North Cheshire Family Historian

The New Turnpike road
between Macclesfield and Fernilee, Derbyshire

I undertook some research some months ago in which I had to trace the Act of Parliament that allowed the construction of the new Turnpike road “leading from the New Bridge at the Waters at Macclesfield, though Hurdsfield and Taxall and the intermediate Townships in the County of Chester to the Turnpike road at Randle Carr Head in Fernilee, leading to the Market Town of Chapel in the Frith in the same County”.   The Act in question was given the Royal Assent in 1770. The original copy is held at the House of Lords Record Office reference Private Act (1770) 6310 (n.121)

The preamble to the Act stated that the existing road “is in a very ruinous Condition, and in many Places narrow, incommodious, and dangerous to travellers, and the same cannot effectively be widened, repaired, and kept in Repair by the present methods prescribed by Law.”   The road was originally a salt road between Macclesfield and Chapel en le Frith and was very steep and narrow.   The proposed new road would follow the easier line and cut out many gradients.  It would follow the present line of the B5470 out of Macclesfield through Hurdsfield and Rainow and then turn onto Smith Lane and Bank Lane towards Summer Close, Tunstead Knoll Farm and Fivelane Ends in Kettleshulme before heading eastwards to Taxall and Fernilee.   The section between Bank Lane and Tunstead Knoll Farm has fallen into disuse and is now a footpath.  The remnants of the old road are shown on the Ordnance Survey Explorer map OL24. 

The Act covers 31 pages of A4 and is very comprehensive.  It sets down inter alia the following conditions:

            The names of the Trustees;
            The right of the Trustees to erect Turnpikes and Toll houses;
            The level of Tolls payable;
            Exemptions to Tolls by certain Carriages etc;
            Penalties on Persons evading Tolls;
            Surveyors may dig for Gravel etc in Waste grounds without paying for
the same;
Surveyors may remove Annoyances, turn water courses, cut down and
lop Trees, make Causeways etc, turn and widen the Road, make a temporary Road, and erect Bridges etc.
The Road may be turned over to Waste Grounds, without making Satisfaction;
The Old Road may be sold, giving Preference to Owners of adjoining Lands;
Dwelling houses etc not to be injured;
Power to turn Road through Mr. Legh’s Park. 

The most important section as far as family historians are concerned is the one listing the names of Trustees and I have listed them below in alphabetical order for easy searching.

Lords (7)
Belasyse, the Right Honourable Henry, commonly called Lord Belasyse
Cavendish, the Right Honourable Frederick, commonly called Lord Frederick Cavendish
Cavendish, the Right Honourable George, commonly called Lord George Cavendish
Cavendish, the Right Honourable John, commonly called Lord John Cavendish
Cholmondeley, the Right Honourable George, commonly called Lord Malpas
Cholmondeley, the Right Honourable James
Stanley, the Right Honourable James Smith, commonly called Lord Strange

Baronets (5)
Mainwaring, Sir Henry
Meredith, Sir William
Stanley, Sir John Thomas
Warburton, Sir Peter
Warren, Sir George, Knight of the Bath

Esquires (168)
Arden, John the elder
Arden, John the younger
Arden, Richard
Atkinson, Rowland
Barker, Alexander
Barker, John
Beech, John
Bellott, Anthony
Bellott, Stephen
Bennett, John
Bennett, William
Booth, Thomas
Bowden, Thomas
Bradbury, Josiah
Bradbury, William
Brocklehurst, John
Brocklehurst, George
Brocklehurst, Thomas
Brocklehurst, William
Brooke, Peter               
Brooklbank, William
Bullock, John
Byrom, Edward
Calrow, Thomas
Carrington, James
Chandley, Philip
Clarke, Godfrey Bagnal
Clarke, George
Clowes, Philip
Clowes, William
Clulow, John
Creswell, John
Crew, John
Davenport, Richard
Davenport, Thomas
Davenport, William
Dean, Philip
Dickenson, John the elder
Dickenson, John the younger
Dixon, Edward        
Dixon, James
Dixon, John                  
Downs, Peter
Egerton, Samuel
Evanson, Thomas
Eyre, Rowland
Fallows, William
Fitzherbert, Richard
Fitzherbert, William
Foxlow, Samuel
Frith, John
Frith, Samuel
Frith, Samuel of Bank
Froggatt, Thomas
Gaskell, John
Gaskell, Lawrence
Gaskell, Peter
Gell, Philip
Gisborne, John
Glegg, John the elder
Glegg, John the younger
Glover, Samuel
Goodman, George         
Gould, John
Green, Edward
Grosvenor, Thomas
Hall, Jonas
Hall, William
Harper, William
Harrop, Joseph
Harrop, Robert
Heard, George
Heathcote, Michael
Heywood, Henry
Hodgson, Brian
Hodgson, Robert
Holland, Phillip
Hordern, Peter
Hooley, John
Houghton, James
Hudson, Thomas
Hulley, Jasper   
Hulley, John
Hulley, Jonathan
Huskley, Samuel
Huxley, Thomas
Jackson, Ferdinando
Jackson, Nathan
Kidd, Hugh
Kirk, Henry of Martin Side
Kirk, Henry of Eaves
Langford, Harry
Lankford, Samuel
Legh, Charles
Legh, George
Legh, Peers
Legh, Peter of Booths
Legh, Peter of Lyme
Legh, Thomas of Macclesfield
Legh, Thomas of Wincham
Leycester, George
Leycester, Ralph           
Lingard, John
Longden, Henry
Lucksmith, Thomas
Macom, John
Massey, George
Massey, John
Mather, Benjamin
Monet, John
Mottershead, Matthew
Needham, Elias
Needham, Robert
Nixon, Daniel of Macclesfield
Nixon, Daniel of Rainow
Nixon, Edmund
Orford, Richard
Pickford, Cornelius
Pickford, James
Pott, Robert
Robinson, John
Robinson, Thomas
Roe, Charles                
Rowbottom, Joseph
Ryle, Thomas
Shaw, Edward
Slack, Adam
Slack, Thomas
Smythe, Thomas
Stafford, William
Stanley, Laurence
Statham, George
Stayley, Thomas
Steel, Peter
Stokes, Joseph
Stone, Samuel
Stonehewer, John
Street, Joseph
Street, Samuel
Styles, Charles
Summersby, Matthew
Sutton, John Birtles       
Swain, John the younger
Swann, Edmund
Stafford, John
Stafford, William
Tatton, Thomas
Tatton, William the elder
Tatton, William the younger
Tennant, Richard
Thornhill, Henry
Thornicroft, Henshaw
Tomasson, Francis
Tomasson, Henry
Tomasson, William
Twemlow, John
Twigg, John
Warburton, Thomas
Ward, Thomas
Watson, James
Whieldon, Ralph
Willis, Thomas
Wright, John                 
Wright, Peter
Wright, Samuel
Wright, Thomas
Wright, Whitaker
Wright, William

Clerks (16)
Barber, the Reverend George
Buckley, Samuel
Burscoe, John
Byron, John
Gee, the Reverend John
Jackson, the Reverend Simon
Jennings, Thomas
Legh, Reverend Ashburnham
Mayer, the Reverend Peter
Palmer, John
Parker, the Reverend John
Plumbe, William
Swain, the Reverend John
Ward, Joseph
Watson, John
Wright, the Reverend Henry Offly

Doctor in Physick (1)
Norton, William

Total = 197 males

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