Huddersfield and New Hey Turnpike Road

The Huddersfield & New Hey Turnpike was a 16-mile toll road passing through Marsh, Salendine Nook, Outlane, Pool Moor, Buckstones Moss, Denshaw and Haugh, to reach New Hey in Lancashire at the junction with the Shaw & Rochdale Turnpike.

The construction was authorised by an Act of Parliament passed in 1806.

The route passes through the following toll points marked on the 1854 O.S. maps:

  • two Toll Point Chains at Marsh:
    • one at the junction with Blacker Lane (now Edgerton Grove Road), named as Pitts Wood Toll House on the 1851 Town Plan
    • one at the junction with Gledholt Lane (now Gledholt Road), shown only as a chain on the 1851 Town Plan
  • Outlane Toll Point — at the junction with Stainland Road
  • Red Lane Dike Toll Point — at the junction with Royal George Road (now Quebec Road)
  • Denshaw Toll Point — still exists (Google Street View)
  • Junction Toll Point
  • Bradley Toll Point

The route is now the A640, although the current road makes a small number of diversions from the turnpike road.[1]

In 1840, the Parliamentary Commissioners for Inquiring into the State of the Roads in England and Wales reported the following details of the road:

  • 19 miles 756 yards with 8 toll-gates, passing through the townships and hamlets of Huddersfield, Marsh, Lindley, Longwood, Fixby, Rastrick, Stainland, Scammonden, Slaithwaite, Marsden-in-Huddersfield, Fryer Meer, and Butterworth.
  • "Some part of the road is in bad repair, the remainder is in tolerable good condition".

The Act expired on 1 November 1874 and the turnpike trust was wound up.

Outlane & Rastrick Branch

A branch of the turnpike (now the A643) was also built to Rastrick at the same time as the main turnpike.

Barkisland & Elland Branch and Buckstones & Barkisland Branch

Two further branches of the Huddersfield and New Hey Turnpike are marked on the 1850s O.S. maps and are believed to have been built following Acts in 1825 and 1838.

Leeds Mercury (25/Jun/1825):

BARKISLAND & SADDLEWORTH DISTRICT of the HUDDERSFIELD and NEW HEY TURNPIKE-ROAD. Notice is hereby given, that the next MEETING of the TRUSTEES for putting into further Execution an Act of Parliament, passed during the present Session, entitled "An Act for repairing and maintaining the Road from Huddersfield, in the West-Riding of the County of York, to New Hey, in the Parish of Rochdale, in the County of Lancashire, with a Branch to Toothill-Lane, in the said Riding; and for making a new Road from Buck-Stones to the Highway leading from Ripponden to Stainland, at or near to Barkisland School," so far as the same Act relates to the new Road from Buck-Stones to Barkisland School, and directed by the said Act to be called "The Barkisland and Saddleworth Districkt," will be holden on Friday the Eighth Day of July next, at Three o'Clock in the Afternoon, at the House of Mrs. Wilkinson, the Savile's Arms Inn, in Elland, in the Parish of Halifax, in the said West-Riding of the County of York.

Leeds Mercury (23/Jun/1838):

ELLAND & SADDLEWORTH ROADS. NOTICE is hereby given, That a Special MEETING of the TRUSTEES appointed in and by an Act passed in the First Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, intituled "An Act for more effectively amending and improving the Roads from Buckstones, by Barkisland School, to the Rochdale and Elland Turnpike Road, near the Town of Elland, and from Skyehouse, to the Highway leading from Barkisland to Stainland, all in the West Riding of the County of York," will be held at the Saville's Arms Inn, in Elland, in the said County, on Monday, the Ninth Day of July next, at Eleven o'Clock in the Forenoon, for the Purpose of ordering and directing, if it shall then be thought proper by the said Trustees, that the Toll Gate, called Dry Hey Bar be removed, and that the same be erected and placed in, upon, or across the Elland and Saddleworth Road, where it crosses the Salterhebble and Stainland Turnpike Road; also that Three Chain Bars be fixed and set up, upon, or across, the said Elland and Saddleworth Road, One of such Chains to be fixed near to a Place called Lambert Hall, another near to Brow Bridge Beck, and the other were a certain Road called the Hullenedge Road, crossed the said Elland and Saddleworth Road; and also that One or more Tollhouse or Tollhouses, with suitable Outhouses and Conveniences, to such Gate and Chains respectively, be erected and built, and to fix the Amount of Toll to be taken thereat; and also to order and direct the present Tollhouse, at Dry Hey, be sold.

Route

The route of the turnpike road, including the branches, is shown below:

Further Reading

Notes and References

  1. Specifically around Outlane at the intersection with the M62, the subsequent road bridge across the motorway, and the diversion between Dowry Reservoir and New Years Bridge Reservoir.