Shropshire Routes to Roots

The word turnpike means a gate at which tolls were collected. Turnpikes were set up to transfer the cost of roads from locals to those who used the roads. This was done by the collection of tolls through a network of gates and toll houses. The tollhouse and gate in the image on the left is at Blists Hill Open Air Museum.

Tolls were on a sliding scale the more horses or cattle being moved the more you paid. Regular users paid a fixed sum for the year.

The image to the right shows the tolls levied on the Ironbridge. You can see in the italics at the bottom that even the Royal Family were not exempt from payment.

From the end of the seventeenth century, and for approximately the next 200 years, people travelling by road expected to pay tolls. The image on the left shows the Raven and Bell. This was a coaching inn which was situated next to the Lion Hotel at the top of the Wyle Cop in Shrewsbury. According to the Shrewsbury Chronicle, for the 13th April 1802 the cost of a four horse coach was 2 shillings per mile, while a two horse coach cost 1 shilling per mile and a saddle horse was 6d plus fodder.

In 1828 it was estimated that 830 pairs of horses were employed in the posting trade between Shrewsbury and Oswestry (Shrewsbury Chronicle, 4th December 1829). If you imagine this amount of traffic on unsurfaced roads you can begin to see the impact and the need for road improvements funded by turnpikes.

This four horse stage coach is part of a re-enactment of the turnpike era which took place in Shrewsbury in 1993.

The most conclusive evidence comes from tollhouses and mileposts which were present on turnpike roads. In Shropshire there were originally around 300 tollhouses built, of which 100 are still in existence today.

Tollhouses varied greatly in design. Some have a very distinctive plan with a semi-octagonal to circular shape. This was so that the toll keeper could see the traffic approaching. Other tollhouses look like cottages set rather close to the road. This tollhouse near to the Wrekin is on the Holyhead road.

Mile posts were erected by the turnpike trust along the road. Many survive today. They vary from stone to cast iron.

This mile post in Craven Arms is very grand taking the shape of an obelisk. Thomas Telford designed his own milestones on the A5. Signposts also come from this period.