Turnpike Roads

What have Turnpikes to do with my family tree and history? As far as I am aware, none of my relatives were Turnpike Trustees. So why the interest on a genealogy site and not a history site? There are plenty of Turnpike background sites including of course Wikipedia. There are also some more detailed offerings by for instance Turnpike roads and and Tollhouses, This site was the source for the English Turnpike table and the Tollhouses of Hampshire table, both of which provided valuable information and further analysis. Another, British Tollhouses has photos of still existing tollhouses, although the actual gates have long since gone. An example is the Twyford Northern Gate which is included on my Census Map. Another possible Tollhouse on the same Turnpike can be seen on Google. Then you can get into even more detail with a paper on Hampshire Turnpikes and local websites for Southampton and a parish called Weeke near Winchester.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs

The Pomeroys of Broadwindsor, it will be of no surprise, lived it the small village of Broadwindsor and the surrounding hundreds and hamlets, in Dorset. It was a rural community not far from the border with Devon. A mere 5 miles in a vaguely South Westerly direction. Today Beaminster is bigger and lies about 2.5 miles East. Dorchester, the county town is only twenty miles away, a 6-7hr walk. Tolpuddle is another rural community, only another six miles East, a days walk in total.

John Pomeroy was born on 31 December 1808 in Broadwindsor, Dorset, his father, George, was 29 and his mother, Frances, was 30. He married Mary Ann Bowditch on 8 September 1830 in his hometown. His father George passed away in December 1831 in Broadwindsor. By 1834 John's family had grown with the birth of a Son and a Daughter.