Turnpike roads

River Dove crossed by a bridge of size

Coldwall Bridge

Writer Richard Stone, from Barton-under-Needwood, reveals how secluded Coldwall Bridge carries the legacy of a once busy turnpike.

FOR much of its length, the River Dove marks the western boundary of Derbyshire. A variety of foot and road bridges, ancient and modern, provide crossing points, often hardly noticed as they serve their intended purpose. Coldwall Bridge is different.

In 1994, an extension of the Limestone Way opened, picking up a network of quiet footpaths through the beautiful Derbyshire Dales to take walkers from Upper Town to Rocester, in East Staffordshire, via Ible, Brassington, Tissington and Thorpe.

It crosses the River Dove by way of Coldwall Bridge. The last thing a casual walker expects to find on this grassy route is an 18-feet wide stone bridge, complete with milestone declaring “Cheadle 11” (miles) on an iron plate dated 1822.

A single, massively buttressed, segmental arch spans the Dove. Beyond, a causeway crosses the valley floor into Staffordshire, ending where rising ground clears the immediate flood plain. From here a track leads by Coldwall Farm to the edge of Blore village.

The milestone is a clue to why such a solid bridge was built. This was once an important turnpike linking the main Derby to Newcastle-under-Lyme road at Blythe Marsh with coaching routes from Ashbourne to Leek and Buxton.

Turnpikes were introduced widely in the 18th and early 19th century when travel difficulties threatened to constrain the opportunities offered by a new industrial age.

Rich reserves of copper and iron in the Staffordshire Moorlands were unable to be properly exploited because of the poor condition of roads. Muddy quagmires in wet weather were frozen into deeply scored furrows in winter and baked into rutted switchbacks by summer sun.

Maintenance, technically a responsibility shared between parishes and county authorities, was haphazard and minimal. According to one local landowner, retired admiral John Leveson-Gower, the Bay of Biscay in a storm was preferable to travelling by carriage in the Moorlands.

Turnpikes were authorised by private Acts of Parliament and allowed a board of trustees to charge road users a toll. Revenue raised was used for maintenance and repair.

Such a trust was approved in 1762 to take charge of what, though well used, was little more than a track used by farmers and packhorses between Thorpe in Derbyshire and Cheadle in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

The trustees set about improvements immediately. Contractors were employed to level different sections of road and lay a surface of broken stone and compacted gravel. The turnpike was built with a camber to aid drainage. At the crown was an 18-inch layer of hardcore.

The specification was increased to a minimum depth of two feet of stone across the full width of the carriageway approaching a crossing of the River Churnet, at Oakamoor, where the land was prone to flood.

At Coldwall, a narrow wooden bridge across the Dove was replaced in stone. This was not easy country for travellers. Parts of the route rise to more than 1,100 feet. Diversions were cut to take the sting out of the two most dangerous inclines.

East of Cheadle, an existing route by Highshutt Farm to Oldfurnace and Stoney Dale, was bypassed and a new road commissioned. Instructions to T Burgess, the contractor for the job, were that no part of the route should have a gradient exceeding one in 12.

A steep climb out of the Churnet Valley from Oakamoor to Cotton was similarly replaced with a stretch of road laid between limestone walls at Star Bank. The new route sidelined the Star Inn beside the old path, forcing the business to relocate. From Coldwall, the road clambered steadily out of the Dove Valley originally passing south and east of St Leonard’s Church, along the track known as Church Lane (the route now taken by the Limestone Way) before turning east by Broadlowash farmhouse to a tollhouse beside Spend Lane, then part of the main Ashbourne to Buxton road.

An easier path from Thorpe, north and west of the church to Thorpe Green and on to Spend Lane by the Dog and Partridge was soon adopted.

A 15-mile journey along the length of the turnpike from Thorpe to Blythe Marsh, via Coldwall Bridge, Blore, Caltonmoor, Cotton, Oakamoor, Cheadle and Forsbrook, that previously would have taken all day could now be completed by a light carriage, or on horseback, in around two hours.

Good road surfaces and the invention of elliptical springs turned travelling into a pleasure. People took their carriages out for fun. Four-wheeled “dog carts” were ideal runabouts for short journeys. For those who could afford the luxury, family coaches offered greater comfort on longer trips. Inns opened along the route to provide passing trade with refreshments and comfort stops.

In the churchyard of St Leonard’s, Thorpe, there is a sundial mounted on a tall pillar. The dial, by famous Derby clockmaker, engineer and geologist John Whitehurst, was made in 1765, just when the turnpike was completed.

The height of the column means you have to stand on tiptoe to see the dial, suggesting it was designed for coach drivers or those on horseback. It must once have stood beside the turnpike route.

In 1777, an improved road from Ashbourne to Buxton, passing through Fenny Bentley, sidelined Spend Lane and the connection to Coldwall Bridge was extended, along Narlow Lane and Washbrook Lane, to meet the new road (now the A515) at Tissington Gates.

The new turnpike brought benefits but at a cost. Between Spend Lane and Blythe Marsh there were 10 gates, each with a tollhouse. Tickets could be bought enabling travellers to cover more than one stage with a single payment. The wealthy employed a running footman to race ahead and pay in advance to avoid being held up while the gate was opened.

Charges, displayed on boards at each toll point, varied according to the type and size of vehicle, goods carried, or livestock herded. Carriages and wagons were often charged per wheel. Sheep were cheaper to move than cattle.

Business on the turnpike was so brisk that Coldwall Bridge became a bottleneck. The new road was designed for two-way traffic. At Coldwall Bridge it became a single lane just nine feet wide. In the early 19th century, it was widened by a further nine feet.

Viewed from below, the extension shows clearly in the stonework of the arch. Spiralling maintenance costs, and the imminent arrival of the railway, presaged the end of an era. Turnpikes began to close.

In 1831, with traffic decreasing, Coldwall Bridge was freed from toll. Further on, the stretch of road from Caltonmoor to Cheadle continued to turn a healthy profit into the 1870s. Partly, this was because the railway came late to the Staffordshire Moorlands.

It was 1849 before the Churnet Valley Line opened and 1892 before a branch line linked Cheadle to the main rail network. Perhaps also, it was a reflection of a well-run turnpike and the economic importance of the route in a relatively remote area.

In 1888, responsibility for all road maintenance was transferred to a newly formed county council. When the turnpike closed, many tollhouses and some roadside inns, including the Red Lion at Caltonmoor, became private residences.

Former tollhouses, some substantially rebuilt but sensitively retaining distinctive features, are recognisable from their prominent roadside positions and windows designed to provide a clear view of approaching traffic and to double as paypoints.

The strategic potential of Coldwall Bridge was recognised in the dark days of 1941 when a German invasion was considered a serious threat. To confuse any enemy paratrooper who might chance to land in the area, the milestone was temporarily removed.

Possibly the discovery of this isolated bridge, set so incongruously on a footpath, would have been puzzle enough. Soon after the first motorised carriages appeared, Coldwall Bridge slipped into quiet retirement.

Most of the old turnpike is still in use, resurfaced with asphalt and travelled by modern vehicles. Instead of dipping down by Coldwall Farm to Coldwall Bridge, a new road diverts drivers to Ashbourne across the River Dove at Okeover, two miles south; or to Thorpe, via Ilam and St Mary’s Bridge, to the north, leaving Coldwall Bridge to walkers.

But maybe, on nights when the moon rides low, the occasional wraith of a coach still rattles and flies across the old bridge.

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