1762 Act of Parliament – Blythe Marsh to Thorpe turnpike connecting Derby-Newcastle to Ashbourne-Buxton. Route Forsbrook-Cheadle-Oackamoor-Calton Moor-Blore. First meeting of trustees May 20 1762 at Blackmoor Head, Ashbourne.

Good state of repair in 1804. Order in 1822 ‘that milestones be put down on this road with cast iron plates and raised letters’.

Traffic mainly lime and coal. "Coldwall-Thorpe was sometimes referred to as old coal road." Only regular stage coach traffic was between Calton Moor and Thorpe along which the Manchester-Derby coaches ran until 1831. Tolls were collected at the Oakamoor and Blore gates.

July 1768 the Trustees acknowledged that certain hills on the road were so steep that extra horses were necessary for wheeled traffic:- on the following hills – High Shut, the hills into and out of Oakamoor and Delphouse Bank. The Trustees themselves were empowered to make a by-law of this nature and their proposal had to be approved at a meeting of the Quarter Sessions held at Stafford.

There are a couple of references – R. Hayhurst (of Tissington) (1957) Coldwall Bridge. Derbyshire Miscellany No. 7 p 102 and Anon (1912) Calton Moor House. Derbyshire Advertiser, 29^th June

From Calton Moor House, the pre-turnpike road followed a straight line along Green Lane. It would seem that before the time of the enclosures two tracks branched from Green Lane, one going to Musden and the other turning below Hazleton Clump (a landmark on the 1100ft. contour) into Blore Dale. Traces this latter track can still be seen; evidence of its direction is also indicated by location of the parish boundary and the fact that when the turnpike road was made it was considered necessary to site a toll gate at the top of Blore Dale, where the old and new roads crossed.

The turnpike road crossed the Ashbourne-Leek road at a slight angle to older road and continued in a direct line to the top of Blore Dale; it was at this point that in 1765 a chain was to be `put up immediately at Hazleton gate at the top of Blore Dale'. Along this dale a footpath leads to Blore church, and this may be a relic of the pre-turnpike road. A shed was erected at Hazleton in 1782; it was repaired in 1806 and again in 1821, but it was apparently still not satisfactory, as the following year (1822) the keeper of tolls asked for a toll house to be built. In the same year the removal of Hazleton chain to Calton Moor was considered, but as we have seen, no action was taken until 1827.

Only a mile further on tolls were also taken at the hamlet of Blore, where in 1763, Charles Lorrimore (referred to earlier in this paper) was `to erect a turnpike house and one gate near Blore, the same as at Oakamoor, for £42.10.0d'. It may be assumed that the toll house was at Blore cross-roads. Tolls were sometimes evaded and in May 1781 `John Port and servants passed through Hazleton and Blore several times without payment, the Clerk to write to him'. The Ports lived at Ilam

In March 1830 a most unusual proposal was made to the Trustees by the inhabitants of Thorpe, Ilam, Castern, Musden, Okeover, Throwley and Blore (all these villages or hamlets that made use of the turnpike road), who offered to be solely responsible for the maintenance of the road between Calton Moor House and Spen Lane on condition that the Blore gate and Calton Moor chain were abandoned. Trustees accepted this proposal and the toll house and gate at Blore were offered sale.

Where the present road turns south east to Mapleton the track, formerly the "turnpike road, leading to Coldwall Farm goes straight ahead, passes the back of the farm and then degenerates into a footpath. The Ordnance Map still marks this as a track, but after leaving the vicinity of Coldwall Farm it emerges onto the open hillside above the river Dove; although it is now grass-grown this road was used by local motorists until the mid- 1930's

In his book on ancient bridges Jervoise⁹ states: `At one time there must have been considerable traffic along this road, as the bridge has been widened by about 9ft. on the downstream side and is now 18 ft. in width between the parapets. The repair of Coldwall Bridge by order of the Derbyshire Sessions is recorded in the year 1717. It was then only a wooden bridge and nine years later the Staffordshire Sessions appointed three persons to consider the building of a stone bridge in its place'. The replacement was made in 1726. Additional information on this interesting bridge has been published by R. Hayhurst¹⁰.

Within a few months of the formation of the Trust (1762) work was undertaken with stone `out of the lands of Leek (sic) Okeover Esquire of Okeover for the repair of the turnpike road between Blore and Coldwall Bridge'. In 1765 the Surveyor was to set about 15½ roods of road from the south side of Coldwall Bridge up Coldwall Bank including Okeover Duty for the present year'. Although there is no further mention made of repairs, this part of the road must have been in a reasonable condition, at least during the period when it was used by the stage coaches. The following extract<sup>8</sup> gives some idea of its former importance: `Coaches used this crossing the Dove at Coldwall Bridge, until 1831, when their route was changed that they entered Ashbourne by Hanging Bridge'. As already stated, the approach to Coldwall Bridge on the Staffordshire side has for many years ceased to be maintained; the bridge itself is still in excellent condition though gated on the Staffordshire side. By contrast, the Derbyshire approach is metalled; a milestone, still in position a short distance beyond the bridge, carries the original iron plate marked Cheadle 11. Half a mile on, the road reaches Thorpe.

An overgrown track leads behind Thorpe church, it turns sharply to the east and rises steeply past Broadlowash before joining Spen Lane; a toll house belonging to the Ashbourne-Buxton Trust still stands at this junction. Broadlowash was a manor house and it may be assumed that the road passing it was of some importance. According to local tradition this was the pre-turnpike road; it is probably significant that beyond its junction with Spen Lane the line is continued by a footpath leading directly to Fenny Bentley.

In 1765 the Trust made a new road (the present road) from Thorpe village to meet Spen Lane at the point where the Dog & Partridge Hotel now stands; a minute dated 25th July I 765 reads `the old road from the top of Thorpe nether pasture to the village be allotted to become the property of John Mellor in exchange for the land belonging to him which has been taken to make the new road'. The erection of a toll gate at or near Thorpe Green was considered in April 1789, and in January 1790 it was proposed to erect a side gate between Thorpe and Spen I have not been able to trace whether these proposals were ever carried into effect.

The Blythe Marsh turnpike terminated at Spen Lane which, when the Trust was formed, was part of the Ashbourne-Buxton turnpike; it is thus shown on Burdett's map of 1767, but by 1789, when John Bvng¹¹ came this way the turnpike had already been transferred to its present route past the entrance to Tissington.

From the table of toll gate lettings it will be seen that the section of the turnpike between Calton Moor House and Spen Lane was never really remunerative, and the fact that it was thrown open around the time when the stage coaches changed the route into Ashbourne may be of some significance. The pattern of local traffic must also have been altered to some extent by the cutting of the canal between Froghall and Oakamoor in 1808 and by the construction of horse-drawn tramways such as the Woodhead Tramway, for the transport of coal from the Cheadle coalfield.