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Coming Down the Pike

Posted by Barney on March 12, 2000

In Reply to: 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 A 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 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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