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Cheltenham & Tewkesbury Turnpike Trust (D204/1/1)
The first Act for "repairing and widening the roads leading from the city of Gloucester towards Cheltenham and Tewkesbury" was passed in 1748 and was followed by several others. These were to be turnpike roads, where travellers were charged a toll to travel over the road, which was kept in good order (using money from the tolls for maintenance). Before 1823 (when Worcester Street was built), the road from Gloucester to Tewkesbury was via Hare Lane and then to Kingsholm, where it split into two: a low-route via Sandhurst, Wainlodes and Lower Lode, and a high-route via Longford, Norton and Coombe Hill. Like other turnpikes, operation of the actual gates was rented out to the highest bidder at auction, with the winner undertaking to pay an annual rent for 3 years and collect the tolls - anything the winner made over and above the rent was profit. This image is taken from the minute book of the trust for June 1778 and shows that Thomas Jones, innholder of Gloucester secured the 3 year contract for the Gloucester to Tewkesbury Turnpike after bidding to pay £154 a year. It is worth noting that by 1849, the auction winner was paying an annual rent of £405 indicating how much extra traffic was using the road.
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