Turnpikes were established in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by private Acts of Parliament which allowed the trustees to charge a toll in exchange for repairing and maintaining highways. After 1871 roads were gradually disturnpiked, partly due to increased competition from the railways, and partly due to a growing awareness that highways should be under publicly accountable, local government control. The best study is William Albert The Turnpike Road System in England (1972), although irritatingly this book stops in 1840 and so does not discuss the end of the turnpikes.
Huntingdonshire Turnpike Trusts
Very few records are held at Huntingdon:
Alconbury Hill to Wansford Bridge Trust (the "Stilton Road" or Norman Cross turnpike, today part of the A1): minutes 1827-1862: accession 86/1
Biggleswade to Alconbury Trust (A1 part): papers (including a list of trustees 1770- 1799, minute extracts 1806 and plan c.1852) in HINCH 11/96-103; typescript copy of the minutes, 1725-1745, in the searchroom library
Huntingdon to Somersham Trust ("Hartford Road Trust"): minutes 1814-1838: in Huntingon Borough vols 39a, 39b.
St Ives to Hartford Turnpike: papers re the road 1806-13 in HINCH 11/104-114
St Neots and Cambridge Trust: papers re winding up 1876: accession 560/19
Southoe tollgate: receipt book and return 1845-46: accession 63.
Cambridgeshire Turnpike Trusts
With the exception of the Cambridge and Ely Trust, relatively few records survive of the various turnpike trusts which were established in Cambridgeshire:
Kneesworth and Caxton Trust Royston to Kisby’s Hut (A1198)
Includes minutes, 1795-1876, register of securities, 1801-1869, accounts, 1780-1876 etc. T/K
Newmarket Heath Trust Newmarket to Fulbourn (A1304/A11), Devil’s Ditch to Swaffham Bulbeck (A1303) Includes minutes, 1763-1870, table of tolls, 1823, 1829, daily returns of tolls at Devil’s Ditch and Worsted Lodge gates, 1863-64, leases of tolls, 1830-70, accounts, 1823-65 [T/N]
Cambridge and Ely Trust
i.) South District Cambridge to Ely (A10), Ely to Soham (A142), Ely to Mepal (A142)
Extensive records include minutes, 1763-1822, draft minutes 1845-1852, committee reports, 1794-1873, assignments of tolls, 1763-1805, appointments of officers 1763-1868, title deeds, 1795-1837, sale particulars, 1767-1874, plans, 1763-1853, tables of tolls, 1763-1824, statute duty lists, 1763-1817 etc. The catalogue to this collection is now available on our online CALM database; please follow the link in the righthand column.
ii.) North District Ely to Littleport and Downham (A10)
Includes minutes 1799-1822, accounts 1792-1837 [T/D]
iii.) North West District Littleport to Welney (A1101) Includes minutes, 1824-75, accounts, 1825-74 etc. [T/L]
Cambridgeshire Quarter Sessions records include Turnpike Trust returns for south Cambridgeshire transmitted to the Home Secretary, 1820-1833 [QS/8/2-4] and a volume of various turnpike trust acts, 1790-1822 [R60/15/1]
Minutes of the Hauxton and Dunsbridge Turnpike trust, 1828-72 and of the Arrington Turnpike Road, 1797-1870 are held at Cambridge University Library.