- Pavage
Pavage was a
medieval toll for the maintenance or improvement of a road or street inEngland . The king byletters patent granted the right to collect it to an individual, or the corporation fo a town, or to the "bailiffs and good men" of a neighbouring village.Pavage grants can be divided into two classes:
*Urban grants to enable the streets of a town (or its market place) to be paved. These represent the majority of grants.
*Rural grants to enable a particular road to be repaired. These grants were mostly made in the14th century , and largely for the great roads radiating fromLondon , which were presumably those carying the heaviest traffic.The first grant was in
1249 for theYorkshire town ofBeverley , where the pavage was associated with the cult of St John of Beverley, and was ultimately made permanent. Another early one was forShrewsbury in1266 for paving the new market place, removed from the churchard of St Alkmund and St Juliana.Related Tolls
Other medieval tolls granted in the same way were
murage (to build town walls) andpontage (to build or repair a bridge).References
*A. Cooper, "Bridges, Law and Power in medieval England 700-1400" (Boydell, Woodbridge, Suffolk 2006), 127-48.
*P. W. King, 'Medieval Turnpikes' "Journal of Railway and Canal Historical Society" 35(10) (Dec. 2007), 740-6.
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