Wokingham
Road through the Forest.
However, it is likely that such a route across the Kennett would only serve
those heading northwestwards. The Devils Highway through Silchester and
routes over the Surrey heaths and Hampshire Downs to Wiltshire were almost
certainly an easier natural highway from London
to areas south of the Middle Thames, including Marlborough
and the road to Bristol.
The old crossings of the Loddon at Stanford, south of Swallowfield, lie on the
line of the Devil’s Highway and were still evident in Tudor maps. To the west
of Silchester the old road is less well defined but Shalford Bridge
(Fig 2.5d) may provide a clue to the line of a main road in the Saxon
period. However, any London to Bristol
road on this old line through Silchester would have declined in importance as
the status of Reading
and its Abbey grew.
The change in status
of the Silchester road would also have been influenced by development of
bridges further upstream from the Staines and Windsor crossings. An old crossing at Cookham
may only have served as a north/south bridge between Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. However, the building of new bridges at
Maidenhead and Henley in the early 13th
century created not only alternative north/south crossings but opened up a more
straightforward road for traffic from London to
the South Midlands. A good river crossing at
Maidenhead was also preferable to the old route through Windsor
or Staines for medieval traffic from London to Reading. This eventually
drew all travellers away from the old roads that had run through the sparsely
populated area on the Berkshire/Hampshire border or through Windsor Forest.
Once the Roman pavement of the Devil’s Highway was lost, the better draining soils
beside the Middle Thames would have made the road through Twyford the more
attractive route westwards. The meant that the principal London Road approached Reading
from a northeasterly direction and roads from the Forest such as Ort
Lane and Red
Lane then became tributaries to this highway.
These developments
to the east of Reading explain the line of the London Road across
the Loddon but the reason for the current line of the Bath Road west of Reading is less obvious. In the absence of
any influence from Reading, it is difficult to
understand why travellers going westwards from London
should choose to make any crossing of the Lower Kennet.
All the towns higher up the river, notably Newbury and Hungerford are on the
south bank and the modern Bath
Road itself runs on the south bank west of
Hungerford. It is more logical that the early medieval traveller to head across
Burghfield Common. From here they might find the remains of the old Roman road
running west from Silchester and the natural ridgeway over Greenham
Common towards Newbury. Although his area was heavily wooded the soil drains
well and there are few natural barriers. It might be speculated that they used
the Bridge of the Britons mentioned in the 10th
century Brimpton Charter (BPRA 1999). The bridge at
Shalford, is on Saxton’s 16th
century map (Fig 2.5d), providing evidence for an important highway
lying along this line in the medieval period. It is significant that on their
journeys from Reading to Marlborough the Plantagenet kings stayed at several
manors on the southern bank of the Kennet (Crookham, Hampstead Marshall as well
as Newbury and Hungerford) but parishes on the northern bank are rarely
mentioned (RUTV 9). Although the market town of Thatcham is on the north bank
it was not particularly successful and declined in favour of Newbury on the
other bank of the Kennet. Evidence for the medieval road being south of the
river is particularly strong between Newbury and Hungerford. Pihlens (1983) notes old records that state the old and
great market road from Hungerford to Newbury ran through Kintbury.
The site of Hungerford church suggests that the old settlement was to the west
of the current main street and that the Hunger ford was over the River Dun, not
the Kennet (which is crossed at Eddington). As late as the Civil War, the
Parliamentary forces returning from Gloucester
to London chose
to march from Hungerford to Newbury through Kintbury
and Enborne. It was at Wash Common on the south bank
that the army encountered the Royalists blocking the road to the capitol.
Despite the natural
advantages of the southern route the increasing economic and political
importance of Reading Abbey in medieval times would have shifted the main flow
of traffic to the north bank of the Kennet. Wheeled traffic may also have
favoured the north bank since the gravel terraces are wider and there are fewer
climbs on and off the ridgeways. Certainly by the time of the earliest maps,
the Bristol to London
road follows a dogs-leg over the river at Reading
and heads west up Castle Street
on the northern bank through Theale and Thatcham. Ogilby’s roads of 1675 (Fig
2.5e) illustrate that there were arms of the Bristol road on both the north and south
banks of the Kennet between Hungerford and Marlborough. Morden’s map of 1695
shows roads to the west on both sides of the river between Newbury and
Hungerford, with the road through Kintbury having the
same status as the road on the north bank through Speen. However, any road on
the south bank between Reading
and Newbury had declined to insignificance by this period.
