The Radnorshire Turnpike Trust had built a network of new roads across the county, with tollgates at regular intervals where travellers would have to stop and pay a toll or fee before travelling on the next stretch of road.
The charges varied depending on the vehicle, and farmers herding animals along the road had to pay for each one.

The Trustees or managers of the Radnorshire Turnpike Trust met in Sutton House (left) in High Street, Presteigne.
The architect's drawing on the right is of a tollhouse planned for Presteigne. Most tollkeepers and their families lived in much smaller tollhouses than this.

The Radnorshire Trust was not the only Turnpike trust building turnpikes in the area, so that the turnpike roads into the town of Presteigne each had a gate on them.
A cart or carriage travelling from Presteigne to Kington would have to pay at three tollgates in that short journey.

The opening of the turnpike road between Kington and New Radnor put the Radnorshire village on an important route between London and Aberystwyth, missing out Presteigne !

By the 1880s these tollgates were removed and the care of the roads put in the hands of new local councils.

An accident at the tollgates...