Monument record 7376/1 - Old Stratford to Dunchurch Turnpike

The turnpike was authorised by an Act passed during the 1706-7 session of Parliament. There were four toll gates: Old Stratford; Heathencote, near Towcester (sometimes referred to as Pointer's Corner); Stowe Hill (south of Weedon Road); and Drayton Lane, near Daventry which was augmented in later years by Braunston ticket gate. The Old Stratford to Dunchurch Turnpike's Act expired on 31 January 1876.

{1} Turnpike roads. Old Stratford to Dunchurch (1706). A toll gate was at Pointers corner and in 1812 a weighing engine was established there. A large number of inns and taverns were established due to the opening of this road. The Trust was repealed in 1876. The Watling Street from London to Dublin (via Holyhead) (1762) ran through the town.

{2} The first turnpike in the county was that between Old Stratford and Dunchurch, in Warwickshire. The act for this was passed in the 1706-7 session and was one of the first two acts which set up ad hoc bodies of trustees (ie the first of the Turnpike Trusts) instead of providing for the local Justices to be in charge of the specified roads as in previous acts.

{3} The turnpike was authorised by an Act passed during the 1706-7 session of Parliament. There were four toll gates: Old Stratford; Heathencote, near Towcester (sometimes referred to as Pointer's Corner); Stowe Hill (south of Weedon Road); and Drayton Lane, near Daventry which was augmented in later years by Braunston ticket gate.
The 1801 Act of Union with Ireland brought the need for more rapid communication with that country. Following years of lobbying, a parliamentary committee was set up in 1810 to inquire into ways of obtaining this rapid communication and Thomas Telford was engaged to make a survey of possible routes between London and Holyhead. In 1815 the first of a long series of Holyhead Road Acts was passed by which nine commissioners were appointed and £20,000 granted for improvements, although these were on the section between Shrewsbury and Bangor. The route of the Holyhead Road onwards to London was not decided until 1817 when the Select Committee decided that the route through Shrewsbury, Coventry and Daventry was preferable to the other line by Chester and Oxford.
In 1819 the Select Committee produced its sixth report which criticised the state of the first 100 miles from London, and one of the eight parts standing in need of considerable improvement was the whole road from Towcester to Dunchurch. Telford made seven improvements on the road through Northamptonshire.
Development of other modes of transport had varying effects on the traffic on this road. The Oxford Canal opened from Longford, near Coventry as far as Napton in 1774 and crossed the turnpike in three places near Braunston. The Grand Junction Canal, opened between Braunston and Blisworth in 1800, crossed the turnpike at Weedon and at Stowe Hill. There was also a canal crossing of the road at Old Stratford when the branch of the canal to Buckingham opened in 1801. Although the proximity of the turnpike to the canal at these crossings prompted the establishment of wharves nearby, these developments were mainly for handling coal and other heavy bulk commodities. They seem to have had little effect on the main through traffic on the Holyhead Road, although it would have been used for some local traffic dealing with goods transhipped from the canal.
More significant was the opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838. This crossed the road at Weedon and by a tunnel at Stowe Hill. Transhipment arrangements at Weedon station and yard enabled quicker transport of goods to and from the military depot there than by using the road. More importantly, through traffic between Birmingham and London of passengers and lighter goods was diverted from the Holyhead Road to the railway. As more railways were built, the original purpose of the turnpike providing a through route was no longer valid: local roads became more important as they connected their localities with railway stations. The Old Stratford to Dunchurch Turnpike's Act expired on 31 January 1876.
By the end of the WWI mechanical road transport had developed to be useful for long distance journeys and traffic on the Holyhead Road steadily increased necessitating improvements in widening and easing gradients as near Stowe Hill. The route of the A45 at Daventry was moved westwards from the town centre (and later this route had to be by-passed by a route even further to the west).
The opening of the M1 and M45 motorways in 1951 diverted traffic from the Holyhead Road in Northamptonshire but developments at Old Stratford (in connection with the development of Milton Keynes), on the north west side of Towcester (for improvements on the A43 road) and on the north-west side of Daventry have significantly altered the character of the road at these places.

<1> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester (Industrial), (checked) (Digital archive). SNN100255.

<2> Northamptonshire Industrial Archaeology Group, 1970, Industrial Archaeology In Northamptonshire, p.23 (checked) (Article). SNN103317.

<3> Starmer G., 2002-2003, Survey of Two Former Turnpike Roads in Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Report). SNN104858.

<4> Cragg, R., 1988, The Institute of Civil Engineers Panel for Historical Engineering Works Record Form, (checked) (Recording Form (Not SMR)). SNN106629.

<5> Greenall R. L., 1999, Daventry Past, (unchecked) (Book). SNN101443.

<6> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Daventry (Medieval/Post Medieval/ Industrial), (unchecked) (Report). SNN106656.

<7> Seland H., 2012, Engineering History and Heritage: A Norwegian Roadmaster's 1838 Tour of Britain and Beyond, (unchecked) (Article). SNN109956.

Record last edited

Oct 26 2020 9:58AM