Bed and Breakfast in Seventeenth Century England

by Deborah Swift

Jan Steen  - Peasants Before an Inn

"There is no place in the world where passengers may so freely command, as in the English inns, and are attended for themselves and their horses as well as if they were home and perhaps better, each servant being ready at call, in hope of a small reward in the morning. Neither did I ever see inns so well furnished with household stuff" Fynes Moryson  1617*

In the seventeenth century, the coaching inn, sometimes called a coaching house or staging inn, was a vital hub of travel anywhere in England. Coaching inns were used to stable and feed the teams of horses necessary for stagecoaches and mail coaches, always having a fresh team ready so that travellers could soon be on their way again.  Traditionally, inns were seven miles apart, but obviously  in rural areas they could be few and far between, whereas in the city, and on popular routes, they would be far closer together. The stagecoach developed for fare-paying passengers, whereas previously, the coach was the personal conveyance of aristocrats and the gentry. The first ever stagecoach route, from Edinburgh to Leith, began in 1610.

Road conditions were generally terrible (see this post on the state of the roads in rthe 17thC)) and because the countryside was unmarked a traveller would sometimes hire a guide "one guide will serve the whole company, though many ride together, may easily bring back the horses, driving them before him, who knows a way as well as a beggar knows his dish"

Painiting by Frank Moss Bennett

In other words, sometimes the guide would drive extra horses with the party, so they could be changed, and then he would return the ‘used’ horses to the previous staging post. The most rapid way to travel then was by means of post-horses, relays of which stood ready at fixed stages. The authorities had fixed the cost of post-horse hire at 2 1/2d a mile with sixpence for a mounted post boy who brought back the hired horse. From stage to stage, ten miles an hour was not uncommon. When the roads were in good condition and you were provided with fresh horses, anything from seven to more than a hundred miles could be accomplished in one day. This why when people ask how long it takes to travel from a to b in the 17th century, the answers can be so variable.

Bath Stagecoach map

In 1639 Captain Bailey, formally a sea captain, erected a hackney coach stand near the Maypole in the Strand. This new idea was the equivalent of our taxi service. Seeing its success, other coach drivers soon flocked to the same place so that;

‘sometimes there is 20 of them together, which disperse up and down, that they and others are to be had everywhere, as watermen are to be had by the waterside. Everybody is much pleased with it all; whereas before coaches could not be had but at great rates; now a man may have one much cheaper.’  Letter from Mr Garrard to Wentworth, London 1639

Travellers depended on the inns if they were going on a long journey, whether they were in a coach or the newly invented hackney carriage the horses still needed to rest. Some towns, such as Barnet in Hertfordshire, on The Great North Road, boasted as many as ten staging inns and the competition between them was intense, not only for the income from the stagecoach operators, but because of the profit made by charging passengers for accommodation and food.

 the old White Hart Inn, Southwark

London was very well supplied with inns, and at the beginning of the 17th century the largest, most famous one was the White Hart in Southwark. It had been established in the medieval period and is even mentioned by Shakespeare in Henry VI, Part II as the headquarters of the rebels of the Kentish rebellion. It also became one of the many famous stage posts in the days of Charles Dickens. Unfortunately it was demolished and rebuilt in the Victorian era.

Walking was the cheapest and most common means of travel, though it was safer on horseback or in a coach. Hounslow Heath and Shooters Hill near Blackheath were notorious places for highway thieves, so after a day travelling on terrible roads and in fear for your life, the inn was no doubt a very welcome sight.

Once at the inn, men of quality were divided from men of inferior rank. Gentlemen could rent chambers and usually ate alone, unless they brought their friends or their female ‘consorts’. When I say alone, obviously gentlemen would have one or two servants attending, and the bill for the night might be five or six shillings for supper, bed, and breakfast. A solo traveller might get away with two shillings. Solo travellers would eat communally at the host’s table and be charged sixpence.

