they passed. The main road between London and Portsmouth ran over Gibbet Hill to the west of Hindhead, and stagecoaches are known to have travelled along this section from 1732. It became the responsibility of a turnpike trust in 1749 and was rerouted around the edge of the Devil's Punch Bowl in 1826, to reduce the gradient to a maximum of 5%. This road is now known as the A3 and was further improved in 2011, with the opening of the Hindhead Tunnel. The road through Grayswood and Haslemere became a turnpike in 1764. A mail coach started running along this road, now the A286, in 1769. In the early 19th century, there were as many as 24 stagecoaches a day passing through the town, however the number reduced following the opening of the in 1841. The railway line through Haslemere was authorised by parliament in July 1853 and was built by the civil engineer, Thomas Brassey. Construction work started in August 1853, but was not completed until May 1858, in part because of the magnitude of the excavation work required for the deep cutting through Haslemere. The line opened on 1 January 1859, with trains running as far as . Although the earthworks were built to accommodate two tracks, initially only a single line was installed. The line was doubled in 1876-77 and the station platforms at Haslemere were extended to allow express services to call from January 1894. The Grade II-listed station signal box was constructed in 1894. It is built in red brick with a hipped Welsh Slate roof and is one of only two surviving examples of a platform-mounted LSWR Type 4 design. The semaphore signals in the station were replaced by colour lights in 1937, the same year that the line was electrified. Industry and commerce The market charter for Haslemere was granted in 1221 and a license to hold an annual fair followed in 1397. By the end of the Middle Ages, it would appear that the market was no longer being held regularly, necessitating the regrant of the charter by Elizabeth I in 1596. The market was held at the south end of the High Street, the widest part, and a market house was built at that location in 1626. The original building would have been constructed of wood, but it was replaced by a brick structure, the present Town Hall, in 1814.