1
The Turnpike* Road and Toll-Houses in the Bodenham Area.
Brief Historical Background
In the Middle Ages road maintenance was left to the parishes and those people who lived in them.
Each parish had the responsibility for the roads in their area and local people were forced by law to
work unpaid to keep the “roads” maintained. This system of looking after the roads, where both
unpaid and later paid labour was used, continued from about 1555 to 1835 on ordinary roads.
Throughout the country the condition of the network of “roads” which were, in fact, mainly tracks
that had served the packhorse traffic for hundreds of years soon deteriorated with the widespread
introduction of wheeled traffic in the late 17th century.
By the 18th century it became clear that the system of free and paid labour was failing, and bearing
in mind that there were no railways and few canals at that time, improvements to cope with the
development of wheeled traffic were vital. The soft dirt track roads were never built to carry such
vehicles and were not able to cope with this heavy traffic. Parishes were no longer able to provide
the required standard of “road” maintenance and so came the era of the Turnpike trusts. At the time
this was seen as an imaginative new way of getting the roads built and maintained and thus evolved
a nationwide system of turnpike or toll roads developed under a series of Acts of Parliament
covering individual stretches of road each of which was administered by a local trust. The Acts
stated that a stretch of road was to be maintained by local named trustees, initially for a period of 21
years, and in return they were able to levy a toll to cover the initial cost of road building and
subsequent maintenance. They were also able to install toll-bars or gates and toll-houses at intervals
along their stretch of road. The toll collectors – often known as “pikemen” – who were appointed by
the trustees lived in the toll-houses which invariably projected into the road.
The multitude of individual Acts covering
stretches of road throughout the country were
consolidated into a General Turnpike Act in
1773 and the system of turnpike roads and
Trusts had by 1840 resulted in 22,000 miles of
turnpike roads in England and nearly 8,000
toll-gates and bars. However, the Turnpike
system of roads was not without its problems.
There was much resentment against the tolls
and an Act of Parliament was enacted in 1734
which brought in the death penalty for
destroyers of the turnpikes. Across the border
in Wales objectors dressed in women’s clothes
went on raids to destroy toll bars and gates and
were responsible for what became known as
the Rebecca riots in 1726.
*OED. Turnpike – A horizontal cross of timber armed with pikes turning on a vertical pin, fixed to
hinder horse and other traffic from entering until a toll was paid.
2
Daniel Defoe wrote at the time:“…Turn pikes or toll bars have been set up on
severall great roads of England, beginning
at London and proceeding thro’ almost all those
dirty deep roads in the Midland Counties
especially; at which, turn pikes all carriages,
droves of cattle and travellers on horseback
are obliged to pay an easy toll; that is to say, a
horse a penny, a coach three pence, a cart
fourpence, at some six to eight pence, a wagon
six pence, in some a shilling. Cattle pay by the
score, or by the herd, in some places more. But
in no place is it thought a burthen that ever I
met with, the benefit of a good road abundantly
making amends for the little charge the
travellers are put to at the turn pikes….”
Perhaps this was the “official” line, but as mentioned above the people rioted against the toll tax in
1726!
Many trusts simply did not know
how to look after the roads and
when they were short of money
they did not maintain them. They
failed to provide a road network
that covered the whole of the
country to a uniform standard.
With the arrival of the first railway
lines came a very safe and popular
way to travel, the speed of which
ensured that it was far less
vulnerable to the attention of
highwaymen! People stopped using
the stagecoaches and Turnpike
Trusts gradually became bankrupt.
The last company closed for
business in 1895.By the end of the
th
19 century road administration had become the responsibility of county and district councils. The
Turnpike Acts have left their legacy on the British landscape. Most milestones and mileposts were
set up by the Trusts and we are fortunate to have in Bodenham one of the charming little multisided houses with windows giving views up and down the road.
The Local Position
The period from 1721 to 1767 saw the passing of ten Acts of Parliament to allow the construction of
toll roads throughout Herefordshire and the 1726 and 1730 Acts specifically covered the
establishment of a turnpike roads from “Hope to Bodenham” and to “Moor of Bodenham, Parish of
Bodenham” which formed part of the Leominster to Ledbury Turnpike road and is in essence the
route followed by the present day A417.