2.5.3 Routes along
the Kennet
As at Reading, Newbury and
Hungerford grew up along routes running north/south but in both of these the
urban centre was on the south bank of the Kennet. Early maps show roads
radiating southwards from Newbury. These would have been important routes for
the transport of wool for export from the Channel ports such as Southampton. On the evidence of the Tudor maps, the road
over Greenham Common and Knightsbridge to Kingsclere
was particularly important, and the current route through Whitchurch was not
the dominant road southwards. Hungerford lay on the road between the
ecclesiastical centres of Oxford
and Sarum. In the absence of other factors one might
expect the roads connecting these towns to run on the south side of the river.
The fact that the Bristol Road
grew up on the northern bank illustrates that the position of Reading
strongly influenced the route post-medieval travellers took along the Kennet Valley.
In summary, it is
proposed that until the late medieval period the preferred road from Windsor to
Marlborough and the west, by-passed the town of Reading and ran for much of
their length along an old Roman Road at least as far as Newbury (Fig 2.5f).
Here the route split to go towards Gloucester
through the Roman station at Spinis (Speen) or continued along the southern
bank to Hungerford and Ramsbury to Marlborough.
The growing influence of the Abbey, pulling more visitors into the town of Reading eventually led to
the development of a road westwards on the northern bank. Unfortunately this
brought the highway onto soils that were wetter than the ridges on the southern
bank (Fig 2.5c) and led to the difficulties that were eventually only
solved by turnpiking. At this point in history we move from mere speculation to
a period when surviving records can help plot changes to the road network.
3.
Administration of the Highways
3.1 The Parish Road System
The weight of
traffic using English roads increased in the post-Reformation period as trade
grew. Charity and ad hoc arrangements were insufficient to maintain
local roads or main highways and active intervention was necessary to keep the
roads adequately repaired. In 1555, by Act of Parliament, parishes were made
responsible for the upkeep of roads and highways within their boundaries. The
Statute for Mending of Highways obliged every had to work four days a year on
maintaining the parish roads and persons having arable land or a plough
landowners to provide teams of horses or oxen to carry material. A parish
surveyor, who was elected each year, supervised this Statute Labour. If roads
were inadequately maintained, a parish could be indicted by the Justices and
fined. The fine would be given to the surveyor to assist in rectifying the
problem. The system became perpetual in 1564 when the amount of Statute Labour
was increased to six days per man per year (Jackman 1966).
This system was
sufficient to maintain the local roads in many rural parishes but for those parishes
through which major highways passed it proved inadequate. On these highways,
the vehicles that damaged the roads were from other parishes, yet the locals
had to make repairs with no benefit to themselves. The highway had virtually no
paving and was regarded as a rights of way rather than a fixed structure. When
a particular section of highway became impassable, travellers could use
adjoining land to circumvent the problem. As a result some major highways
spread to become great quagmires with only narrow sections passable in winter.
The problem was particularly acute on the main approach roads to London.
3.2 Bridges
Bridges over large
rivers require substantial investment and tend to have higher maintenance costs
than roads. In the medieval period they had been built by rich benefactors and
were often then maintained by ecclesiastical institutions, who generally
installed a hermit to collect alms for its upkeep. After the Reformation these
responsibilities were transferred to lay administrations. Some important
bridges were maintained by a bridge trust, financed by a combination of tolls
on traffic above and under the bridge. The remainder was in the care of the
County, in which case the Justices levied rates for their upkeep.
3.3 General
Highways Acts
Wheeled vehicles
caused much more damage to the surface of the highway than feet or hooves.
Carts had been used to carry moderately heavy or bulky items since medieval
times. Two-wheel carts with wheels as tall as a man could carry quite large
loads but the advent of the freestanding four-wheel wagon greatly increased the
weight of what could be carried. The wheels cut the road surface, water lay in
the tracks and the next vehicle caused even more damage. Particularly on clay
soils, the road was no longer self-healing and more and more horses were needed
to drag, rather than pull, vehicles through the deep mire.
Parliamentary
legislation attempted to limit damage by restricting the number of horses used
to pull wagons and coaches. It was believed that limiting carriers to only five
horses in line would make it impossible for them to drag very heavy wagons.
However, this legislation not only failed to achieve its aim but also created
opportunities for extortion by unscrupulous surveyors.
One notorious case
provoked a petition to Parliament from The Carriers and Waggoners of the
Western and Northern Roads in 1695 (JHC). The Petitioners cited two
surveyors, Richard Feilder and John Littlehale. Feilder had been owed
money by the Crown who had failed to pay for corn and other provisions supplied
to the army on Hounslow Heath and at Windsor.
