Turnpike Roads and the Railway

The English kings had always insisted on the maintenance of highroads and bridges so that they and their subjects could have a free and unobstructed passage; the responsibility fell mainly on the manors and their inhabitants and it was the duty of the lords of the manor to see that the work was done. It was one of the three fundamental obligations of the holders of land in medieval times. With the decline of the manorial organisations and the changes in land ownership that followed the dissolution of the monasteries, the performance of road maintenance became increasingly difficult to enforce. As the condition of the neglected highways had become a subject of public concern a new system of road administration was designed that was to apply to the whole of the kingdom. It came into force in 1555 and was for nearly 300 years the basis of road maintenance. Under this Act the responsibility was placed on the parish and its inhabitants. Parishioners had to repair the roads themselves and provide the tools, carts and animals needed for the work, the contribution of each parishioner being assessed on the value of his holding. Every householder and labourer had to work 4 and later 6 consecutive days annually on the roads or send someone in their stead. As time went by it became the practice of many parishioners to commute their labour for a money payment. So long as the users of the roads were local people, parishioners reluctantly accepted the obligation but where a parish road formed part of an important highway between industrial centres, its deterioration under the weight of increased traffic called for greater effort on the part of the parish to keep it in repair. Parishioners grumbled that the additional burden placed upon them was unreasonable and urged that traffic from a distance, which had no connection with their parish but made use of the road to pass through should make a contribution towards the roads upkeep. It was a devise that commended itself to parliament and led to the creation of turnpike trusts. Although this method of road repair was abolished in 1835, the parishioner was not relieved of his duty to maintain roads and this continues today in the form of the highway rate. The first turnpike trust was formed in 1706 when parliament granted powers by for statutory bodies to be created, consisting of so many named persons, to take over the control of roads in which they were interested, charge tolls on users and devote the revenue to the maintenance of these highways. As the trusts were independent bodies each had to be created by a separate Act of Parliament; the powers granted were for a limited period, usually 21 years, but as each trust applied for and was usually granted a new act to continue, they became virtually permanent bodies. The trusts did not employ staffs of their own to collect the tolls but let or farmed the gates to contractors for lump sums. It was customary to auction the gates annually, the value set on each gate being determined by the revenue it had produced during the previous twelve months.

The roads that had been built by the Romans in England were allowed to deteriorate and by the beginning of the 18th century British roads largely consisted of dirt tracks. However, the need for better communications was realized and the concept of toll roads, or turnpikes, was introduced. The first of these was the improvement of the Great North Road, now the A1, connecting London and York. It was upgraded as a result of a 1663 Act of Parliament. Little more was done until 1706, when "Turnpike Trusts" were introduced, effectively placing road development on a commercial basis. This began an era of major road improvement and road building, which was to last until the first part of the 19th century. By 1750 some 13 strategic turnpikes radiated from London and were of sufficient quality to bring in the era of the stagecoach. Many new roads were built in the period up to 1772 and stagecoach journey times were reduced. At the beginning of the stagecoach era it took 12 days to travel from London to Scotland, but this was reduced to nine days and less by using relays of horses. By 1770 light post-chaise vehicles could do the journey in five days. During the first three decades of the 19th century, methods of highway construction were pioneered by the work of two British engineers, Thomas Telford and John Loudon McAdam, and by the French road engineer Pierre-Marie-Jerome Trésaguet. Telford's system of road building involved digging a trench and installing a foundation of heavy rock. The foundation was raised in the centre so that the finished road was sloped away from the centre, allowing drainage to take place. The topmost layer of the road consisted of a 15-cm (6-in) layer of compacted broken stone. McAdam held that well-drained earth would support any load. In McAdam's method of road construction, the finishing layer of broken stone was placed directly on a foundation of earth that was raised above the surrounding ground to ensure the foundation drained properly. McAdam's system, called macadamization, was generally adopted at the time, especially in Europe. When heavy trucks were used in World War I, however, the earth foundations of macadamized roads could not bear the heavy road load. As a result, Telford's system was adopted for the construction of heavy-duty roads, because it furnished a better distribution of road load over the underlying subsoil. Another road pioneer, John Metcalf, built more than 290 km (180 mi) of roads in Britain. More than 1,000 turnpike companies, maintaining 32,000 km (20,000 mi) of roads, were in operation in Britain in the 1830s, when the competition from railways began to make the turnpike system less profitable for the operators. In 1835 some 3,300 stagecoaches were in use. It was possible to travel from London to major cities up to about 200 km (125 mi) away in a day, and there were 40,000 km (2,500 mi) of roads in England and Wales. The advent of the railway had an adverse effect on the stagecoach and many turnpikes began to deteriorate as the trusts were unable to raise sufficient income for their upkeep. In 1888 an Act of Parliament was passed that transferred responsibility for roads to local government authorities.