At his inn in St Martins Lane in  London in 1695 Thomas Brockbank had ‘sack, mutton stakes and pigeons’ for his supper, and for breakfast ‘toast and ale.’ Of course the horses fodder would also be charged to you, eighteen pence in winter for oats, hay and the bedding straw. In summer horses would be put out to pasture for threepence. (facts from Moryson’s Itinerary 1617)

detail from interior of a Tavern, Jan Steen

The bed you slept on was likely to be a simple box bed, shared with your travelling companions, and in the same room as your servants. Poorer people would share two or three to a bed with strangers, sharing the tally for the bed, and because it gave warmth in winter when a fire in the hearth cost extra. There was little space for privacy. The mattresses were often filled with pea-shucks, straw, or, if you were lucky, feathers. Inn beds could also be crawling with parasites. The diarist, John Evelyn, used another person’s bed when travelling, without changing the sheets because he was ‘heavy with pain and drowsiness.’ The next day, he wrote; ‘I shortly after paid dearly for my impatience, falling sick of the smallpox.’ 

Many wealthy people carried their own bed with them, and these could be elaborate affairs. Anne Clifford in her diary recounts how she travelled with her own bed. Having a travelling bed reduced the risk of infection. This great little article from Lancaster University about 17th century sleeping says: 'Stockport Heritage Service owns a travelling box bed, from approximately 1600. This bed was made with a set of stairs (in order to climb into the bed), with two locking wig boxes (again, indicating a relative degree of wealth) and two carved depictions of a husband and wife, complete with initials, fixed to the front of the bed. The panels indicate that this was made to commemorate a wedding and probably given as a gift to the husband and wife.'

As well as choosing an inn, it was possible to stop and refresh yourself at an alehouse. Alehouses generally did not provide stabling or accommodation, and were often one-man, or one-woman enterprises, selling from the doorstep. Donald Lupton in 1642 observed that ‘kerb appeal’ was important for an alehouse:  ‘if the houses have a box-bush or an old post, it is enough to show their profession. But if they be graced with a sign complete, it's a sign of good custom’. Interestingly, he also tells us that in these houses "you shall see the history of Judith, Susanna, Daniel in the Lion's Den, or Dives and Lazarus painted upon the wall.' So biblical murals are also a sign of a respectable establishment!

Unlike the coaching inns, with their gentrified clientele, the alewife must ‘Be courteous to all, though not by nature yet by her profession, for she must entertain all good and bad; tag and rag, cut and  long-tail. She suspects tinkers and poor soldiers most; not they will not drink soundly, but that they will not pay lustily.’

Bibliography

Every One a Witness in the Stuart Age - A F Scott

Suart England - Blair Worden

Young Mr Pepys - John Hearsey

Voices from the World of Samuel Pepys - Jonathan Bastable

Bath Tourist Info

Roads in Tring Hertfordshire

Pictures from wiki commons

*Fynes Moryson was educated at Cambridge, and after graduating From May 1591 to May 1595 he travelled round Continental Europe for the specific purpose of observing local customs, institutions, and economics. In 1617, Moryson published the first three volumes of An Itinerary: Containing His Ten Years Travel through the Twelve Dominions of Germany, Bohemia, Switzerland, Netherland, Denmark, Poland, Italy, Turkey, France, England, Scotland and Ireland.

Deborah Swift is the author of three novels set in the 17th Century, and a teenage trilogy. She also writes WWII fiction under pen-name Davina Blake. Find her on Facebook, or twitter @swiftstory, or visit her historical fiction blog.

Adventure Seekers – Women Explorers of the Victorian Era

By Lizzy Drake

1887 travelling party of the Smith twins
Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]

In a male dominated era in the western world, it is easy to assume that all women of the time were docile, meek things, despite England, one of the greatest nations, having a strong woman monarch. Yet even with formal teachings of domesticity, and a general lack of higher education for girls, there were some memorable women who defied the status quo, forging themselves against their male counterparts and finding success in their efforts.

