A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



were not affected, and the frequent collection of 

 tolls was often a heavy tax on the farmers of a 

 district. Thus at Aylesbury there was no road 

 out of the town free from toll, and there were 

 no less than seven turnpike trusts, each managing 

 a different road, with a different set of lawyers, 

 officials, and toll-collectors to be paid. 6 The 

 tolls varied slightly under different trusts, but in 

 Buckinghamshire and the neighbouring counties 

 the usual rates were as follows : 7 



For a horse ridden or led, I \d. 



For a horse drawing any vehicle, \\d. 



A carriage and pair gJ. and so on. 



Cattle lod. a score, and sheep and pigs rather less. 



In 1813, in a survey of the county made for the 

 Board of Agriculture, the state of the roads is 

 heavily condemned. The by-roads naturally were 

 the worst ; some were even dangerous, the ruts 

 being so deep that the surveyor reports ' that when 

 the wheels of a chaise fall into them, it is with 

 the greatest danger an attempt may be made to 

 draw them out ; nay, instances may be produced 

 where, if such an attempt is made, the horse and 

 chaise must inevitably fall into bogs.' This 

 actually happened on the road from Risborough 

 to Bledlow, the horse of the surveyor falling 

 into a bog up to his chest. 8 The main roads 

 at the present time are under the control of 

 the County Council. Their course has been 

 dictated from the earliest times by the posi- 

 tion of the Chiltern Hills, the roads from 

 London passing in the most cases through the 

 different gaps in the hills. The road from 

 London to Chester passes through before it 

 reaches Buckinghamshire, which it enters at 

 Little Brickhill, and runs north-west, covering 

 the course of Watling Street. The Liverpool 

 road enters the county near Woburn and passes 

 through the town of Newport Pagnell, which 

 owed its prosperity to its being a posting stage 

 on this road. In the south of the county there 

 are two roads to Oxford from London. The one 

 follows the valley of the Thames, the other 

 enters the county near Uxbridge and passes 

 through High Wycombe, going over the Chiltern 

 Hills. From this road a branch road runs up the 

 Missenden valley to Aylesbury and Buckingham, 

 while there is a more direct road to the former 

 town by Tring and Aston Clinton. Other 

 roads of course connect the different towns and 

 villages with one another. The county was 

 better served by water communication than by 

 road. The Thames was used by the manufac- 

 turers established near its banks, and the Ouse 

 is navigable throughout its course in Bucking- 

 hamshire. The Grand Junction Canal has also 

 supplied a much-needed means of communication 



6 J. K. Fowler, Rec. of Old Times, 14. 



7 Ibid. 



for the towns in the centre of the county, which 

 were long without adequate railway service. 

 The main canal passes through Ivinghoe, Fenny 

 Stratford, and Stony Stratford, but is also con- 

 nected with the three towns of Buckingham, 

 Aylesbury, and Wendover. The Act of Parlia- 

 ment for making the cuts was obtained in 1794. 

 This canal was so much used in the early part of 

 the i gth century that the road from Stony Strat- 

 ford to Newport Pagnell, along which the com- 

 modities sent by canal were distributed in the 

 county, was at many seasons of the year abso- 

 lutely impassable, being cut up by the heavy 

 wagons. 9 In the early days of railways the 

 Buckinghamshire landowners offered so much 

 opposition to any scheme that the county was. 

 badly serve^ b) railways for many years. When 

 the Londu.. and Birmingham Railway, now the 

 London and North - Western, was surveyed 

 George Stephenson's original plan was to bring 

 the main line down via Aylesbury and Amer- 

 sham to London, but so much opposition was 

 raised that the line was diverted through the 

 Countess of Bridgewater's land by Berkhamp- 

 stead and Tring. ' The land,' she is reported 

 to have said to him, ' is already gashed by the 

 Canal, and if you take that course you will have 

 no severance to pay, it will disarm opposition, 

 and the position of the locks will be some guide 

 to you in your levels.' lu Thus the line, when it 

 was opened in 1 838, only passed through a small 

 portion of the county by Bletchley and Wolver- 

 ton. Subsequently several branch lines have been 

 built, opening up the northern part of the county. 

 From Cheddington Junction there is a line to 

 Aylesbury ; from Bletchley there are two lines, 

 one by Fenny Stratford to Bedford and Cam- 

 bridge, and the other to Oxford. The Banbury 

 line passes through Buckingham, leaving the 

 main line at Winslow, and another branch con- 

 nects Wolverton and Newport Pagnell. In the 

 south the chief railway is the Great Western ;. 

 the main line, entering the county near Coin- 

 brook and passing through Slough, leaves the 

 county at Maidenhead. It has branches to- 

 Eton and Windsor, and to Oxford, via High 

 Wycombe, Princes Risborough, and Thame. 



A small line was projected in 1 846 by Robert 

 Stephenson, its object being to connect the two 

 great lines, the centre of the county being then 

 practically without railway communications. Part 

 of the scheme was abandoned, and not till 1861 

 was the Act obtained for the Aylesbury and 

 Buckingham Railway. The project met with 

 opposition of every kind, but finally an arrange- 

 ment was made for the new line being worked 

 by the Great Western. 11 Afterwards, however, 

 an extension was made bringing the line from. 



St. John Priest, Gen. View of dgric. of Bucks. 125. 



9 Ibid. 342. 



10 J. K. Fowler, Recollections of Old Country Life r 



339-4 2 - 



11 J. K. Fowler, Rec. of Old Times, 186. 



104 



