CJ67

Collection

The bodies responsible for the maintenance of public roads have changed many times since the reign of King Henry VIII. The parish vestry and its surveyor cared for the roads until the Highways Act 1835. From 1836 each parish was to appoint a surveyor, and able to levy a rate to maintain the roads under their control. This Highways Act also modified the law, making it more difficult for new roads to be declared highways, and therefore repairable by the parish, unless they complied to certain criteria. Highways Act 1862 gave justices of the peace in counties the power to create Highway Districts made up of multiple parishes. Highway boards were established as the authority governing the highway district. Membership to the board was made up of one or more members elected annually by the parish, known as waywards, and by any county justices of the peace residing in the district. The Highways and Locomotives Amendment Act 1878 was the next major piece of legislation to alter the state of publically funded highways. Highway Districts were to be made so far as possible coincident with rural sanitary boards. It also created a new class of highway – the main road. Main roads were classed as any former turnpike roads that had become public since 1870, roads between major towns and those leading to railway stations, and any additional roads declared a main road by order of the Quarter Sessions. The public within a county was to provide at least half the cost of this new type of road. The Local Government Act 1888 removed responsibility of the main roads from the Highway Districts and was given to the newly created County Councils. Highway districts would retain control of all other highways until the Local Government Act 1894 passed these duties onto the newly created rural district councils. The Local Government Act 1929 gave County Councils increased powers as the ultimate highway authority for all roads in the county. They acquired direct responsibility for all roads in the charge of rural district councils, as well as retaining control of main roads designated since the Highways and Locomotives Amendment Act 1878. Urban councils continued to be in charge of unclassified roads in their areas.