The Hatfield and Reading Turnpike was an Englishturnpike road created in the 1760s to provide a route that connected the Great North Road with the Holyhead Road and the Bath Road. It had the advantage that it made it possible for travelers to avoid congested London and was shorter in distance. In 1881 it was one of the last of the turnpikes to have its tolls removed.
Founding
It is said that the Marquis of Salisbury, who lived at Hatfield House, wanted a route to the Great West Road avoiding central London, for onward travel to the spa towns of Bath and Cheltenham where, as a sufferer of gout, he often took the waters. This would also spare him the discomfort and congestion of London's cobbled streets., With others he sponsored an Act of Parliament passed in 1757 for the building of a road from Hatfield to Reading. The Reading and Hatfield Turnpike Trust was set up by a further Act passed in 1768, to improve the route between the two towns. It ran via St Albans, Watford, Rickmansworth, Amersham, High Wycombe and Marlow, with two alternative routes south and west from there, one to Knowl Hill and the other to Reading itself via Henley-on-Thames. The Trust lasted until 1881, and at that date was one of the last surviving Turnpike Trusts in the country. For many years the route was known as the Gout Track, given its reputed raison-d'etre. Analysis of toll receipts shows that traffic was lighter than that on the great trunk routes it interconnected.. Nevertheless, it stimulated the local economies along its route in trades like farriers, foraging and inn keeping.
Modern successor routes
On classification by the newly formed Ministry of Transport in 1922, it formed parts of the A414, A412, A404, A416 and A32. In 1935, the A404 was extended along the A416 section between Amersham and the A4 to make it easier for those who wanted to use the route for its original function, while the A32 section through Henley was renumbered the A4155. South of Marlow the turnpike had two alternate routes -
