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FARNBOROUGH TO SEVENOAKS TURNPIKE ACT, 1748.

Synopsis

An act for repairing and widening the road leading from...the town... of farnborough in the county of kent, to...riverhill, in the parish of sevenoaks...

Item Description

Disbound in plastic sleeve. Folio. 7.75 x 12.25 inches. [2] + 131-160 pp. Illustrated with vignette initial at start of main text, which is in black letter.

Notes

This turnpike Act establishes a trust to improve the eleven mile stretch of road from Farnborough to Riverhill, just south of Sevenoaks, which also formed part of the post road from London to Tunbridge Wells and on to Rye. The preamble states that this highway is, 'by reason of the great and heavy Carriages frequently passing through the same, greatly in Decay, and the same is become very bad in the Winter Season; and...is in many places very narrow and incommodious...' The Act makes detailed provisions for the collection of toll, erection of gates and toll houses, exemptions from toll (e.g.. the carriage of agricultural produce, 'Lop or Top-wood,' etc. for local consumption, the transport of fish and on election days), penalties for evasion and for the system of financial administration and accountability required to operate the turnpike system. The amounts due in tolls are specified in various price categories, from passenger coaches (drawn by varying numbers of horses or mares), waggons and carts drawn by horses and oxen, laden or unladen animals not drawing, droves of oxen, cows or neat cattle and of calves, hogs, sheep or lambs. The turnpike surveyors were to co-operate with the parish Surveyors of Highways, employing a 'Statute-work' labour force. Nearly 140 named trustees, composed of local nobility, gentry, clergy and medical men, were appointed and invested with powers to oversee the administration and operation of the trust. Although ESTC records only one copy (in the US), we do not regard this as a scarce item in the UK.