taken from
www.valendale.myby.co.uk/roads.htmlThe Keighley—Bradford Trust positioned its bar on the Morton side of the Stockbridge, still commemorated by Bar Lane in Riddlesden. The Keighley—Halifax toll bar was similarly at the bottom of Park Lane on the approaches to Keighley Bridge.
On the 26 June 1753 the Trust ordered a bar to be erected at the bottom of Steeton Bank. Evasion was soon a major problem. Travelers evaded by going thro’ Steeton Ings.” September 1756 the Collector at Steeton brought a complaint against John Scot of Keighley, who unloaded his cart before passing the bar in order to reduce the toll. December 1757 John Crossley was summoned for puffing up the Side Bar and William Smith for breaking open the main bar at Steeton. Perhaps the most signi¬ficant prosecution was that of Mr Jefferson, the Officer of the Excise, in January 1758, for riding through the fields to avoid paying toll at the bar.
Colne Turnpike. The positioning of the gate at Two Laws caused endless debate.
from Colne, the traveler had to climb up Lidgett, pass the then Blue Bell Inn, fork right at Saltersyke up to Hill Top and then down to the village of Lanshaw Bridge. When the new road to Yorkshire was made a toll was charged; the keeper lived on the site of the present bus waiting-room and a chain stretched across the road just below the well or watering-trough which still remains. Some people "dodged" the toll by passing through the corn-mill yard.
The old road by the Herders was free. By Emmot Bridge first named in 1510. On the left is Rye Flat Farm, said once to have been a public-house.
Before the construction of the road through Ingrow the main route from Keighley to Colne lay through Oakworth and along Harehill edge to join the Bradford—Colne turnpike at Two Laws. If the gate were positioned on the Stanbury side, traffic from Keighley to Colne would be able to evade payment. If the gate were on the Come side, traffic from Haworth and Stanbury to Keighley could avoid tolls by using the track through Pitcher Clough and Oldfield which rejoined the Harehill road at Pickles Hill.
The Trustees tried to solve this problem by setting up an additional gate in Stanbury. The villagers accused the toll collectors of charging people for using the village street and driving their cattle to the fields.
Haworth presented similar problems. The game of moving the toll gate must have assumed the proportions of a major entertainment. In 1759 a toll gate was erected in West Lane. By 1763 we know it had migrated to opposite the Black Bull in Main Street because under the date of the 7 December of that year there is a resolution in the minute book for its removal and re-erection “at some convenient place between that place and Hall Green End.” Later in the century the gate was moved back to West Lane.
Traffic that came from the Denholme coal pits, used the road for a short distance, and then left it again. The most important gate for tapping this coal trade was at Hewinden Brow. Unfortunately the positioning of the gate there to catch the coal carts enabled the in-habitants of Wilsden to use the Bradford end of the road without payment. There were proposals for another gate at Ling Bob, the entry to Wilsden Bents The original order for the gate was made in 1757 but the toll house was not put up until 1799 and seven years later the bar was still not in place.
With four or possibly five bars, instead of the original three all sorts of complicated arrangements had to be made to ensure that no one had to pay twice.
In 1772 the Trust proposed a plan whereby half tolls should be paid at two successive gates in three combinations — (1) ½ Ling Bob, ½ Haworth; (2) ½ Two Laws, ½ Haworth; (3) ½ Hewinden, ½ Ling Bob. The plan never got off the ground. A ticket system was substituted particularly to try and satisfy the inhabitants of Stanbury. There was still abuse because the minute book records under the date, the 14 May 1803, the instruction “That full tolls for carts, carriages and horses going to or returning from Denholme Coal Pits with Coals, shall be paid at the first bar they shall pass.
The route of Bradford Road was widened and took its present course in 1754. After the construction of the Line by the Leeds and Bradford Railway in 1847, there was a level crossing at Bradford Road next to original Keighley Rail Station. In 1879 the level crossing was replaced by Station Bridge, and a new Station built in 1884.
Haworth and Blue Bell turnpike trust. This ran from Heaton to the Blue Bell Inn at Two Laws near Colne.
