(details of each turnpike trust can be reached by clicking on
links at bottom of this page)
Berkshire lies to the west of
In the 18th and 19th
centuries, the main commerce of Berkshire was in agricultural produce
(particularly in the Vale) and forestry (around
There were a number of large country houses
with wealthy residents alongside the Thames and travellers to
The county town, Reading, is 40 miles from
Roman roads running west from
A number of ancient bridges crossed the
Thames (
The earliest turnpikes in
Major changes in pattern resulting from the
building of new bridges over the
The last turnpike Act to create a new road
in Berkshire was in 1832, although it is unclear whether this
A map of turnpike roads in Berkshire gives
retails of the routes and the year in which individual turnpike trusts were
created (use the list of turnpikes trusts in the main table
to identify the name of individual trusts). This
The topology made the roads of
Several very elegant tollhouses on the
Milestones are predominantly of stone,
almost all imported into the area. There are particularly elegant markers in
Milestone dated 1776 at Beedon on the
main road south from
Click on the link
for the draft text for a booklet on the Turnpike
Roads of Reading and East Berkshire. There is an associated Appendix
containing speculation on the route of Roman Roads in South Berkshire.
Documents and notes relating to individual Trusts are summarised on pages reached by clicking the links below (those highlighted in blue are on-line).
Abingdon and Fyfield
Abingdon, Wootton to Swinford
Besselsleigh
Chilton Pond and Abingdon
Fyfield,
Newbridge and
Harwell and Streatley
Hurley
Leckford or Sousley Water
Maidenhead
Maidenhead to Cookham
New Windsor and Twyford
New
Shillingford
and
Speenhamland
to
Speenhamland
to
Theale Road (Reading to Puntfield)
Twyford
Twyford and Theale
Trusts based outside the County with significant
mileage in Berkshire
Faringdon
to
The numbers of milestones and
tollhouses surviving beside roads in Old Berkshire
(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 |
Abingdon and Fyfield |
6 |
4 |
67% |
1 |
3 |
0 |
0% |
Abingdon, Wootton
to Swinford |
10 |
0 |
0% |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
Besselsleigh |
22 |
18 |
82% |
4 |
8 |
0 |
0% |
Chilton Pond and
Abingdon |
8 |
4 |
48% |
2 |
3 |
0 |
0% |
Fyfield,
Newbridge and |
16 |
5 |
32% |
3 |
9 |
0 |
0% |
Harwell and
Streatley |
9 |
7 |
81% |
3 |
3 |
0 |
0% |
|
8 |
3 |
40% |
1 |
4 |
0 |
0% |
Hurley |
5 |
4 |
80% |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
Maidenhead |
9 |
10 |
108% |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0% |
|
18 |
5 |
28% |
4 |
3 |
0 |
0% |
Shillingford and |
18 |
11 |
61% |
4 |
4 |
0 |
0% |
Speenhamland to |
11 |
10 |
88% |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
Speenhamland to |
9 |
8 |
91% |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
Twyford and
Theale |
18 |
13 |
72% |
6 |
4 |
1 |
17% |
|
25 |
27 |
108% |
4 |
16 |
0 |
0% |
|
17 |
7 |
42% |
3 |
7 |
1 |
33% |
|
10 |
5 |
50% |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
218 |
136 |
63% |
40 |
70 |
2 |
5% |
|
9 |
9 |
100% |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
Faringdon to |
16 |
13 |
83% |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0% |
For further reading;
A Rosevear (1995), “Roads across the
This page created by Alan Rosevear 16th Oct 2008.
Last Edited 21st Dec 2009.