The North Wales post roads were established as a permanent feature in 1599 with a road from Chester to Holyhead passing through Rhuddlan. Northop was made a post town in 1602. After the restoration of Charles II Denbigh was made the post town instead of Rhuddlan and the route after Northop was changed. This was changed again in 1772 when a Post Office was set up in St. Asaph. John Ogilby in 1675 showed 4 roads in Flintshire, 3 of which led to Holywell; from St. Davids through Ruthin, from Shrewsbury through Caergwrle and Mold, from Chester through Flint, and the post road from Chester to Holyhead through Hawarden. At the beginning of the 18th century the system of "road trusts" was formalised. The 17th century had seen a revival of road tolls and the setting up of gates or "turnpikes" at which tolls were collected but now local gentlemen could obtain private acts of parliament to enable them to borrow money on the security of turnpike tolls and to use this to improve the roads. The system spread quickly and country people disliked the tolls enough to attack and destroy some of the toll houses in the period of the Rebecca Riots. It would appear that the Flint District Turnpike Trust which covered Holywell, Greenfield, Bagillt, Northop and Flint was formed in 1769. One of the early Trustees was Thomas Pennant. In 1782 John Jones paid £10 for the right to charge tolls at the Coleshill Tollgate at Flint Bridge for 1 year. In 1799 Richard Ingleby paid £100 and in 1803 Edward Davies paid £85 for 1 year. In 1789 the fee for each horse drawing a carriage went up from 3 pence to 4 pence. The turnpike from Flint to Walwen, Bagillt was called the Flint Causeway or Pavement.

In the later 18th and early 19th centuries, the Flintshire Turnpike trust made improvements to both the Chester-Holyhead road (the modern A548) which runs through the town, and to the Northop Road, south of the town – the Flint-Mold turnpike. Milestones were put up on the Chester-Holyhead turnpike near Pentre Farm to the east of the town, giving distances to Flint and Kings Ferry (Queensferry) and near the present-day Aber Park Industrial Estate to the west, giving distances to Flint and Holywell. There was also a milestone giving distances to Flint, Northop and Mold near Plas-y-mynydd, just a mile from the southern edge of the town in the early 19th century. Toll houses which levied tolls to repay investors were built on each of these roads – the Flint Turnpike at Summer Hill to the east of the town centre, the Coleshill Turnpike to the west and the Bryn Coch Turnpike on the Northop Road in the Mount Pleasant area to the south.

The development of the town was probably hindered by the lack of good communications and the deplorable state of the roads in the early eighteenth century. By 1756 all the major roads were under Turnpike Trusts including the Chester-Hawarden-Northop-Holywell; Chester-Mold-Denbigh; Mold-Northop-Flint; Mold-Leeswood-Wrexham; Holywell-Caerwys-Denbigh roads. Private enterprise was still important despite the Turnpike Trusts. The coast road, Chester to Flint was widened, straightened and resurfaced under the Road Act 1788 sponsored by the local landowners, local colliery owners and the Greenfield Copper Company. Later, the Turnpike Trustees became responsible for the maintenance of the roads, improving old roads and making new ones. They frequently employed convict labour, and able-bodied prisoners sentenced to hard labour in the old Flint Gaol, were often employed on road-work. The general betterment of the roads advanced the coaching age, with the development of regular passenger and freight services, which widened communications and the distribution of goods to the important markets. The stagecoach and mail coach horses were generally changed at each stage where there was a post house on the route. The coast road from Flint to Queensferry was shortened and improved about 1820. In the early nineteenth century 'The Lord Mostyn' coach, conveying passengers from Holywell to Rock Ferry for Liverpool, called daily at the Ship Inn in Market Square and later the Royal Oak in Church Street. In January 1885, responsibility for the roads was passed to the local Highway Boards

