Re: Coming Down the Pike
Posted by Barney on March 12, 2000 In Reply to: Re: Coming Down the Pike
posted by ESC on March 10, 2000
: : Which one is it and where does it come from?
: Here's what I found in "Hog on Ice" by Charles Earle Funk. "to
go up (or down) the pike - We use this so commonly in America to
mean up or down the road that we never stop to inquire the source."
Mr. Funk says "pike" is a shorten form of "turnpike." Turnpike roads
were common up to the middle of the last century and could be built
by a private individual, a community or government. ".They were
toll roads, the cost of maintenance paid from the tolls of those
using the road. But what we today call 'tollgates' were then called
'turnpikes,' a name that itself had long ceased to have any of the
original sense. The first turnpikes were really rotating constructions
upon which pikes or sharpened rods were mounted. They were effective
barriers until the fare of a horseman or coach had been paid, and
were then probably rolled or turned out of the way."
The following extract from a 'Narrative History of the Royal County
of Berkshire by Brenda Ralph Lewis' is the earliest reference I've
found to Turnpike roads:
'The succession of King George I to the English throne (1714) saw
a vast improvement in the condition of communications across the
country as Turnpike Trusts were set up to establish tolls to take
the maintenance of major roadways out of the hands of impoverished
parishes.'
In 1839 the Rebecca riots in Wales (where the main participants
dress up as women) were the culmination of the frustration of local
people who had to pay large toll fees to travel in any direction.
I'll bet this wasn't the first reference?
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