While there are more than the three examples set below, these are the women who stand out to me in particular as being some of the most inspiring and defying the environments that wouldn't even allow women to vote, let alone explore, lecture or write for top newspapers.

The first of these examples is Nellie Bly who writes in her travel book (only 50cents!), Around the World in Seventy-Two Days, on how she found the inspiration to attempt her around the world adventure:

Nellie Bly 1880's
Wikimedia Commons
[Public Domain]

'This idea came to me one Sunday. I had spent a greater part of the day and half the night vainly trying to fasten on some idea for a newspaper article. It was my custom to think up ideas on Sunday and lay them before my editor for his approval or disapproval on Monday. But ideas did not come that day and three o'clock in the morning found me weary and with an aching head tossing about in my bed. At last tired and provoked at my slowness in finding a subject, something for the week's work, I thought fretfully:
"I wish I was at the other end of the earth!"
"And why not?" the thought came: "I need a vacation; why not take a trip around the world?"
It is easy to see how one thought followed another. The idea of a trip around the world pleased me and I added: "If I could do it as quickly as Phileas Fogg did, I should go."'

And go she did. As her title suggests, she also did it in less than 80 days, proving that not only could she do the most adventurous things all her male counterparts were talking about someday doing, she could also publish it and carve her own place in history as a woman adventurer.

She gives a very detailed account of her adventures in her book and it sold very well to adventure-hungry Americans. Here is a beautiful excerpt of her book in which she explains why she doesn't decide to carry a firearm:

'The evening before I started I went to the office and was given £200 in English gold and Bank of England notes. The gold I carried in my pocket. The Bank of England notes were placed in a chamois-skin bag which I tied around my neck. Besides this I took some American gold and paper money to use at different ports as a test to see if American money was known outside of America.Down in the bottom of my hand-bag was a special passport, number 247, signed by James G. Blaine, Secretary of State. Someone suggested that a revolver would be a good companion piece for the passport, but I had such a strong belief in the world's greeting me as I greeted it, that I refused to arm myself. I knew if my conduct was proper I should always find men ready to protect me, let them be Americans, English, French, German or anything else.'

But Nellie was not just an adventurer. She was also a highly respected reporter who was known for uncovering uncomfortable truths as she did with the expose on the appalling conditions and treatment of patients of Blackwell's Island, an asylum in New York City. She was also an advocate for women's rights, and although she married a millionaire 40 years her senior, she still was writing on topics close to her heart until her death at the age of 57 when she was claimed by pneumonia.

Annie Smith Peck
Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]

Annie Smith Peck, an American adventurer also had the itch to explore outside her comfort zone. Born in 1850 Rhode Island, Annie was a scholar and Latin teacher before she became a mountain climber and scaled many peaks, defying both altitude and Victorian era gender attitude. Although she had attempted to secure her place as a lecturer of archaeology (Classical Greek Archaeology), primarily to support her hobby of mountain climbing, she found that people were entranced with her hobby, and went to climbing full time. She wrote a book in 1911, covering her climbs and experiences entitled The Search for the Apex of America. She was a strong advocate of the woman's vote and even climbed Mount Coropuna in Peru, placing a banner stating 'Votes For Women'.

Biography.com sums up her adventures beautifully, stating that:

'After climbing the Matterhorn in 1895, Annie Smith Peck continued to seek new challenges, especially in the mountains in the Americas. She tackled Mexico's Mount Orizaba in 1897, setting the women's altitude record at that time. Wanting to reach heights higher than anyone else - male or female - had done before, Peck tried several times to climb Mount Illampu in Bolivia. Despite this setback, she tried to reach her goal by climbing Mount Huascarán in Peru. Peck was victorious on her second attempt in 1908. Having reached a height of 21, 812 feet, she set the record for the highest climb in the Western Hemisphere at the age of 58. For her amazing feat, the peak she scaled was named Cumbre Aa Peck in her honor.'

