The Liverpool and Prescot Turnpike Trust, which was set up in 1726 to raise tolls (money) to repair the road, had about 120 Trustees as members. Most of them were councillors from Liverpool. The Trustees usually met at the Common Hall at he Exchange in Liverpool but other locations included the Legs of Man inn and Orrett's Coffee House at Prescot. The chairman for the meetings was usually the Mayor of Liverpool and from 1727 onwards the meetings were held on the first Tuesday of the month at 2 p.m. Public notices of meetings were put up at the Exchange in Liverpool and on the Maypole at Prescot.
The toll gates are put up and start to collect money
Two surveyors were appointed and two gates were set up. One was on the main Prescot Road "at or about Whiteside's, or Lurdy Lane End" and was known as the Huyton Gate. It stood where the Eagle & Child hotel is today. The second gate, known as the Roby Gate, was on the Roby Road "at, or about the end of Widow Price's barn at Roby Town End". A smaller gate, called a stop-gate, was put up "across the lane and leading out of Twig Lane over Page Moss". This gate stopped people avoiding the two main gates. Two houses for the toll collectors were then built at the two main gates and tolls started to be collected on 2 February 1726/27 (for an explanation of why this date could have been 1726 or 1727 see eleven days lost). The collectors had a shed to keep a horse and were given 20s a year for coal and candles (this sum today would be about £97).
Improving the road
Once tolls were being collected it meant that the money raised could be used to repair the existing road and one of the first things that was repaired was the horses causeway, a cobbled road alongside the main road for carts and wider vehicles. The Trustees used tolls but could also raise money for repair work by getting loans. The Trust could also use free labour which each ratepayer had to provide to do the work.
The tolls varied according to what was being transported on the road. The toll was ½d for horses carrying coals (or the equivalent of 20p today), 2d to 4d for pack-horses per cartload (or the equivalent of 80p to £1.60 today) and 6d to 8d for carts carrying earthenware and other goods (or the equivalent of £2.40 to £3.20 today). Coaches paid 1s (the equivalent of £4.80 today). Not everyone paid tolls. Local farmers did not pay if their wagons or animals went through a toll and goods being driven to Liverpool and Prescot markets.
The Second Act relating to the turnpike was passed in 1746 and this extended the turnpike road from Prescot to St. Helens, but it did not allow for more toll-gates to be set up. The tolls were adjusted slightly as well. | 
