Manchester Turnpike

By the end of the 18th century, Chesterfield coal was being shipped to ports all across the eastern coast of the United States.

These ruts were a nuisance for farmers carting their produce and general travelers as well as the coal mine owners, whose wagons got stuck.

By 1802, the problem became so severe that several of Chesterfield County's coal manufacturers and residents petitioned the Virginia General Assembly for permission to construct a turnpike between the port of Manchester and Falling Creek, where the coal mines were scattered around.

[2] This company, called the Manchester Turnpike Company, was capitalized at $40,000 and "under the management of Benjamin Hatcher, Henry L. Biscoe, Cornelius Buck, Henry Heath, Andrew Nicholson, William Robertson, and John Cunliffe."

Although the turnpike did not haul coal after the early 1830s, it still carried people traveling on the Buckingham road to Manchester and across the river to Richmond.