Summary.   The Trust appears to have been a very ordinary hum-drum affair with but one ambition, to get the road in good condition, keep it so and repay as soon as possible, all debts. The income worked out at about £10 per week out of which interest was to be paid, road metal obtained and the road surface and the toll houses maintained in good condition, debt redeemed, and salaries paid. There were none of the usual abuses and failings often ascribed to Turnpike Trusts and there were no grandiose schemes of road improvement. Problems of Statute Labour were non-existent and the cleaning of ditches, encroachment of public utility companies or of railways and the many other annoyances that disturbed the even working of the larger Trusts are rarely if ever mentioned nor, with the possible exception of the Collis case, are there any cases of

peculation or dishonesty of employees nor exorbitant demands from adjoining owners. Though two railways appear on the plan, only one, the South Eastern Railway from Strood, to Maidstone built in 1856 could have had much effect on the receipts, but judging from the income given in the above summary, this was not of any great magnitude. The other line, the London, Chatham and Dover line (called the East Kent when built in 1861) crossed the line of the road on its way to Swanley and London and its influence was nil. The Trust left the road far better than it found it and it finished its life solvent. After all that was the purpose of all the Trusts and if in a dull unimaginative fashion it achieved this end, nothing more could in all justice be expected.