construction of Aberdeenshire's first turnpike roads, The

Journal of Transport History, The, Sep 2003 by Day, Thomas

Construction of the first turnpike road in the shire county of Aberdeen in the north-east of Scotland commenced in 1796.1 This was more than 130 years after the establishment of the first turnpike trust in England and over forty-five years after the first turnpike gate in Scotland had been erected on the road between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The initial impetus to road building in the county continued for some fourteen years before being resumed later, to a lesser extent, during the third and fourth decades of the nineteenth century, with the final turnpike road being completed in 1855.2 It is hoped, using the arguments presented, to show, because a considerable knowledge of road construction had been accumulated by the time turnpike roads were built in Aberdeenshire, that they were more soundly and economically constructed than earlier turnpikes

This thesis will be tested on data pertaining to those Aberdeenshire turnpikes constructed before 1810 and will be considered from five standpoints: Aberdeenshire roads before 1796, the administration of the turnpike trusts, the topography of Aberdeenshire, local road construction practice, and the supervision of road construction. It will also be tested against relevant data published in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia3 and the observations of contemporary writers.

First it is necessary to establish the physical and theoretical criteria and the limits to be considered in argumentation. First, the roads to be considered all lay within the boundaries of the old county of Aberdeenshire as it existed before it became a part of the Grampian Region. Whilst concentrating on events in Aberdeenshire, reference will be made to road conditions and construction in the adjacent counties of Kincardineshire and Banffshire which formed the sparsely populated land mass of north-east Scotland. Second, the emphasis of this article, unlike some previous studies of turnpike roads,4 will be aimed primarily toward the engineering aspects of road construction, with the administration of road trusts being considered only where it impinged directly on engineering matters. Third, local road construction practices, established from archival sources, will be compared with those specified by Telford and McAdam, and with those used previously for the construction of roads in other areas of Britain.

Aberdeenshire roads before 1796

The turnpike roads of Aberdeenshire, as in other regions of Britain, were superimposed over a network of local parish roads. The condition of these roads, maintained in repair by statute labour, was the subject of comment that ranged from praise to condemnation, the latter being the most usual. Comments by parish ministers about the condition of local roads were recorded in The Statistical Account of Scotland, and whilst they may not be entirely accurate they do give an indication of the contemporary state of parish roads. At Kintore, Aberdeenshire, it was reported that 'The roads are better in this parish than in many parishes around, as we have much sand and gravel for making them' and at Crimond that 'the work was always too superficially performed'.5 In the neighbouring parishes of Fettercairn and Dunottar, Kincardineshire, it was noted that the roads were 'in excellent condition' and that 'no highways in Scotland are in worse condition'.6 The minister of the parish of Grange, Banffshire, wrote, 'the roads are in wretched repair'.7

The comments about the state of the parish roads in north-east Scotland were largely adverse, and were echoed by colleagues with parishes in the lowland agricultural counties as far south as the border with England. North of the Firth of Tay in the counties of Angus and Perthshire where turnpike and post roads were then under construction the comments about parish roads were generally negative. In the parish of Glenisla the minister noted that the roads were in bad condition and would remain so until a competent overseer was appointed, and at Monikie the roads were described as 'not in the best condition' and 'in bad weather almost impassable'.8 At Errol in Perthshire, on the north bank of the river Tay, it was recorded that 'This parish has always had a bad name for roads', and because they lacked repair they soon became 'unpleasant, if not impassable'.9 It was hoped that the repair of the post road from Perth to Dundee and the construction of a new turnpike would result in improvements to roads in the parish.

The introduction of turnpike roads into the Lothians and the counties that lay between Edinburgh and the border did not always provide a stimulus to the improvement of parish roads. At Haddington, it was reported, 'many of the bye roads are in very bad repair, owing to the nature of the soil, which is generally clayey',10 and before 1770 the roads in the parish of Humbie had been bad and impassable but they had been improved when the proceeds of a locally levied ploughgate tax was used to fund repairs.11 At Lauder, Berwickshire, the situation was better, and turnpikes, parish roads and bridges were kept in good repair by the application of toll and commutation money.12