View of Flint in 1840 from Allt Coch

In 1834, the stock-holders of the Turnpike Trustees, met to discuss the threat to their interests by reports of the coming of the railway to North Wales. The first meeting convened to discuss the proposed construction of the London and North Wales Railway from Chester to Holyhead was held in London on 1 May 1839. Many vociferous and formidable objections were raised against the scheme and especially by the farmers. They contended that their livestock would be unduly alarmed, their land and property damaged, their labour disorganised and their outbuildings and stock-yards and crops set ablaze by dangerous sparks emanating from the fiery locomotives. In 1844, the Flint Town Council passed a resolution to the effect that the intended railway line of the Chester to Holyhead railway passing through the town over a level-crossing, bisecting Church Street and Castle Street, would be highly injurious to the interests of the town and the safety of the inhabitants. They considered that the railway should be carried over the town by a viaduct. At a subsequent meeting of the Council, the Solicitor representing the railway company attended and assured them that Flint would be a 'first class station'. But the Council petitioned against the Railway Bill and expressed their determination to zealously watch and oppose its progress until fully satisfactory arrangements were made to their complete approval. The Council, still not satisfied with the manner with which the railway company were proceeding with the scheme, then required them to make a new road running parallel with the railway from Church Street to Brick Kiln Lane. They also requested the company to lay the main sewers in the town. A great artificial mound, constructed near the Castle and surrounded by a defensive ditch on which once stood a fort to protect workmen on the construction of the castle from opposing militant bands of Welshmen, was demolished during the laying of the railway. Finally a level crossing was constructed with a signal-box adjoining which was constantly manned for the opening and shutting of the gates for pedestrians. Also an iron foot-bridge. Then with both parties completely gratified and with speech-making and flag-waving and cheers from an excited crowd of spectators, the Chester and Holyhead Railway opened on 1st May 1848. It was amalgamated with the London and North Wales Railway in 1858. The station was designed by Francis Thompson. In 1882, the Town Council opposed the application to Parliament by the Lower King's Ferry Turnpike Trustees for an extension of the Turnpike Act and their application was refused. The road to Pentre was dis-turnpiked and the road maintained at the expense of the Borough. As though in lone defiance to the advent of progress with the arrival of the railway, the last Turnpike stood in Pentre until it was demolished in 1896. With the bisection of the town by the railway crossing, the area on the Dee bank in the neighbourhood of the castle became a neglected backwater with the poorest housing conditions and much squalor and poverty in slum property. Particularly in Castle Street and Roskell Square. There were several old Inns there and a common lodging house and it was generally regarded as a low, rough and seedy quarter. A number of grand three-storey houses and attractive villas stood there in Corporation Street in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century catering for visitors to the seaside resort of Flint. Flint had been among the very first towns in Wales to be influenced by the fashion for sea bathing in 1769 but it was small and insignificant compared to the better resort of Parkgate across the Dee. Flint also could not compete with Rhyl and its sand dunes and there are no references to its resort function after 1844. Also the building of the Chemical Works in the area with their obnoxious fumes made them less desirable and with the changing times they fell into disuse and were later demolished.

The invention of railways led to demands for a rail route to Holyhead, and the great George Stephenson, predicting that fast and heavy trains would need to use the line, proposed a northern route which avoided the mountain passes by running along the coast from Chester. The Chester and Holyhead Railway Act was passed in 1844, and construction began on 1st March 1845 with George's son Robert Stephenson as chief engineer. (The Chester and Crewe line was built by a separate company, and opened in 1840.) Even though the route was largely along the coast, some bold engineering was needed, especially the high bridge across the Menai Strait (required by the Government to give clearance for shipping). An experimental train ran to Bangor on 14th October 1847 though the first passenger trains did not run until 1st May 1848. The Irish Mail went to Holyhead by train for the first time on 1st August1848, and on the same day the present Chester station was opened, replacing the separate stations previously used by the Crewe and Birkenhead services.

Small companies such as the Chester and Holyhead rarely kept their independence, and in 1859 the north Wales coast line had become the property of the London and North Western Railway Company (LNWR) which had in fact been working the train services from the opening day. The LNWR, which owned the west coast main line from London Euston to Carlisle, set out to promote traffic on the coast line by encouraging tourist traffic to the seaside resorts, notable Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, and Llandudno which was reached by a short branch line opened in 1858. Many sections of the line were expanded to four tracks, and larger stations built to handle the traffic; level crossings were replaced by road bridges, as can clearly be seen today near Rhyl and Prestatyn stations.

Work commenced on the Chester and Holyhead Railway, engineered by Robert Stephenson, soon after 1845. The stations and other buildings were designed by Francis Thompson, architect for the line. It is the first of Francis Thompson’s 1840s station buildings out of Chester, retaining most of its original character, costing £4,101 and built by Thomas Hughes. It is a simple one and its brickwork has been painted but it is still essentially complete even to the main members of the original iron canopies. The centre of the entrance front is recessed with a canopy spanning between projecting end bays. The waiting room on the other platform was built in 1883 when the foot bridge was built. The bridge over the railway at Castle Road was built about 1860 and before it was built there was a level-crossing. The approach road to the bridge had to be curved, as a direct approach would have been too steep for horse drawn vehicles. The footbridge by the Market Square was erected in 1901, there was also a level-crossing but this was closed in the 1940’s. The goods shed just outside the station was built about 1860.

Flint Railway Station 1950's Present day station