As recompense he was made Deputy Surveyor of His Majesties Roads with a
responsibility to travel round, indicting parishes for failing to repair their
highways. In addition he should have reported wagoners
who drew with more than five horses in line. However, instead of indicting the
offenders he took a regular payment from them, turned a blind-eye and let them
use as many horses as they pleased. Initially he only took a few pounds per
quarter from the wagoners using the Western Road over
Hounslow Heath. However, he became greedier and increased the charges. When the
carriers refused to pay, he kept them in line by indicting and seizing the
horses of several carriers. Another surveyor, John Littlehale,
was operating a similar racket on the Great
North Road. He was even greedier and was soon
taking several pounds per quarter from some wagoners
and even demanding more than four quarterly payments per year! Under
examination, Feilder admitted that wagoners could not operate profitably with only five horses
and also recognised the damage the heavy loads did to the parish roads.
However, it took changes in legislation to stop this predation on the wagoners and extortion that was levying over £20 per year
to the costs of carriage through Eastern Berkshire.
General Highways
legislation to control vehicles on the highway continued into the 19th century. However, the turnpike Acts of
the 18th and 19th centuries were the prelude to a significant
change in the approach to road transport. The financial independence of the
turnpike trusts eventually allowed them to improve the roads to carry the
vehicles rather than restricting the design and size of the vehicle to protect
badly laid roads.
Part B:
Turnpike Trusts
4.
General Features
4.1
Creation of Turnpikes Trusts
During the late 17th century, parishes along the Great North
road in particular were being regularly indicted for the state of the roads. In
1663 the Justices of Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire obtained an Act of
Parliament that allowed them to levy tolls on user of the Great North Road and to use the sums
raised to augment the Statute Labour. This concept alleviated the pressure on
the most vulnerable parishes and over the later part of the century Acts to
cover other sections of road were bought before Parliament. Although there were
clear benefits in improved maintenance of the roads, increasing the powers of
the Justices to control roads across the county was not acceptable. An
alternative method of administration was to grant powers to groups of local
trustees who would be responsible for specific sections of road through a
particular group of parishes.
Despite early
opposition to the monopoly that this arrangement created, the turnpike system
became accepted as a suitable method of alleviating the problems of parishes on
principal highways into London.
Although the intention was initially to augment Statute Labour, the amount of
revenue generated by tolls grew to exceed the resource provide by the parishes.
Gradually, turnpike trusts using toll income became the main means of financing
improvements and repair of all main roads in England
& Wales.
Most of the major highways radiating from London
were under the powers of turnpike trusts by the 1730s. This success on the
great highways of the kingdom led to a fresh, much larger surge of turnpiking
of the provincial main roads. From the 1750s to the 1770s almost all the major
cross roads were brought under turnpike trusts creating a network of
interconnecting roads, financed by toll charges. A final phase of turnpiking in
the early 19th century filled
in the few gaps where economic changes in an area had altered the flow of
traffic.
Obtaining a turnpike
Act involved significant cost for the local community and so the net benefit
was not always apparent to the various stakeholder groups. The aristocracy and
gentry saw road improvement through turnpiking as general public good, but they
could also expect increased rents from their land as the market for
agricultural goods expanded. Local tradesmen would expect a growth in business
as the cost of transport of manufactured goods was reduced and the additional
trade from travellers using local inns and services rose. In areas where the
damage to roads from long distance traffic had been greatest, there was a
significant reduction in the burden on local parishioners. After the building
of turnpikes, agricultural improvers such as John Middleton (1798) were able to
observe that bad roads require a greater number of horses to draw any given
weight over them, thereby increasing the price of articles to the consumer;
better roads meant a wider market for all goods.
However, some of the
wagoners and coach masters who were getting by with
the present state of the roads only saw additional costs and were unhappy. The
carriers of Wiltshire and Gloucestershire and their clients petitioned strongly
against tolls on several sections of the Bath Road. In areas where the ground was
firmer and drained well, the damage was less apparent and yeoman farmers who
might have to travel intermediate distances to market were a vociferous
opposition. For instance, in 1753 when a petition to turnpike the road from
the Hill near Bagshot, commonly called Golden Farmers Hill, through Farnham,
Alton and New Alresford to Winchester, opposition came from gentlemen,
yeoman and farmers living on or near the said road. They were clearly of
the opinion that there is no necessity for erecting turnpikes thereon, for that
the same is naturally very sound and good, the bottom thereof being a firm bed
of gravel and stone and chalk, quite from Farnham to Winchester, and may be
easily repaired and kept in a safe and commodious condition (JHC). Not only
did they see immediate costs but thought it would be very burdensome and
detrimental to their posterity. It should be noted that the section of road
from Bagshot was over poor ground but the majority of the road ran over the
chalk downs.