But a favourite pair of adventurers of mine are the twin Scottish sister explorers, Agnes and Margaret Smith (later to marry and become Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson), who were educated by their father as if they were boys. With a natural ability to pick up languages, their father (a widower as his wife passed when the girls were very young), indulged his daughters with the ploy that for every language they learned fluently, the family would go and visit that respective country. They visited many countries with their father, but when he passed away at a relatively young age, they broke their cardinal rule of learning the language first, and travelled unchaperoned to the Middle East in search of old, undiscovered religious texts. What they found sent shock-waves through the academic world.

Syriac Sinaiticus
Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]

At a visit to Sinai, Agnes first discovered the Syriac Sinaiticus, one of the biblical gospels hidden under another hand written text of female saints. She photographed it, at first not knowing its significance, then immediately funded and organized a return expedition with a recognized scholar to help prove her findings. Although the trip was a success on many levels, socially there was fallout between her scholar, a good friend, and the two sisters as the newspapers were keen to attribute the discovery to the women while the scholar was determined to get their name erased from the find. However, after their scholar did such a poor job of translating the manuscript, Agnes went on to study Syriac and do her own translation, which outshone the first. Eventually she became a highly respected scholar herself. There is a plaque commemorating the two women at the University of Cambridge.

Plaque at Cambridge University
Wikimedia Commons [Public Domain]

One of the many things these adventures illuminates, is how the human spirit of adventure and discovery will overcome every obstacle, even in a time when a particular group of people are pressured to socially and morally not do so. Women in the Victorian era is just one facet of such human determination, and one that still inspires people today.


References:

-Bly, Nellie – Around the World in Seventy-Two Days; The Pictorial Weeklies Company, New York, 1890

-Gibson, Margaret D. and Agnes Smith Lewis – How the Codex was found: a narrative of two visits to Sinai from Mrs Lewis's journals, 1892-1893; Macmillan & Bowes, Cambridge, 1893

-Lewis, Agnes Smith – In the Shadow of Sinai: A story of travel and reseach from 1895 to 1897; Macmillan & Bowes, Cambridge, 1900

-Soskice, Janet – Sisters of Sinai, How Two Lady Adventurers Found the Hidden Gospels; Vintage, London, 2009


Online links:

Listverse: Top 10 Female Adventures 

Biography.com (Annie Smith Peck)

________________________________________

Lizzy Drake is the author of the Elspet Stafford Mysteries, a mystery series set in Tudor times during Catherine of Aragon's time as Queen. Book 1, A Corpse in Cipher – A Tudor Murder Mystery is out now. 

Aside from the early 16th century, Lizzy also has a passion for the Victorian era and adventure. 

You can read more about her on her blog inkydoom.blogspot.com or on Twitter@wyvernwings.

Welsh Idylls with Judith Arnopp Part One: St Gwenog's Church

Llanwenog Church, Ceredigion

Just a stone’s throw from my home in the parish of Llanwenog is St Gwenog’s church. I have only recently found the time to go and have a close look and thought I would share my visit with you.

The Church of St Gwenog is delightful and anyone in love with ancient churches and planning a trip to the area should put it on their list of places to visit. It is only a small building and does not take long to explore but entering the church is like stepping into another world.

A memorable battle was fought in Llanwenog in 981, between the Dane, Godfrid, and the native Welsh chieftan, Eineon ab Owain; a battle in which the Danes were totally defeated.  Nearby there is a field on a farm named Ty Cam where the engagement is believed to have occurred.  The field is called Cae'r Vaes, or roughly translated, ‘the battle field,’ although whether the story has its root in fact or legend is open to debate.

In ancient, pagan times the word ‘Llan’ was used to denote an enclosure or sacred place. Early Christians built their churches in such places in an attempt to displace older religions.  By utilising ancient religious sites, Christian priests thought to encourage pagan worshippers to abandon the old gods and adopt the new teachings.

There are many such sites in Wales and Llanwenog is possibly one of the oldest for, although most of the extant building dates back to the 13^th century, the foundation of the earliest church dates to the 6^th.  As I circumnavigate the graveyard it is still just possible to detect that the original enclosure or ‘Llan’ was circular, or oval, in shape although it has now been extended and squared off at one end.

