TURNPIKE TRUSTS: ANNUAL ACCOUNTS

Only one return is extant for 1845 (at QE22/14), none are extant for 1847, and there are only three for 1850 (QE22/43, 105 and 113)

The records of a considerable number of turnpike trusts were deposited with the West Riding Solicitor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These are to be found at RT3 to RT100. The records of the Wakefield and Denby Dale trust have subsequently been deposited in the record office as part of a solicitor's collection (C201) as have the financial records of the Huddersfield and New Hey trust (C296 box 91).

Many deeds concerning the disposal of toll-houses and small pieces of land by turnpike trustees, usually on the winding-up of trusts were enrolled with the clerk of the peace in accordance with the provisions of an Act of 1822 (3 Geo. IV c.126, section 86). These may be found in enrolment book 'G', at QE2/7.

The accounts were originally filed in annual bundles, but have been sorted by trust for ease of access.

An Act of 1820 (1 Geo. IV c.95, sections 5 and 9) obliged clerks and treasurers of turnpike trusts to make financial returns to the clerk of the peace, which were to be copied into a book and sent to the Home Secretary. QE22/1 contains 67 returns made under the Act. Annual accounts of turnpike trusts were deposited with the clerk of the peace from 1823 under the provisions of an Act of the previous year (3 Geo. IV c.126, 1822). These accounts are available for 118 trusts, and most date from the 1820s to the 1870s. The number of trusts making returns falls off rapidly in the 1870s, so that by the following decade only 14 trusts survive. The accounts cease completely in 1890.