A history of the roads and the tivertonTurnpike trust

In March and April 2023 Peter Bowers gave the Society presentations on the roads of this area.  He covered the history of roads from the iron age up to the late nineteenth century, including examples of most of the known maps of mid Devon in general and Sampford Peverell in particular up to 1809.  Peter then went into detail of how the Tiverton Turnpike Trust was set up and why, how the turnpikes were used, and where the local toll houses were situated.  He also went into the detail of how the roads were maintained, and what happened when the canal was built through the village, and the effect on the toll roads of the arrival of railways.  As the presentation includes many copyright pictures and maps we cannot make it public, but members of the society can see a PDF of the presentation on this password-protected page.  

Link to our presentations page

If you are a member of the society but do not know the password please contact a member of the committee.