Rather than incurring
the cost of turnpiking some communities preferred to put pressure on the
parishes to fulfil the duties to maintain the highway. A notice in the Reading
Mercury in December 1769 declared: If the roads from the turnpike road at
Goose Mill in the parish of Basildon, through Hook End Lane, Ashamsted Common,
Yattendon, Hamstead Norris Common, Long Lane, Shaw Field and the turnpike road
at Newbury are not put in suitable repair and direction post properly placed
before the 10th March
next, the surveyors of the highway of each parish will be taught their duty
from the Crown Office. Even when there was support for a turnpike it may be
qualified and the power of some trusts was clearly curtailed by powerful local
interest. Several Acts stated that tolls could not be taken on certain sections
of the highway. This applied particularly close to major markets or facilities
such as mills. For instance the turnpikes east of Reading
could not collect tolls between the town and Loddon Bridge
where the main cattle market was held.
Hence the story of
the turnpiking of roads in East Berkshire is
not one of unopposed acceptance of the perfect means of improving the main
roads. Vested interests objected to almost every step in the creation of the
turnpike network that the Victorians were to bequeath to the 20th century; plus ca change.
4.2
Structure of Turnpike Acts
The powers granted
to a turnpike trust were viewed with suspicion. In effect the trustees were
given powers to charge for use of an existing resource, the highway. Unlike the
later canals and railway builders they were not creating a new facility and so
their rights were restricted. Powers were only granted for a specific length of
time and the trusts were not expected to make a profit, merely raise and employ
sufficient money to improve and maintain the road. Each trust was empowered
through an individual Act of Parliament that closely specified what was the
trustees were permitted to undertake to achieve their objectives.
Turnpike Acts had a
similar overall structure.
The initial pages
defined the road and the trust structure; Fig 4.2a is the opening page
of a typical Act.
• The opening paragraph of an
Act specified the road in very general terms, usually the highway between A and
B via C.
• Early Acts frequently gave
some justification for the turnpiking, e.g. that the road as so poor that it
was impassable in the winter season and could not be repaired by the present
laws.
• Previous legislation relating
to this road was recited.
• The trustees were named and
the place of their first meeting specified.
• Arrangements for electing
replacements trustees were laid down.
The next sections
dealt with the raising of tolls (Fig 4.2b).
• It was stated that tollhouses
could be erected, although it generally left the number and position of the
tollgates to the discretion of the trustees who had local knowledge. Trusts did
move their gates to intercept the maximum number of travellers at minimum cost
to the trust.
• The amount of the tolls was
recited, usually distinguishing tolls on passenger vehicles (coaches) and
freight vehicles (wagons) and drove animals.
• The penalties for evading
these tolls and payments to be made to informants against evaders were
specified.
Most Acts contained
a long list of those exempt from tolls (Fig 4.2c). Exemptions fell into
a number of categories; local farmers going about their husbandry tasks,
officials and the military on county or national business, religious
observance, voting, those involved in road maintenance and then groups who had
negotiated concessions to permit the particular Act to pass. Some Acts made
special provisions for parishioners taking corn to a specified local mill (e.g.
at Swallowfield and Aldermaston). Others protected local manufacturers as in
the Reading
renewal of 1746 when carts and horses carrying cloth, druggets, surge or other
woollen manufacture to or from a fulling mill were exempt.
The Reading to Basingstoke Act of 1821 is typical
in its list of those who did not have to pay tolls;
|
The Royal family
Surveyors
Wagons carrying material for repairing the roads,
tollhouses, bridges, drains and fences on the highway
Seed for use in the parish
Hay, grass, straw, corn, pulses in straw, turnip,
potatoes, milk, furze, wood for the use of the owner in the parish and not
for sale
Beasts involved in ploughing, harrowing etc
Beasts involved in conveyance of mould, dung, soil, manure
or compost (except chalk) used to improve land,
|
Horses returning from being shoed or farried
Parishioners returning from church or chapel or funerals
Ministers visiting the sick
Those riding to their own fields
Army officers on duty
Wagons carrying baggage of soldiers or sick & wounded
or carrying ordinance
Volunteers dressed in uniform
Coaches and horses going to elections of the Knights of
the Shires at election time.
|
Subsequent Paragraphs provided for upkeep
and management of the road.
