Tue 12 th Mar 2019
Paul Hindle – Turnpikes and Maps in the North West.

Historical geographer and author, Paul Hindle, said his illustrated talk combined 2 of his main interests, turnpikes and old maps.

Paul detailed the timeline of the advent of turnpikes from the 16th century through to periods of turnpike mania during the 18th century. His talk included numerous maps of the north west, which demonstrated that toll roads, that were roads controlled by turnpikes, followed the routes of older tracks. Tolls collected from road users were used to improve and upkeep the state of the road.

The spread of turnpikes across the country was a piecemeal exercise with no central planning to coordinate development. Each turnpike had to be enacted by an act of parliament and Lancashire’s first one was in 1725.

As the road network developed, maps, too, began to develop in their accuracy. From 1758 The Royal Society of Arts encouraged this development. The military, under the name of the Ordnance Survey, undertook nationwide surveying, which increased map accuracy and detail throughout the 19th century.

Paul continued his interesting talk by referring to maps covering the locality and compared several editions with each other to illustrate the development of maps, together with Chorley as a town.