St Gwenog

We know almost nothing about St Gwenog.  She is mentioned in the Laws of Howell Dda copied in the 15^th century and in the 18^th century an annual local fair, held in January, was known as Ffair Gwenog’s.  Links have also been made with St Gwennlian who was active locally but it is a link that is difficult to establish. Even St Gwenog’s Well, once famous for its healing properties, has long since disappeared.  Its existence points to the reason for the site being allocated as a ‘Llan’ in pagan times as water was the earliest form of worship followed by that of the sun until Christianity incorporated elements of those older religions into its own.

Inside the church I see thick whitewashed walls and, at the altar, an early stone carving of Mary and St John at the foot of the cross. It is very badly weathered having originally been built into the exterior end of the side chapel. Now it is safe and sound in the new altar, the figures barely discernible.  I turn away and spy an early wall painting of the Apostles and the Ten Commandments, the faces peer out at me through the fog of time while, above me, the beautiful ceiling rafters smile down.  Richly carved pews escort me to the door and I climb a few worn stone steps while the tiny stone heads of the saints watch me as I pass.

Outside the battlemented tower draws my eye from the older, softer parts of the church. It is an imposing feature, providing protection for the village in times of strife.  It was a later edition to the building, built in the 15^th century by Sir Rhys ap Thomas whose heraldric shield is displayed above one of the windows. The building was to commemorate Henry VII’s victory over Richard III at Bosworth in 1485.  Many men from Llanwenog parish fought and died for Henry in his quest for the throne but, once established, the Tudor dynasty did little to enhance the fortunes of their Welsh countrymen. 

I sit for a while among the markers of the dead and think about what I have seen.  I am touched by the peace and the great age of the place and love every inch of it.  But for me, the best thing about the visit is the font.  I slip back inside for another look. 

Llanwenog Church interior

It used to sit near the western doorway but has been moved to the south side of the lady chapel.  Today it is filled with a tacky flower arrangement totally out of keeping with the awesome antiquity of the piece. I take away the flowers and with the tip of one finger trace the marks where the cover once sat.  It dates from the Norman period and is showing its age.  The stone is carved with the heads of the twelve apostles, worn from centuries of visitors drawn to touch the primitive features as I am doing now. I have seen these carved faces described variously as ‘crude’, ‘grotesque’ and ‘rough’ but to me, they are beautiful. The tracks of the ancient chisel giving voice to the long dead craftsman.  I wish I could spend longer here. I run my fingers over the surface and feel as if I am clasping the gnarled hand of the mason that worked it.

font, featuring the twelve apostles, circa 11th century

Information about Judith Arnopp and her books can be found on her webpage: http://www.juditharnopp.com

And what would Jane Austen's hero have packed for the weekend? Travel in the second half of the Eighteenth Century.

by Mike Rendell

Apparently Jane Austen wrote her first novel Love and Freindship (sic) in 1789 when she was 14. It is classed as part of her "Juvenilia" - one of 29 stories bound up into three manuscript books. So, if she had her hero pay a visit for the weekend, what would he have packed in his bags? Well, I can say what Richard Hall would pack for a weekend away, because he noted it in his diary in May 1784. (He was my great, great, great, great-grandfather.)



Some of the entries are hard to decipher but it appears to start off with shirts; first a couple of night shirts, then what appears to be two "neck shirts" including a "new fine plain" one. He packed two Ruffles plus "One fine Holland Ditto" as well as three pairs of silk stockings. One piece of gauze, three pairs worsted (stockings, presumably) went into the case along with a couple of night caps made of "linnen".

