Marrin's Bookshop

Synopsis

An act for repairing, widening, and improving the lower road leading from the town of greenwich to the town of woolwich in the county of kent. [30th may 1818]. [58 geo. iii. c. lxxviii]. [on front board: georgii iii. regis].

Item Description

Folio. 7.5 x 12 inches. 1785-1820 pp. 8 pp. typescript with tipped in plate and plans, and hand-written notes.

Notes

Erwood's bound copy of the Act establishes a trust to improve the Lower Road between Greenwich and Woolwich which is currently 'unsafe, narrow, incommodious, and out of Repair, and in some Places in a ruinous Condition,' facilitating access to the 'Dock-Yard and Arsenals at Woolwich, and the Conveyance of Navy, Ordinance, and other Public Stores to and from the same.' It appoints some fifty Trustees, many of whom are ex-officio military and naval personnel, e.g the Commanding Royal Engineer and the Master Shipwright at Woolwich, along with individually named local notables, clerics and army officers. The eighty sections of the Act detail the administration of the trust and the activities of its officers. Erwood has assembled some extracts from the minute book for the New Cross Turnpike Trust (1813-20) which examined the proposals for the new act in 1817, but as he notes at the end, decided not to add to its existing road network, which would have linked up to its route in Greenwich. Hence the need to establish a new trust for this short stretch of road. Erwood has also inserted a copy of an 1825 illustration of the Royal Arsenal Gates where the new road ended, and of an 1810 plan of the road, which he has redrawn from Essex Record Office (proposed ferry link from Woolwich to Plaistow, Essex). At the end are his tracings showing the locations of toll gates on the Lower Road.