<p>www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Explore Exmoor</p><p>THE TURNPIKE AND COUNCIL ROADS OF SOUTHERN</p><p>EXMOOR</p><p>Turnpike roads were built and administered by turnpike trustees. They were designed </p><p> as improved roads, which would be maintained with some degree of consistency. </p><p>Tolls for their upkeep were collected at turnpike gates by keepers who were often </p><p> provided with a home in tollhouses. The houses were often round or multi sided to </p><p> give the keeper a view of approaching traffic. The tollhouse at Exebridge survives.</p><p>In 1765 part of the Bridgwater—Barnstaple road between Bridgwater and Bampton </p><p> was turnpiked by the Minehead trust. The road passed through Dulverton from Hele </p><p>Bridge and after crossing the Barle ran through Battleton and Brushford parish to re-</p><p> cross the Barle at Exebridge. An extension westwards from Dulverton following the </p><p> earlier Bridgwater-Barnstaple route was turnpiked by the Wiveliscombe trust in 1786.</p><p>In the 1780s the turnpike road was said to be the only good road in the area. the rest </p><p> were described as intolerable.1</p><p>Under an Act of 1825 the Wiveliscombe turnpike trustees were authorised to build an </p><p> entirely new length of road between Bullaford in Molland across Easter and Wester </p><p>1 Bentley, J.B. and Murless, B.J., Somerset Roads: the Legacy of the Turnpikes I, (Taunton, 1985), 51, 59—61; SRO, DD/SY 4, 10; ibid. A/AQP 8. www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Explore Exmoor</p><p>New Moor and by Blackerton in East Anstey, providing a route from Wiveliscombe </p><p> through Bampton that avoided Dulverton, superseding their older turnpike road.2</p><p>The construction of new roads often caused local disruption and the new road from </p><p>Highaton in Molland through Bampton was no exception. Thomas James, rector of </p><p>East Anstey, described in August 1825 how he went with a local farmer to see the </p><p> proceedings of the people who superintend the new road. He noted that it ran outside </p><p> a boundary hedge between Blackington and Shapcott farms, that workmen were </p><p> already digging from several quarries in an uncut field of oats, thus severely </p><p> damaging the crop, and that there were plans to open more quarries, one in a field of </p><p> potatoes by Blackington farmyard, another in the farmyard itself, making a courtyard </p><p> in front of the farmhouse door impassable and involving the felling of a beech tree. </p><p>The workmen claimed that they could enter every part of the farm except the garden </p><p> and the house.3</p><p>A new road alongside the rivers Quarme and Exe to replace the Minehead turnpike </p><p> was opened in 18274 and links from it into Winsford were made in the early 1830s. </p><p>Later a more direct route was cut to Exford in 1853. Roads were laid out following the</p><p> inclosure of common in Exford in 1847 and 1852, at Twitchen in 1851—3, and at east</p><p>Anstey in 18560s and In the 1860s Sir Thomas Dyke Acland completed a fenced and </p><p> metalled road over South Hill from Winsford to Dulverton.5</p><p>2 George IV, c. 93; NDRO, B415/13. 3 SRO, DD/DP 5/1/50. 4 J. B. Bentley and B. J. Murless, Som. Roads, i. 49. 5 SRO, D/P/wins 4/1/4, 9/1/1, 14/4/1—2, 14/6/2—4; D/P/exf 9/1/1; ibid. SRO, Q/SO 23, f. 271v; 24, f. 59v; DRO, QS/113A/204/1—2, Q/RR1 9, 29, 75. www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Explore Exmoor</p><p>Although not turnpike roads, the Knight family laid out over 22 miles of roads were </p><p> built in the 1840s providing access to the new farms, often unfenced across open </p><p> country. By 1816 the main routes in the royal forest were the Exford—North Molton </p><p> road continuing to Barnstaple, and from Simonsbath House to Challacombe, and north</p><p> via Prayway Head to Brendon. A road via Exehead to Lynton was planned but never </p><p> made. The Knights added roads from Exford and Withypool joining at Withypool </p><p>Cross and going to South Molton.6 </p><p>Following the establishment of county and district councils at the end of the 19th </p><p> century further improvements to roads were made, especially in the 1920s. There was </p><p> concern at the carriage of iron ore and timber by road. Dulverton rural district council </p><p> supported a Roads Union memorial to the prime minister in 1908 deploring the grave </p><p> and increasing evils caused by the road motor traffic, and resisted allowing public </p><p> transport on local roads. South Molton rural district council accepted the evil and </p><p> authorised the creation of passing places and some road widening in East Anstey in </p><p>1911. In the 1920s the roads across Molland Common were improved. South Molton </p><p> rural district council approached their Dulverton counterparts in 1922 on the grounds </p><p> that the proposed road would be of more use to accommodation to the occupiers on </p><p> the Somerset side of the common. Reluctantly Dulverton rural district council </p><p> contributed £50 towards the cost. The road was completed in 1926. Improvements </p><p> were also made to the Winsford—Exford—Simonsbath and Simonsbath—South </p><p>6 Acland, T D and Sturge, W, The Farming of Somersetshire (1851), 28; Orwin, C S, and Sellick, R J, The Reclamation of Exmoor Forest (1970 edn), map. www.EnglandsPastForEveryone.org.uk/Explore Exmoor</p><p>Molton roads in 1926—31 as unemployment relief work. By the 1920s there were </p><p> regular motor charabanc services linking Dulverton with Minehead and petrol filling </p><p> stations had been built in many villages as the area became popular with touring </p><p> motorists.7 However for most people in southern Exmoor in that area the railway was </p><p> more useful than the roads.</p><p>COPYRIGHT </p><p>All rights, including copyright ©, of the content of this document are owned or </p><p> controlled by the University of London. For further information refer to </p><p> http://www.englandspastforeveryone.org.uk/Info/Disclaimer</p><p>7 SRO, D/R/dul 3/1/2—5; NDRO 2407A/C5, C7; Orwin and Sellick Reclamation of Exmoor Forest, 151.</p>