3
It is known that a total of eighty-eight of Herefordshire parishes had toll-houses or toll-bars/gates
from which it can be deduced that not all parishes were served by a turnpike road. The Turnpike
Trusts were normally made up of local landowners, clergy and justices of the peace To qualify as a
trustee, he (and they were usually male!) had to be “in possession of rents or profits from freehold
land a clear value of £100 or as heir apparent of an estate of freehold of £150 yearly or had a
personal estate valued at £4000”. The trustees were able “to erect and set up, or cause to be erected
and set up, any Toll Gate or Gates, Bar or Bars, Chain or Chains, in, upon, or across any Part or
Parts of the said Roads, and upon the sides thereof respectively, and also across any Lane or Way
leading into or out of the same and may erect, provide a Toll House with suitable Out Buildings and
Conveniences at, or near each Toll House”. Kathleen Lawrence-Smith records in her book “Tales of
Old Herefordshire” that many routes to market had toll gates where “threepence was charged for
every horse-drawn wagon, wain or cart; 2d for oxen or cattle carrying grain, straw, hay or fodder;
while the charge for every drove of calves, hogs, sheep or lambs was 5d per score”.
Two Toll Houses were built in the Parish of Bodenham but as mentioned above only one remains
intact at Saffron’s Cross (Grid Ref. 541517) a picture of which is at page 4. The 1851 census
records that Sarah Bowkett a widow aged 70 was the toll collector (pikelady!?) at Saffron’s Cross.
She lived there with her daughter and three grandchildren. This toll house is shown as “Hampton
Park Bar” on Bryant’s 1835 map of Herefordshire which doubtless reflects the important role that
Mr John Arkwright of Hampton Court played in providing land and finance for the construction of
the section of road through the Bodenham area. The other toll-house was located on the eastern
boundary of the Parish at Cornett (Grid Ref. 572499) which was shown on Bryant’s 1835 map but
was subsequently demolished at a date unknown to the writer. Very is little is known about the
design and materials used to
construct this Toll-House but
the plans of the Hope tollhouse shown below may offer
some design clues.
It is recorded that on 8
September 1818 John
Arkwright allowed £100
towards building Hope tollhouse. A James Salisbury
aged 29 was at the time
recorded as residing at Hope
“toll-bar” with his wife and
three children.
Although the original
Turnpike Acts of Parliament
are held at the House of Lords
Record Office there is much
of historical interest relating
to the establishment of the
turnpike through Bodenham at
Hereford Record Office. In
particular three mortgage
deeds (HRO A63/lll/41/6)
dating back to 1826 (2) and
4
1838 record that the trustees of the Ledbury and Leominster and the Burley Gate Turnpike Trusts
secured loans totalling £3800 from John Arkwright of Hampton Court. The trustees are listed as
Francis Henry Thomas, Robert Hathway, Thomas Apperley, Edward Evans, James Simpkinson,
Edward Poole, John Johnston, and James Poole. It is clear that income from the tolls was becoming
inadequate to provide for road maintenance of a legally required standard and trustees were being
forced to seek loans rather than provoke further unrest that it was feared increased tolls may have
triggered. Competition from the railways was also affecting income and this led in due course to the
sale and removal of many toll houses and gates. A notice for the sale of the assets of the Leominster
Turnpike Trust dated 18th September 1869 (HRO N41/B 2587) together with many similar sale
particulars are held at Hereford Record Office. It is of interest that a J.Arkwright Esq. paid £105 for
the purchase of Hope toll house and £31.10s for that at Docklow!
DJT
Oct 2004
Acknowledgements
1. Hereford Toll-Houses – Then and Now (1966) – Muriel Tonkin (Presidential Address –
Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club.
2. Hereford Record Office.
3. History of Roads – Highways Agency.
4. Tales of Old Herefordshire – The Turnpike Revolt - Kathleen Lawrence-Smith.