• The rights of the trust to take road-making materials from
the Parishes were stated along with the compensation terms for damage.
• Obstructions could be removed and nuisances suppressed,
overhanging trees removed and road improvements made.
• The trust were empowered, where necessary, to make new
roads and sell the land of any old roads
• The requirement to place milestones was made and the
punishment for defacing stones stated.
• Provisions were made on how Statute Duty Labour and Teams
were to be provided by the Parishes (e.g. by the justices on application by the
trustees).
• The arrangements for contributions by the parishes are
laid out; i.e. either statute labour of Composition Money in lieu of this.
Finally there were clauses relating to
long-term provisions.
• By the 19th
century, Acts specified how money was to be borrowed and the wording of
mortgages.
• Finally the term of the Act then makes clear what earlier
Acts may have been superseded and limited the period over which the new powers
were granted.
These were normally
Local Acts of Parliament and so records are not as complete as for the main
Statutes. Full sets of published Acts are rare before the 19th century but there are occasional
records from the earlier period in the House of Lords Library. Complementing
the information from the published Acts are summary reports of the deliberations
of the Parliamentary Committees that examined the petitions for turnpikes. The
records from the mid-18th
century are generally more informative than later records that merely note the
Act was granted. The Journal of the House of Commons (JHC) records these
deliberations of Parliamentary Committees and any references from these are
italicised in the text below.
In some cases the
last clerk to a trust in the late 19th
century may have saved some papers and eventually these might be lodged in a County
Record Office. However, the vast majority of individual records have been lost.
There are some centralised records such as total income from tolls and
investigations of particular issues such as the impact of the railways on the
trust’s finances. These records are in Parliamentary Papers (referred to as PP
below).
4.3
Turnpikes around Reading
Acts covering the
roads between London and Reading were granted during the initial phase
of turnpiking in the early 18th
century. The Bath Road
was the second of the major radials out of London
to be turnpiked, the section from Reading
to Puntfield being covered under an Act of 1714. Acts covering the other main
roads in the region followed soon afterwards with parts of both the Salisbury Road
through Staines and the Oxford Road through Wycombe under the
control of turnpike trusts by 1718. The road from Reading
to Basingstoke was also turnpiked in 1718, remarkably early for a road that was
not a London
radial. The Henley Road
was turnpiked towards the end of the initial phase, in 1736. The crossroads in
East Berkshire were swept up in the turnpike mania of the late 18th century, leaving only roads around
Windsor to be taken under the care of a turnpike trust in the early 19th century and the road from Aylesbury to
Marlow turnpiked as late as 1822 (Appendix 1). Fig 4.3a illustrates the
final turnpike network that developed around Reading
and East Berkshire.
The Information
available on individual turnpike trusts varies enormously.
The discussion below
deals with groups of trusts;
• The Bath Road from Kensington to Newbury
(Chapter 5);
• The main radial to the south
of Reading; the
Salisbury Road.
(Chapter 6) (Note that the Henley
Road to the north of Reading is dealt with elsewhere in RUTV7);
• The Windsor Forest
Roads (Chapter 7);
• The Other Turnpikes north of
the Thames in East Berkshire (Chapter 8);
• The Other Turnpikes south of
the Thames in East Berkshire (Chapter 9);
5. The Bath Road
5.1 The nature of the
route
5.1.1 The ground
Until the late 17th century the western road out of London was referred to as the Great Road to Bristol, the nation’s most important Atlantic
port. However, this emphasis changed after Queen Anne began to patronise Bath as a restorative
spa. Through the genius of Beau Nash this inland town to the south east of Bristol, grew to be the
premier recreational destination for the wealthy and famous during the 18th century. The only practical way to Bath from London
was by road and large numbers of private vehicles and public coaches began to
travel along what became known as the Bath
Road.