"W. shoes" may have referred to walking shoes but I cannot be sure and I have been unable to decipher the following line apart from seeing that it involved "one Blue Ditto and One Silk"

He needed a cloth coat and waistcoat (he called it "cloath") as well as a silk waistcoat and a white dining waistcoat. Silk breeches and five stocks were packed as well as "muffatees". Sadly I have no record showing what these were made from - they were fingerless gloves or wrist bands, often knitted but sometimes made of elasticated strips of leather, or even fancy ones made of peacock feathers. They remained popular for many years - even Beatrice Potter has Old Mrs. Rabbit earning her living by knitting rabbit-wool mittens and muffatees (~ The Tale of Benjamin Bunny).

One knitting site called Dancing with Wolves, states: "in the days before central heating, keeping warm in winter was a major challenge. We think we know about dressing in layers, but most of us don’t have to resort to wearing coats and hats and gloves indoors. But heavy layering was necessary. Working with your hands in mittens is clumsy at best. The solution? Wear muffatees.

"Muffatees are tube-like, fingerless mitts that cover wrist and hand up to the middle of the fingers, usually with an opening along the side for the thumb. The simplest, and possibly earliest form was comprised of the cuff or leg of a worn-out stocking, minus the foot. But in the 18th and 19th centuries, many pairs were sewn from warm cloth, or simply knitted of wool in plain or fancy patterns."

Several sites give patterns - and incidentally Richard often called them wrist bands (pronounced "risbans" according to the one of the entries in his diary, at the same time as remembering that "waistcoat" was pronounced "wescote").



They were thought to work on the basis of keeping the blood warm at the point where the pulse is felt at the wrist, but leaving the fingers completely unfettered.



For longer journeys Richard would then record how many items of luggage were needed. For a trip lasting a fortnight (travelling the 264 miles from Bourton on the Water to Weymouth and Lulworth Castle and back) he needed seven items, all of them charged separately by the coachman. And then as an afterthought Richard showed an eighth item - his steam kettle! This would have gone on board along with the Great Trunk, the blue box. the wainscot (i.e. wood-panelled) box, his green bag, his great coat, his shoes and his wig box.

The actual cost of travel was considerable. Richard shows a coach journey from Bourton to Evesham of 41 miles costing over one pound eleven shillings.



This would have been the equivalent of perhaps a hundred pounds (around 150 dollars) today. This included his dinner at four shillings and ten pence (equivalent to a buying power of perhaps $22 today); the waiter at sixpence (a couple of dollars); the horsler i.e. ostler a shilling (four dollars); and turnpikes one shilling and sixpence (six dollars). The actual coach fare came to a guinea (getting on for a hundred dollars nowadays), and these figures have to be seen in the light of farm labourers having to get by on ten shillings a week!



Why the turnpikes? Their frequency increased as a direct result of the Duke of Cumberland's campaign against the Jacobites in 1745/6 . Moving troops north to meet the rebels was handicapped by the dreadful state of the roads, and in the wake of the Duke's criticism, Parliament encouraged local communities to form Turnpike Trusts. In return for filling in potholes, and re-surfacing and maintaining the roads, each Trust was entitled to levy a toll. Within a couple of decades roads had improved dramatically - to the extent that some coach operators were able to run throughout the night. Think Georgian carriage lamps and think of a coach-and-four thundering through the darkness! The result was a dramatic decrease in journey times. The cost of travel in turn came down, as the operators reduced their overheads by cutting out the need to stay overnight, for instance on the journey between London and Bristol.



Mind you, there was still the risk of being ordered to "stand and deliver" by highwaymen. This picture shows the moment when a coach is hijacked.



But justice was as swift as it was lethal, and here we see the miscreant swinging from the gallows. I love the nonchalant behaviour of the horse-riders as they gossip nearby!

Incidentally all these cut-outs were made by my ancestor Richard Hall. He was born in 1729 and died in 1801 and I suspect that most of the cut-outs were made in the last twenty years of his life, possibly to entertain his young family. I am fortunate enough to have all his journals and papers, from diaries to accounts, and from shopping lists to inventories. These have enabled me to write a social history of England as seen through the eyes of my ancestor.

             

You can buy Mike's book The Journal of a Georgian Gentleman HERE.

