Low Down Articles
Echoes from the Past
Article 55 of 111
This article first appeared in the "Echoes from the Past" column of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Pay the Toll, Turn the Pike
The word TURNPIKE was used to define a road with a prepared surface constructed for the use primarily of its owner or owners but available to others for a price. Usually there were tollhouses erected at either end of a short road or at intervals along those more lengthy.
Originally a post was set up in the middle of a road where toll was to be paid. A spike was driven into the top of the post. A long pike or pole with a hole in its centre was fitted over the spike in the log. Once the toll had been paid the keeper "turned the pike".
Two turnpike road were built between Hull and Aylmer (the Britannia Road), and between Hull and Chelsea (The Chelsea Road) for those traveling north from Hull the toll house was on the outskirts, at a place until recently called Wrightville. At the Chelsea end the tollgate was near where the railway line crosses Highway 105.