The Bath Road through Berkshire (Fig 5.1a) follows essentially the same
route described by Ogilby in 1675 (Fig 2.5e). The route west from London, through Kensington, Brentford, Hounslow and Slough was over relatively low-lying ground, underlain by
London Clay. Although the route did take advantage of stretches of heathland on
old river gravels, most of the ground was wet heavy clay (Fig 2.5c) that
was cut into deep, water filled ruts in winter and baked to a hard uneven
surface in the summer. Along this northern bank of the Thames,
minor tributaries such as the Brent and the Coln
presented no great barrier to travel. Between Colnbrook and Maidenhead the
ground was not so bad and in 1688 Pepys travelling in
his private carriage was even able to comment that the way mighty good. The
road was carried over the Thames at Maidenhead
where a succession of bridges has stood since medieval times. From Maidenhead
an exposed area of the Chiltern chalk underlies the southern bank of the Thames provides relatively firm ground for a highway. The
roads to Henley and Reading
branch along low chalk ridges, avoiding Ashley Hill. The Bath Road takes an easy crossing of the
Loddon where it is divided into several branches at Twyford (the twin fords).
It then picks a path between the river and the high ground at Woodley to reach
the major crossing of the Kennet at Reading.
Much of the route is over low-lying gravel terraces close to the rivers except
for the section west of Maidenhead. Instead of the route taken later by Brunel’s railway, the Bath Road climbs onto the high ground to
go over Knowl Hill. Whether this is a reflection of the route being pulled
north along the line of the Oxford
Road or was to avoid the deeper parts of the Royal
Forest of Bray is not clear.
West of Reading the
route follows the low ground of the Kennet river terraces rather than the
firmer soils on the high chalk downs to the north. It is not until the road
leaves Speenhamland, west of Newbury that it finally reaches the drier chalk downlands that then stretch forward through Wiltshire and
the west. Even then it descends back to the terrace gravels at Benham and at Barton Court
foregoes the opportunity of the old route over the chalkland
to Ramsbury in favour of the flatter, wetter ground through Hungerford. In
1691, Celia Fiennes travelling from London to Hampshire observed that From
Redding to Veale (Theale) 5 miles sad clay deep way, this is Barkshire; thence to Newbury 8 miles all clay and mirey ground. On another journey she noted
Hungerford to Newbury in Barkshire 7 miles all very
deep way, 15 miles thence to Reading in Barkshire flatt way, but the vale is heavy sand for 3 or 4 miles;
Reading is the shire town its pretty large, accommodated for travellers being a
great Road to Gloucester and the west Country but it is very dear (Morris
1947). This evidence illustrates how the combination of wet ground and heavy
vehicles had created problems with which individual parish surveyors were
unable to deal. In frustration some travellers used alternative tracks through
the hills north of the river valley. For instance papers relating to the Frankum family of Woolhampton (Trigg
2002) suggest that before the Bath
Road was turnpiked travellers went through Beenham
and Kift Green to avoid Woolhampton.
Both coaches and
wagons used the Great West Road
through Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. The
road through Reading carried a substantial
number of clothiers’ wagons bringing cloth up to London from Wiltshire towns such as
Trowbridge and Bradford. Thomas Deloney stated that large convoys of clothiers’
wains from Gloucester and Worcester
blocked the London road through Reading and Colnbrook in the 16th century (Burke 1942). Whenever there
was a threat of conflict with the Continental Powers, West Country merchants
preferred to use road transport rather than coastal shipping and so the volume
of commercial carrier traffic varied. Coaches carrying wealthy patrons to the
spa at Bath
depended on the Western Road
and made passenger traffic an important factor on this route. Regular coach
services between London and Bath
began in 1657 and by the early 18th
century large numbers of stagecoach services and private postchaises were
travelling between London and Bath. Whereas the petitions to turnpike the Great North Road
were based on the damage done by wagons, the case for turnpiking the Bath Road was
concerned with the problems of coach travellers. One might speculate that
wealthy passengers were more able and prepared to pay for improvements and this
may explain why the Bath Road,
although not on the worst soils in England, was turnpiked relatively
early.
Acts to take tolls
for maintenance of the western sections of the Bath Road, around Bath and Calne, had been passed in 1706. Like
the improvements on the Great
North Road these first turnpikes were administered
by local Justices (Philips 1981). However, all the turnpikes created
subsequently in this area were administered by trustees drawn from the local
communities.
5.1.2 The
administration
The first turnpike
on the Bath Road
through the Thames Valley was over the wet ground beside the Kennet from
Reading to
Theale. This turnpike, initially to Puntfield in 1714 and later on to
Speenhamland (Newbury), is dealt with in Section 5.2. The Bath Road west of Speenhamland towards Marlborough is briefly
covered in this section. The busy roads between Kensington over Hounslow Heath
to Twyford were turnpiked over the following three years and the remaining
sections were under turnpike trusts by 1728. The Bath Road to the east of Reading,
under the Maidenhead T