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Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!

Dick Turpin and the Hornsey Turnpike


The Hornsey Turnpike stood on Green Lanes near to the junction with Turnpike Lane. An act of 1710 authorised the introduction of a turnpike at Hornsey although tolls were not levied until 1739. The Stamford Hill and Green Lanes Turnpike Trust finally erected a gate here in 1765.

This picture was taken shortly after its closure and just before its demolition in 1872.


The picture below depicts a probably fictional incident of Dick Turpin jumping the Hornsey Turnpike whilst being pursued by a posse led by the chief constable of Westminster. Turpin is supposed to have escaped, making it all the way to York.


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Comment by Raymond Coggin on March 31, 2023 at 11:10

Only Dick Turpin never actually jumped the depicted gate that wasn't erected until 1765 as he was hanged in 1739. The flight to York was a romanticised figment of a Victorian novelists imagination that has as is often the case been turned into an apocryphal fact.   

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