A question has arisen as to what is a Turnpike Road. Though we of the present time complain, sometimes bitterly, about the state of the roads, they bear no comparison to those that existed in the 18th century when they were mere tracks, often following the route of cattle as they wandered the countryside.
Responsibility for upkeep of those roads lay with the Justices of the Peace and Commissioners of Supply who had the powers to tax landowners to raise funds to pay for repairs. It was also the duty of tenants and cottars to work a specified number of days during the year on repairs to the roads. Those who did not wish to work could ‘commute’ their labour to a financial payment, which monies were then used to carry out repairs on the roads. Roads on which these funds were used were known as ‘commutation’ roads or as they are often mistakenly called, even today, ‘accommodation’ roads.
As the eighteenth century drew to a close agricultural improvements and the need to transport goods to and from markets easily made it imperative that something be done to improve communications across the country. Turnpikes had been established in England from the middle of the century, but their movement north had been relatively slow. Turnpike roads (roads, across which a gate was placed at the toll-house, which was then opened on payment of the toll) were built by funds raised through subscription and tolls were charged for the use of the roads with the expectation that the funds so raised would in time pay off the debts on the roads along with the interest accrued on these debts.
In 1795 an act was passed which enabled Turnpike roads to be built from Aberdeen to Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Banff, Keith, Alford and Kincardine o’ Neil. Subscriptions for the Inverurie Road were opened in 1798 and forty-five subscribers contributed over £6560 in amounts ranging from £25 to £500. Contracts were awarded in July 1799 to three separate contractors who completed the work by October 1800 when the road as far as Inverurie was opened for use. It was a stipulation of the Turnpike Act that there should be at least six miles between the Tollbars. Those on the Inverurie road were situated at Kittybrewster, Tyrebagger and Cairnhall, between Kintore and Thainstone. Money collected from the tolls was supposed to defray costs of maintenance and pay interest on the loans received from subscribers and eventually pay back these loans, but many of them never succeeded in clearing their debts.
As has been previously stated, the Kintore to Tilliefourie Turnpike was opened in 1826 with two toll bars, one near the new roundabout at Kintore crossroads, which was demolished and replaced by Hallforest Cottage, and the other at Monymusk. The arrival of the railway at Inverurie in 1853 signalled the end of the canal from Aberdeen to Inverurie and Mr Tait who had considerable milling interests at the canal head at Port Elphinstone actively promoted the formation of the Turnpike from there to Kemnay with the toll bar just outside Inverurie. This was the last Turnpike road to be built in the area and the toll house is of a far higher standard than many of the earlier ones. The coming of the Alford Valley Railway neutralised any effect of this new road and Mr Tait then turned his interest to paper making at Inverurie.
The Turnpike roads were in the main overtaken by the railways, which sounded the death knell for many of them. The Aberdeenshire Roads Act of 1865 dissolved the turnpike trusts and in 1866 the tollgates were dismantled.