Worcester's London Road: a tale of turnpikes and tollgates

Because then the highway was even more vertiginous. In fact, crosses were set up at the bottom to thank the Lord for getting down safely.

Over the centuries, the route from the top of Red Hill to Sidbury Gate has seen many changes and the one used today is actually the line of an old turnpike coach road.

Before that it ran a little to the south and can be traced almost all the way by a line of back lanes.

The old road climbs the steep hills without any effort to modify the natural gradient. This explains why when Queen Elizabeth I left Worcester in 1575, she used a special “made way” leading through Battenhall Park.

Two medieval crosses stood on the old London Road until the end of the 17th century; one at the junction with the Tewkesbury Road at the bottom of Green Hill and the other at the foot of Red Hill.

Worcester’s public gallows stood at the top of Red Hill. This tree marks the spot where in 1679 Roman Catholic Father John Wall became the last man in England to be executed for his faith

However they were destroyed in the Glorious Revolution of  1688 by followers of Sir Edward Harley, a well-known Puritan, who took against such “popish things”.

The present London Road was built in the 18th century and two major cuttings helped ease the gradient for the London stagecoaches. The first, at Wheatsheaf Hill, was cut through part of the old Fort Royal Civil War defences and called Wheatsheaf because of an inn of that name half way up the hill.

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The second, at Red Hill, was cut through the southern tip of Perry Wood. This cutting was to be blocked twice by landslides and for weeks London coaches had to reach Whittington by way of Middle Battenhall Farm. During the making of the coach road, the valley called St Catherine’s Vale was raised and Pirie Brook, which flowed down from the  foot  of Pirie Wood and once crossed the road, now runs beneath the carriageway in a pipe.

A coach for every occasion. The Marks line-up

At the top of Wheatsheaf Hill, opposite the Fort Royal Inn, once stood Marks’ “Blue Bus” garage, Marks was one of the earliest private bus companies, operating in 1918 if not even earlier.

It had the intriguing slogan “Pride of the Pike” painted in large letters on the rear of the buses. This stemmed not from any fishing connection, but from the fact the garage occupied the site of the London turnpike gate. Sadly the tollhouse was demolished after the turnpike ceased to operate in 1870.

Tight fit. An away day party in Marks Coaches

It may be difficult to appreciate now, but up until 1870 the urban areas of the city were cut off from the country by these gates. From every direction the way into Worcester was barred and every vehicle and animal had to be paid for on the way in and on the way out.

One result of this travel tax was that just outside the gates there was usually a public house and it became the practice to leave your transport there, get some liquid refreshment and then avoid paying the toll by nipping through the gate on foot. Inns like the Mount Pleasant were built for this trade.

A horse and trap outside the former Seabright Arms in London Road. Wouldn’t have fancied coming down a steep hill in that

However as towns expanded, the tollgates had to be re-sited. The London Road gate was moved from the bottom of Wheatsheaf Hill to the top, while the Bath Road gate was moved twice – from the joint gate with London Road to the junction with Diglis Road, and later to near Timberdine Avenue, where the Berwick Arms catered for the “outside” trade. That’ll be a pint and the use of your back door please landlord.