Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual
acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road
tolls for maintaining the principal roads in
Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries. At the peak, in the 1830s, over 1,000 trusts administered around of turnpike road in England and Wales, taking tolls at almost 8,000 toll-gates and side-bars.