Turnpike trusts
![The Hyde Park Gate in London, erected by the Kensington Turnpike Trust. This was the first toll point encountered along the Bath Road, upon leaving London.](/Images/godic/202502/18/Hyde_park_turnpike_toll_gate3058.jpg")
![The Great North Road near Highgate on the approach to London before turnpiking. The highway was deeply rutted and spread onto adjoining land.](/Images/godic/202502/18/Highgate_wide3058.jpg")
![The front page of the Act to create the Fyfield Turnpike Trust on the Great Road to Gloucester in 1738](/Images/godic/202502/18/Fyfield_act_17383058.jpg")
![Map of the Turnpike Tollgates in London 1801.](/Images/godic/202502/18/Tollgates_London_18013059.jpg")
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the peak, in the 1830s, over 1,000 trusts administered around 30,000 miles (48,000 km) of turnpike road in England and Wales, taking tolls at almost 8,000 toll-gates and side-bars.