THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

FINDON GATE AND NEP GATE

Copyright Valerie Martin 2003

Originally published in Along the Furlong in October 2004

Prior to toll roads in Findon, all roads in the village were the responsibility of the parish.  In Elizabethan times a law was decreed in 1555, that parishes should appoint their own "waywarden" to oversee  road maintenance.   Their efforts alas proved too haphazard for the now increasing number of travellers through each parish.

In desperation, the government approved the first Turnpike Act in 1663, which among other duties obliged every able-bodied householder to provide four days labour towards local road maintenance.  Later this was increased to six days in 1691.  In the 17th century it was virtually impossible to travel to the coast from London, especially in winter when rain and mud made primitive tracks totally impassable. 

Turnpike Trusts were then established by Act of Parliament in most parts of Sussex.   The right to form local Turnpike Trusts brought with it the obligation to create better roads still and as a way of paying for them, compelling each traveller passing that way to pay a toll towards maintenance.

The Trusts undertook to build and maintain decent roadways for which a toll had to be paid.  This privatisation of the highway network proved popular with trades people and the rich, who now found it easier to move around.  To local investors it looked like a money making proposition and during the first half of the 1700s a good basic network of trunk toll roads sprung up between the centres of population in the area.  The poor resented the imposition of tolls and attacks on the tollgates and tollhouse keepers were not unusual occurrences. 

The name of "turnpike” initially referred to the actual tollgate. The original “gate” was just a section of wood, or “pike”.   This was placed across the highway, and was “opened” by turning it to one side to allow horses and carriages through.

I have discovered that in the early 1800s the pattern of roads in Findon changed considerably. 

Prior to 1802 there was no direct road link from the capital to the Worthing coast.  For many years the turnpike terminated at nearby Steyning.  Coach passengers for Findon had to endure the additional journey over the bumpy downland and across the ancient drove-roads to our village.  The 14 odd miles between Horsham and Steyning were considered in summer to be one of the finest stretches of turnpike road in the country BUT the last part of the journey over the slippery chalk of Steyning Round Hill in winter, made it voted the worst.

This all changed in 1802 when the turnpike road was at last extended.   Accordingly, the Act of Parliament passed on 24th May 1802 allowed the construction of a turnpike road from Worthing through Findon, Washington, Ashington and Dial Post to join up with the Steyning turnpike at West Grinstead.  

The Trustees were empowered to provide three tollgates along the route.   One was near the Teville Road in Worthing, close to where Broadwater Bridge now stands.... and described at the time as "the entrance to the village of Worthing".   The second was positioned at Ashington Common and the third at Dial Post.  The new road was opened in 1804.

Any cattle passing from Worthing to or from the Teville Common to pasture or water, were specially exempted from paying tolls, as also were the following:

Toll-house keepers themselves were often of dubious and low moral standing and were rather flexible in the tolls they charged and a common trick was to demand a further toll of a traveller who had already bought a ticket at the previous gate which entitled him to pas through other gates in the same Trust. .   Obviously, Toll-house keepers they favoured their own friends, relations and local inhabitants — and it was not unknown to enforce strangers and those whom they may bear grudges to pay more.  Even the directors of the turnpike could be swayed by greed and prejudice and some roads were not kept in a proper state of repair as a result.

The Worthing Turnpike Act of 1823 saw the end of  the turnpike road between Teville Pond situated “at the entrance to the village of Worthing”, and Offington Corner.   In its place a completely new gate and toll-house were introduced on the Findon road at the bottom of Bost Hill, (then known as Paygate Lane) — opposite Gore Cottages. 

The property on the right in the photograph below is the Toll House at the foot of Bost Hill at the junction with the A24 in 1962.

A second new gate (called Nep Gate), was erected in Findon to act as a side-bar to the tracks running over the Downs to the village from the direction of Steyning...this was to prevent people evading the toll by using tracks running into Findon from the direction of Steyning.   Roadways were still in very bad repair and there was much churning up of mud as men and their animals continually passed, or were ridden, through the “gates”. 

I have been unable to find any record of the location of the bar at Nep Gate — has anyone information on this to put on record for posterity?   The Nep Gate was demolished in 1874.

After 1823, another branch turnpike road was constructed.  This ran from Tolmare pond through the villages of Clapham and Patching an on towards Littlehampton.  The cutting to the east of Tolmare pond dates from this time. The westward continuation of the old downland road to Chichester via Michelgrove in Clapham then completely ceased as a highway.

The golden age of horses and carriages was between 1815 and 1840.  The Royal Mail coaches were exempt from tolls and had right of way over all other transport on the highway.  Every minute was important if the schedule of Royal Mail delivery was to be kept.  Such was the punctuality of the mail coach that Findon villagers set their timepieces as it passed through.  Establishing a timetable for a stressful long distance journey was an immense problem in those days because there was no way of knowing the accurate time when arriving at any settlement.  Each town or village such as Findon, established its very own “local time” using only a sundial – even the St. John the Baptist Church clock clock was set and corrected in this way.  Therefore, the time varied by as much as twenty-five minutes from one village to another. 

The distinctive coach horn was part of the Royal Mail’s official equipment. The coach guard would give a long flowing blast on his “yard of tin” to warn toll-gate keepers of the impending arrival of his coach.   What a sound it must have been approaching Findon.  It allowed ample time for the toll-house keeper to run and open the gates  to let the mail through unhampered.

There was an art in producing the lovely long melodious tune to ring over the Findon countryside.  The horn produced four deep and bell-like notes to produce the instantly recognisable message of “Clear the Road”, which was used to announce the imminent approach of the Mail Coach..  The instrument was three foot long, sometimes made of copper (or more commonly of tin, occasionally of brass), and gained the nickname of the “yard of tin”.

The tolls were “farmed” and also the right to collect them.   In the case of Findon, the revenue rates were auctioned at Steyning in accordance with the terms of the Act.

Similar tolls were charged at the Findon toll-gates to those already fixed at Dial Post and Ashington, which remained substantially unchanged since their inauguration in 1804. The reading of toll charges gives some idea of the state of the Findon tracks with the traffic of so many beasts.  Imagine the road passing the Gun Inn in The Square:

The Findon toll-gate was removed around 1873/4, although the small white painted wooden toll-house was still occupied.    Around 1915 an old lady lived in the toll-house and sold sweets.  The jars of such delights were displayed sitting on her windowsill facing the road. 

 Eventually the house stood unoccupied at the bottom of Bost Hill until November 1963.  

The new railway to the coast offered strong competition and the decline of the road coach was inevitable.   The coming of the railway to Worthing in 1845 was not greeted with universal enthusiasm in Findon.  In the beginning the coaching proprietors tried lowering their fares.  Hopefully, and perhaps in desperation, they claimed the view from their coaches was superior to that from a railway coach and perhaps it was.  They also said it was safer to travel by road.  Finally, accepting a losing battle, the coaches solely acted as a link to and from the railway stations and many people involved in the coaching business became redundant.

I think this was, of course, a sad time for the contractors and proprietors of the large horse-drawn broad-wheeled freight wagons.  Their road service had taken many hours to laboriously haul heavy loads  — and now their livelihood was lost for good to the railways.   Local contractors cut their passenger fares in a last bid to compete and keep in business, but to no avail.  All that was left for the next few years were private and coachman-driven carriages to ply the Findon district.

Continue if you would like to read Mary Hack and the Downland Truffles.

THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE — was launched by Valerie Martin in January 1999 and will grow to be a historical record of life in Findon, West Sussex, U.K.