: p.Photo: Wikimedia Creative Commons (Fair Use) Long trains of packhorses still carried goods through Settle until the Keighley and Kendal Turnpike was started in 1753. Īlthough in the south of England common carriers' carts became frequent, they were not seen for a long time north of York or west of Exeter. The first turnpike act for a road scheme in Scotland was passed in 1713 for the construction of a road in Midlothian. Shortly after the creation of Great Britain in 1707, turnpike acts began to be passed by Parliament to encourage the construction of toll roads in Scotland in the same way they had been used successfully in England and Wales. In reality the initial debt was rarely paid off and the trusts were renewed as needed. The expectation was that the trust would borrow the money to repair the road and repay that debt over time with the road then reverting to the parishes. Initially trusts were established for limited periods – often twenty one years. The trustees could erect gates as they saw fit, demand statute labour or a cash equivalent, and appoint surveyors and collectors, in return they repaired the road and put up mileposts. The first trusts were established by Parliament through an Act of Parliament in 1706, placing a section of the London- Coventry- Chester road in the hands of a group of trustees. The early turnpikes were administered directly by the justices of the peace in quarter sessions. Most English gates were not built to this standard of the first three gates, two were found to be easily avoided. Upon payment of the toll, the pike would be "turned" to one side to allow travellers through. The term turnpike refers to the military practice of placing a pikestaff across a road to block and control passage. The first turnpike road, whereby travellers paid tolls to be used for road upkeep, was authorised in 1663 for a section of the Great North Road in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire. They did not cause ruts but neither did they roll and flatten the road as was hoped. A vain hope that wider rims would be less damaging briefly led to carts with sixteen inch wheels. The government reaction to this was to use legislation to limit the use of wheeled vehicles and also to regulate their construction. However, the improvements offered by paid labour were offset by the rise in the use of wheeled vehicles greatly increasing wear to the road surfaces. It was not until 1654 that road rates were introduced. The work was overseen by an unpaid local appointee, the Surveyor of Highways. Every adult inhabitant of the parish was obliged to work four consecutive days a year on the roads, providing their own tools, carts and horses. The Parliament of England placed the upkeep of bridges to local settlements or the containing county under the Bridges Act 1530 and in 1555 the care of roads was similarly devolved to the parishes as statute labour under the Highways Act 1555. This was probably not easily enforced against them. Responsibility for the upkeep of most roads seems to have rested with landowners, however. These grants were made by letters patent, almost invariably for a limited term, presumably the time likely to be required to pay for the required works. In the 14th century, pavage grants, which had previously been made for paving the market place or streets of towns, began also to be used for maintaining some roads between towns.
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