The London to Brighton Turnpike Road

by John Hayward, from his research for the local history Adult Education class, tutored by Dr Brian Short of Sussex University, 1984

During the 16th century and onwards, as manorial control withered away and brick and tile making and iron working burgeoned throughout the Weald of Sussex, complaints arose, both from locals as well as travellers from elsewhere, about deep and impassable mud on our roads. Because things were much the same throughout the whole of England, a national campaign began in the mid-18th century, to improve main roads by creating ‘trusts’. These would consist of groups of locals who would raise money for the repair and resurfacing roads in their area and then recoup costs by charging people a toll to use that section. In the case of a long-distance route, various trusts would just take charge of their section. Each trust would each have to be set up by its own Act of Parliament and it would then be called a Turnpike Trust. The name referred to the turning mechanism which opened the gate or lifted the bar at the points where tolls had to be paid in order to proceed.

Once our local trust was formed it applied for an Act to cover that part of the London Brighton route which ran from Lovell Heath (Lowfield Heath near Gatwick Airport) via Crawley, Pease Pottage, Handcross, Cuckfield, Anstye Cross, St. John’s Common, Clayton and Brighton.  The Act was passed on 9 Jan 1770, quite early in the overall turnpike movement. Hurstpierpoint was to have been on the route but they campaigned against it and only got their own spur from Anstye, now known as the Cuckfield Road, much later. See note 2 below.

In our area, working north, the section over Clayton Hill was constructed by 1775 and the section running over St. John’s Common was completed by 1779. It upgraded the existing road there from Brighton to the St. John’s Fair Place and the crossing over the River Adur at the bottom of the hill. They achieved the latter by digging up the substantial amounts of the ‘flint metalling’ which could still be found on the Roman road which runs through Burgess Hill.

The entire Lowfield to Brighton stretch was complete by 1780 and wheeled traffic started making use of the improved route.  The economics of the turnpike movement were that once the roads were built and opened, the investors could recoup their costs by charging people to use the new road. The same principal operates on today’s modern motorway roads and bridges.  In the environs of Burgess Hill the company installed a gate at Anstye, another at the bottom of Fair Place Hill on St. John’s Common and another at Stonepound in Hassocks. A householder in the 1790s taking goods by horse and cart from Staplefield to St. John’s Common had to pay one shilling in total for the journey. This was quite a sum when rural wages were only around 10 shillings a week. Pedestrians were exempt but horses, cattle and all manor of farm and commercial waggons had to pay, though there was an exemption for a farmer needing to access outlying parts of his own land.

The Bright Helmstone London to Brighton stage coach started coming through, and in 1784 the Prince of Wales himself galloped through on a wager with some of his friends that he could ride to Brighton in a day. Fresh horses had to be provided for the royal party along the way and for the regular ‘stage coaches’. The horses were changed every 9 to 11 miles. The King’s Head Inn at Cuckfield was the last stop before Brighton.

In its early hey-day at least ten coaches a day went between London and Brighton via St. John’s Common. It was the most popular out of three competing London to Brighton routes (the others went via either Lewes or Shoreham). Many travellers came in ‘brilliant and dashing equipages, both public and private’. See note 3.  The route via St. John’s Common remained the favourite until 1815, when a short cut route via Hickstead was opened, creating the course of the modern A23 from Bolney to Pyecombe as the quickest way to get to Brighton.  Passenger coaches on the older route were reduced to six a day but nearly all the vans, fly waggons and heavy waggons still went via St. John’s Common.  During the next 20 years, with the rise of postal traffic and the development of ‘The Royal Mail’, the road continued to play a vital role.

When the railway came to Burgess Hill in the 1840s toll receipts on the St. John’s route fell from around £6,000 to £1,600 a year. The Trust was ably managed in difficult times by Samuel Waller of Cuckfield as Clerk, Thomas West as Treasurer and William Kinchin of Clayton as Surveyor. The latter continued to do all his own surveying for road maintenance until 1873, and he died at Clayton, aged 93. The Trust survived by cuts in staff and by borrowing against expected tolls. But the debts still mounted and in 1875 an Act of Parliament for closure was obtained and the entire business was wound up on 1 January 1876.

As a post script it is good to observe that the spirit of the local waggoners, who opted for the old turnpike road across St. John’s Common instead of the A23, is kept alive each year as the Old Crocks London to Brighton race has opted for the same thing, and long may they keep coming.

The images show: First, the Anstye road coming down to Fairplace bridge. Second, the London Road between Fairplace and Hammonds ran through the open common and sparked the idea of getting it developed for housing. Third, the last horse-drawn parcel post coming down Clayton Hill, and fourth, an ‘old crock’ on the London to Brighton run stops to shop.

Notes:

1. The Adult Education. class was arranged by the late Ann Phillips, the town Librarian and founding member of the BH Local History Society. The class was made up of members of the Society. A copy of John Hayward’s original 42-page manuscript study, covering this topic and the rise of the mail coaches, complete with 172 footnotes is currently in BHHHA’s possession (Heather Warne).

2. It came down to Burgess Hill via Staplefield and Whiteman’s Green and Cuckfield village, using today’s roads the A23, B2114, B2115, B2016 and B2036; and on to Brighton via the A273 and A23. The Act of Parliament reference is 10 Geo. III, cap.147.

3. John is quoting here from W.C.A. Blaw, Brighton and its Coaches, 1894.

4. The Act of Parliament reference is 38/39 Vic., cap. 194.