The Highways Act 1555 (2 & 3 Ph. & Mary, c. 8), sometimes the First Statute of Highways, was an Act of the

Parliament of England The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised ...

, which placed the burden of upkeep of the

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

s on individual parishes and that was passed in 1555. The Act was amended, and extended, by the Highways Act 1562.

The Act

The Act provided that each year, in the

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

week, every

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

was to elect "two honest persons" of the parish to serve as the Surveyor of Highways, who would be responsible for the upkeep of those

highways A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

within the parish boundaries which ran to

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rural ...

s. The Surveyors would announce, on the first Sunday after Easter and four days before 24 June, on which the maintenance work was to be carried out, and for these four days the whole parish was to work on the highways. Every person, for every

ploughland The carucate or carrucate ( lat-med, carrūcāta or ) was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. It was known by different regional names and fell under different forms ...

they held in the parish, and every other person keeping a draught team or plough there, was to provide a cart or

wain A wagon or waggon is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draught animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished fro ...

equipped for the work, and two able-bodied men, on a penalty of 10''s'' per draught; the Surveyors could, at their discretion, require a further two men instead of the cart. Every other householder, as well as every other cottager and

labourer A laborer (or labourer) is a person who works in manual labor types in the construction industry workforce. Laborers are in a working class of wage-earners in which their only possession of significant material value is their labor. Industries e ...

free to labour, was to send themselves or a substitute able-bodied labourer to work for the four days, on a penalty of 12''d'' per day apiece. All labourers were to provide their own equipment, and bound to work for eight hours each day upon the roads.

Amendments

The Act was originally in force for seven years, but its provisions were extended to run for another twenty years by the Highways Act 1562. It was repealed by section 57 of the

Highways Act 1766 Highway Act (with its variations) is a stock short title used in India, the United Kingdom and the United States for legislation relating to highways. India *The National Highways Act, 1956 United Kingdom *The Highways Act 1555 *The Highways Act ...

(7 Geo. III c. 42).

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Notes

Bibliography

* {{UK legislation 1555 in law 1555 in England Acts of the Parliament of England (1485–1603) Roads in England Transport policy in the United Kingdom Transport legislation History of transport in England