Statute Law Repeals - Law Commission - Ministry of Justice

PART 11
TURNPIKES
INTRODUCTION
11.1 This part of the report proposes the repeal of some 173 obsolete turnpike (and
related) Acts relating to the construction, repair and maintenance of roads in
parts of Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Surrey as well as roads connecting
London with Holyhead. These Acts have long ceased to have any effect, the
periods for which they were individually enacted having expired a century or more
ago. Despite this, none of them have been formally repealed, and they remain on
the statute book to this day. The individuals and organisations consulted about
these proposals are set out in Appendix 3.
11.2 These repeal proposals are part of a rolling programme for the repeal of obsolete
turnpike Acts. Our last statute law repeals report contained analogous proposals
for the repeal of obsolete turnpike Acts in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk. 1
Background
11.3 Until the late 19 th century, Britain had no national framework for maintaining its
highways. For much of the 17 th and 18 th centuries, roads were repairable by the
population at large, with every able-bodied man being subject to six days a year
of unpaid statute labour repairing the roads. The inefficiency of this statute labour
system left most roads poorly repaired and maintained.
11.4 Turnpikes were an alternative method of road administration. A turnpike was a
toll-gate set up across a road, with travellers along that road being able to pass
through the gate only upon payment of a toll. The revenue collected from tolls
would be used to repair and maintain the road. The first turnpike Act was passed
in 1663 to set up a turnpike road in Wadesmill, Hertfordshire. 2 Later turnpike Acts
usually established trusts to operate the turnpikes and repair the roads.
11.5 The first turnpike trust was established by a 1706 statute which appointed and
nominated 32 trustees to oversee the maintenance and management of the road
between Fonthill in Bedfordshire to Stony Stratford in Buckinghamshire. 3 More
than 1100 local Acts establishing turnpike trusts were passed during the 18 th and
early 19 th centuries. These Acts were generally expressed to continue for, or
expire after, a fixed period, usually 21 years. The relevant periods were
frequently extended, either by an Act specific to a particular turnpike trust or, after
the mid-1830s, on an annual basis by the Annual Turnpike Acts Continuance
Acts.
1 Statute Law Repeals Eighteenth Report (2008). Law Com No 308/Scot Law Com No 210.
2 15 Cha.2 c.1 (Road repair (Herts, Cambs and Hunts)).
3 6 Ann c.4 (Bedfordshire and Bucks roads).
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