Toll roads in Great Britain

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.

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.

A vain hope that wider rims would be less damaging briefly led to carts with sixteen inch wheels.

[1][2][3] The term turnpike refers to the military practice of placing a pikestaff across a road to block and control passage.

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.

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.

[4] Although 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 system was never properly reformed but from the 1870s Parliament stopped renewing the acts and roads began to revert to local authorities, the last trust vanishing in 1895.

The Local Government Act 1888 created county councils and gave them responsibility for maintaining the major roads.