The Newton Bushell Turnpike Trust was a

turnpike trust Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road toll road, tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain from the 17th ...

company in Devon which built and maintained trunk road connections from the West of Newton Bushell (now

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge, Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its population was 24,029 in 2011, and was estimated at 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in ...

between 1760 and November 1872. The trust built several roads, including what is now the A382 from Newton to

Whiddon Down Whiddon Down is a hamlet within the parish of Drewsteignton in Devon. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 267. Location The hamlet lies on the old east–west A30 (London-Penzance) road, between Exeter and Okehampton at the cross-road ...

and the A383 to Ashburton.

History

The trust was formed in 1760, and on 16 December 1760, placed its first petition to Parliament to take control of, widen, and repair the road between Newton Bushell and Ashburton. This led to the passage through Parliament of the Devon Road Act 1760 ( 1 Geo. 3 c.34), setting the legal framework to create the turnpike. The following year, in 1761 they made "petition of the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the several Parishes of Teingrafe, Bovey Tracey, Lustley, North Bovey, and Moreton Hampstead" on 19 January 1761, due their road being "incommodious, having a very troublesome ascent and descent, that has scarcely ever been considered a public road". This caused the building of the turnpike road from Newton Bushell (now Newton Abbot) to

Moretonhampstead Moretonhampstead is a market town, parish and ancient manor in Devon, situated on the north-eastern edge of Dartmoor, within the Dartmoor National Park. The parish now includes the hamlet of Doccombe (), and it is surrounded clockwise from the ...

. In 1826, a further act of Parliament ( 7 Geo. 4 c.92) was made to both repair and improve the road from Newton to Moretonhampstead, as well as extend it to Whiddon Down through the village of Sandy Park, where it would join with the turnpike of the

Okehampton Turnpike Trust This is a list of turnpike trusts that maintained roads in South West England. Between 1663 and 1836, the Parliament of Great Britain and the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed a series of acts of Parliament that created organisations - turnpi ...

. In 1834, the trust was taken to court and it was found that they had not fulfilled their duties under the acts of Parliament, by not completing all of the road as directed, and were therefore ordered to remove the Moreton Northern and Whiddon Down Gates. The trust sub-let operation of the toll gates to a contractor, and then used the money to pay for road repairs, which was done by tender. The trust ceased to exist following the expiry of all of its acts of Parliament in November 1872.

Routes

The trust's routes were: * from Newton Bushell to Ashburton, via Highweek * from Newton Bushell to Whiddon Down, via Bovey Travey, Moretonhampstead, and Sandy Park * from Bovey Tracey to Chudleigh Knighton

Tollhouses

The turnpike trust had ten

tollhouse A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road, canal, or toll bridge. History Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and ...

s along their routes (as well as three on their branch to Ashburton, now the A383), of which three remain standing. These were at: * Forches Cross, Newton Abbot (demolished 2009) * Claybere, Newton Abbot * Bovey Tracey (still standing) * Bradleyford, Bovey Tracey * King's Bridge,

(still standing) * Northern gate, Moretonhampstead * Whiddon Down (still standing) * Whiddon North – towards North Tawton and Okehampton turnpike (still standing) * Highweek (village) * Highweek (Mile End) * Greenaway (Highweek)

Milestones

The trust installed distinctive milestones on their roads, with distances carved onto granite and showing the distance to the destinations in miles, furlongs, and poles.

References

{{Reflist Turnpike roads in the United Kingdom Transport in Devon 1760 establishments 1872 disestablishments