In 1797 and 1817 Acts of Parliament created and then enlarged a turnpike road from Cambridge to Arrington. Perhaps inspired by its success Downing College and other landowners around Tadlow and Wrestlingworth decided it would be advantageous to make another turnpike to extend, in effect, the Cambridge - Arrington road through to Biggleswade on the London to Edinburgh North Road. On 26 Jan 1826, William Frere, Master of Downing, laid out the plans for the turnpike, with a branch to Potton, before the Governing Body. The plans were drawn up by Alex Watford. The College were to subscribe £1000, initially to be raised from the Building Fund if Chancery allowed, or on mortgage. In November 1826 the College agreed to execute a bond for £685 plus interest at 5% with a Mrs Tournay, and the College Accounts for 1826 show that £1000 was paid to Charles Finch, Treasurer of the new road trust. By 10 March 1826 Viscount Althorp reported to the House of Lords that the Bill had been gone through and several amendments were read and agreed. The main amendment, the effect on which exists today, was to make it a turnpike road from Wimpole to Potton via Wrestlingworth, a total of eight miles, and to delete the portion going to Biggleswade. On a 1980 map it is now the B1042 from the A14 at Wimpole through Tadlow with a sharp turn north at Wrestlingworth to Potton. The Bill received Royal Assent 22 March 1826 becoming 7 Geo IV c29 the Wimpole, Wrestlingworth and Potton Turnpike Act. The fifty trustees included Prof. Starkie, Lambert Hotchkin, Richard Dawes, Samuel Price [a Fellow] and several of Downing's tenants whose farms adjoined the road. William Frere became Chairman of the Trustees. Once a turnpike had been completed it was beneficial to improve the side roads leading up to it. Thus the College Minutes for 11 June 1827 show that is was agreed to give James King, a College tenant farmer at Tadlow, £35 towards the expense of completing a new road from his farmhouse. It was also agreed to apply for a licence for the farmhouse in the turnpike to became a public house - The Downing Arms. A more ambitious scheme was proposed in 1829 - to form a new road from the turnpike from Croydon to East Hatley and Hatley St George. [Based on 'Downing's Turnpike Road' by Robert Foulkes' in 'Aspects of Downing History' ed. S French 1982