Mike also blogs on aspects of Eighteenth Century life (on a more-or-less daily basis) at his blog, Georgian Gentleman.

Stand And Deliver ... Your Tolls? The Rise and Fall of the Turnpikes

by J.A. Beard

Of all the benefits of modern industrialized civilization, roads are perhaps one we take the most for granted. Perhaps quality roads and easy of transport seem not all that worthy of special attention. Many ancient civilizations, after all, had developed fine road networks. At the dawn of the Georgian age, however, the quality of many roads in England left much to be desired.

First, let's take a step back and consider many roads prior to the 18th century. During this period, the resources and funds for road maintenance were maintained mostly at the parish level. Paving of any form certainly was limited. This was adequate for making sure various local roads were decent, but the system didn't do much to maintain the quality of distant roads and the intermediate roads connecting various far-flung locales. The net result was a haphazard system of road improvements of varying quality. Wheeled travel was often unpleasant and dangerous. Rugged road conditions and holes could easily lead to accidents.

Inclement weather only made things worse and England is far from an arid country. It was somewhat difficult to drive a coach through a muddied mess. Riding a horse was more practical, but not necessarily comfortable or practical depending on one's circumstances.

Economic improvements, along with the accompanying transportation of heavier amounts of goods, also contributed to wear and tear on many a poor-quality road. Even if the Georgian-era traveler ignored the poor quality of the roads and the difficulties associated with weather, there also was the unpleasant issue of highwaymen. The increase in traffic and trade travel, particularly in the environs of London, hadn't been lost on the criminal element. The lack of an organized police force, let alone anything akin to a highway patrol, only contributed to the problem. A swift, mounted criminal could waive a pistol and demand that someone, “Stand and deliver!” often with impunity despite the threat of execution or transportation to Australia.

Things began to turn around for the often poor, sad, and unsafe roads of England at the beginning of the 18th century because of the Turnpike Acts. Following up on earlier parliamentary acts, in 1696, the first Turnpike Act was enacted, the first of many to follow.

So what were these Turnpike Acts, why did they have to pass so many, and what did they have to do with road quality and highwaymen? These acts established Turnpike Trusts. These trusts were granted the responsibility of taking care of a certain portion of a road, but also granted them several legal tools to do this, including two of particular importance: the right to collect tools and to control access on roads through the use of both gates and men.  The name itself comes from gates’ designs that involved pike-like constructions on crossbars that could be rotated, though not every tollgate necessarily had such a design, and now, of course, the turnpike has evolved into just a general term for toll road.

The trusts each could handle their various roads and road sections as they saw fit, so many would farm out the actual administration of the trusts to other enterprising people. These sort of trust subcontractors, as it were, could then do their best to efficiently run the trusts for a profit.

In the early years of the system, the various turnpike roads weren’t necessarily all that better maintained than before, but techniques advances lead to general quality improvements, particularly in the latter half of the 18^th century, which, in turn, fueled a massive expansion of the system, with a general slowing of expansion with the coming of the 19^th century. Although there were nearly one thousand trusts in place by the end of the Regency, and thus the tail end of the Georgian era, in 1820, it’s important to note that the majority of roads in England were still maintained by parishes and other local entities. That being said, many major important roads were under the control of turnpike trusts.

While the trusts, in general, contributed to road improvements that helped reduce transport times and the general quality and safety of travel, they also improved general security. Although there were some other contributory factors, the rise of the turnpike system, particularly on high traffic roads, greatly contributed to the decline of highwaymen. The presence of so many guarded gates made post-robbery escapes far more difficult.

Although, like so many things, the decline of the turnpike system was multi-factorial, the most fundamental contributory factor was the rise of a more efficient and swift means of mass transit: the railroads. By the end of the 19^th century, a stronger central government, municipalities, and county councils took down the gates and took over the responsibility of maintaining the roads. Only a smattering of smaller private roads, tolled bridges, tolled tunnels, and the newer M6 Toll remain as the descendants, direct and indirect, of the extensive system that once covered tens of thousands of kilometers.