Odger's English Common Law

2-18 NUISANCE.
across a highway, ploughing it up, or erecting any fence or
building, or placing any timber, stones or other obstacle on
any part of it, is an illegal obstruction to the passage of the
public along the way. Every one, in short, commits a public
nuisance who does anything which renders the highway less
or who
commodious to the public than it would otherwise be ;
prevents them from having access to any part of it by an
excessive and unreasonable, though temporary, use of it ; or
who so deals with the land in the immediate neighbourhood
of the highway as to prevent the public from using and
enjoying it securely.
Thus it is a misdemeanour
—
1
to saw timber or carry on any other trade in the street ;
to allow waggons to stand before a warehouse for an unreasonable time
so as to occupy a great part of the street for several hours by day or
night
;
2
to dig up the roadway without statutory authority in order to lay down
gas-pipes
;
3
to excavate an area close to a footpath and leave it unfenced
;
4 or
to blast stone in a quarry so as to throw stones upon a public road or
the houses abutting on it. 6
And if a tramway be illegally laid down on a high road so as to
obstruct the use of the road by common carriages, it is a public nuisance,
although it may be a great convenience to many who go that way. 6
Whether the obstruction proved is such as may in law
amount to a nuisance is a question for the judge ; whether
the particular obstruction complained of is in fact a nuisance
to the public is for the jury. 7
In strict law the smallest
obstruction is illegal; but the consequences of the obstruction
of a public thoroughfare or navigable river may in some cases
be "so slight, uncertain and rare" as not to entail on the
offending party criminal responsibility. 8
Thus, in R. v. Bartholomeiv, the defendant had unlawfully erected and
maintained a coffee-stall in the middle of the roadway of a public street.
1 R. v. Jones (1812), 3 Camp. 230.
8 M. v. Russell (1805), 6 East, 427; Att.-Oen. v. Briqhton, Ac, Supply Association,
[1900] 1 Ch. 276.
3
11. v. Stoke Fenton Gas Co. (1860), 29 L. J. M. O. 148.
* Barnes v. Ward (1850), 9 0. B. 392.
6 R. v. Mutters (1864), 10 Cox, 6.
G It. v. Train (1862), 2 B. & S. 640.
> R. v. Betts (1850), 16 Q. B. 1022, 1038.
9 R. v. Tindall (1837), 6 A. & E. 143 ; R. v. Charlesworth (1851), 16 Q. B 1012
9 [1908] 1 K. B. 554.