Surviving Turnpike Tollhouses

· A list of tollhouse sites in specific counties can be found by clicking on these links; Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset.

Copper Castle Tollhouse, Honiton, Devon (see surviving gates here)	Monksbridge Tollhouse, Brixham, Devon	Tidmarsh Tollhouse, Berkshire

There are many more surviving examples of tollhouses in the Southwest of England, particularly Devon, Somerset & Gloucestershire, than can be found in the Southeast of England. Most of these tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts beside their tollgates. House names such as tollbar, toll cottage, roundhouse or Paygate suggest the site was once beside a turnpike gate. However, the names have sometimes been taken by buildings put on the site after the original tollhouse was demolished. Although tollhouses survive almost no gates are still in place and although tollboards are fitted to some surviving tollhouses, these boards are generally recent copies.

Surviving tollhouses are grouped under a number of generic categories on the tollhouse design page.

A few tollhouses were built to collect tolls at bridges over which roads pass and these are included in our survey. Many toll bridges were bought out by County Councils in the mid-20^th century but these are a small number of private toll bridges with associated tollhouses that remain in regular use. (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/tollhouses/sets/72157603743779199/ ) Tolls were also collected on canal traffic but these are not part of the study.

Building Turnpike Tollhouses

The turnpike trusts erected gates across the road at strategic points to collect tolls from travellers from outside the Parish. Small lodges or cottages were built to house the toll collectors and these tollhouses were significant investments for the trust. The tollgates were often built at points were it was least likely that vehicle or horse users could evade payment; e.g. at bridges, crossroads or where the adjoining ground constricted the road. Early tollhouses were normally in the vernacular style of the local cottage but by the 19^th century a particular style was evolving. Although this derived some features from the lodges built at the entrance to grand estates, there was considerable local distinctiveness in the design of the tollhouses built by the individual trusts. The classic design of a single story cottage with a polygonal (canted) bay front dates from the 1820s when turnpike roads and the coach traffic they carried were at their peak. However, many simple buildings were also built to house the pikemen who manned the gates on lesser highways. On the major roads grand castellated houses were constructed at considerable expense to impress the wealthy travellers and influence their selection of one route over another. Unlike the present attitude to road development, turnpikes were welcomed by market towns since they improved trade and brought more travellers past their businesses. The tollhouses were generally placed outside the urban area. This avoided tolls on local business and maximise the collection of charges on those long distance travellers from outside the parish, who were benefiting from using the improved turnpike road. However, these isolated sites were vulnerable to thieves and highwaymen and so the windows of the tollhouse would routinely be fitted with stout bars, behind the grand facade and have built-in safes to safeguard the cash kept in the office.

Although the tollhouse was often the most prominent feature of the turnpike gate, as important to the toll collector was the gate. These were built to bar free-passage along the road and were generally stout and substantial. During the day they may have been left open, or at least ajar, on a busy road but at night were closed and the pikeman would need rousing to take the toll (or, heralded by a coach horn, let the mail coach through free of toll). Although contemporary illustrations suggest that large wooden gates were common, in the 19th century wrought iron gates were fitted; it is these metal gates that have survived best.

The end of the road for Turnpike Tollhouses

When the turnpike trusts were closed and the gates removed in the 1870s the tollhouses were sold along with all other assets in order to pay off remaining loans or contribute to the parishes and Highway Boards that took over responsibility for the road. Highway Boards often required the tollhouses to be “caste into the road” since they restricted the flow of traffic. However, a considerable number were sold to adjoining land owners or were auctioned and have remained in private hands ever since. Wayside businesses such as inns, post-offices, blacksmiths and later petrol stations found these sites convenient but the majority have become domestic dwellings. There has been steady erosion in the number of surviving tollhouses, and those that have remained have often been altered out of all recognition by extensions and modernisation. Listing by English Heritage has ensured that the external features such as bay fronts and toll boards recesses have been preserved during any restoration or extension needed to provide modern accommodation. Nevertheless the few very good examples of tollhouses, restored to near original condition can only be found in open air museums, notably Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Chiltern Open Air Museum, Weald & Downland Open Air Museum, Welsh National History Museum at St Fagans near Cardiff and Avoncroft Museum in Bromsgrove. The turnpike gates and fencing were also sold off and some distinctive metal gates and posts, for instance the radial sunburst design, can be found on private property close to an old turnpike.

There are several working tollgates in England. The older ones are on a few toll-bridges that remain in private hands such as those at Swinford Bridge near Eynsham and Whitchurch Bridge near Pangbourne on the Thames, at Bathampton near Bath and over the river near Hay on Wye. However, the busiest toll collection points are the toll booths more recently installed on the new bridges such as those over the Severn, Tamar and Humber and on the newest part of the M6 (toll) motorway.

More Information

You may find some information on tollhouses hosted on the site set up by John Nicholls for Roadside features at http://www.milestonesonline.co.uk/tollhouses.htm

If you have questions or information relating to tollhouses you may contact me at rosevear1@aol.com.

TOLLHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anon (1998) Turnpikes & Tollhouses, Forest of Dean I-III; The New Regard.

Avery- Fowler, J.A. (1936) Road Trusts in East Sussex, Sussex County Magazine Vol. 10.

Bentley, J.B. & Murless, B.J. (1985-7) Somerset Roads; The Legacy of Turnpike roads Phases 1 & 2, publ. Somerset Archaeology Society.

Cox, B.G. (1980) The Vale of Evesham Turnpikes, Tollgates and Milestones , publ by Vale of Evesham Historical Society.

Emmison, F.G. (1936), Turnpike Roads & Toll Gates of Bedfordshire in "Survey of ancient buildings" Vol III, publ. The Bedfordshire Historical Record Society.

Freethy, R. (1987) Turnpikes and Tollhouses of Lancashire, publ. Countryside

Harris, R. ed. ( ) Weald & Downland Open Air Museum Guidebook

Haynes, R. & Slocombe, I. (2004) Wiltshire Toll Houses, publ. Hobnob Press, Salisbury. (ISBN 0 946418-21-7)

Jenkinson, T. (2007) Old Toll-houses of Dartmoor towns and villages Part 1: North and west  Dartmoor Magazine No 87 Summer.

Jenkinson, T. (2007) Old toll-houses of Dartmoor towns and villages Part 2: South and East Dartmoor Magazine No 88 Autumn.

Jenkinson T. & Taylor, P. (2009) The Toll-houses of South Devon, publ. by the authors and Polystar Press. (ISBN 978 1 907154 01 0)

Jenkinson T. & Taylor, P. (2010) The Toll-houses of North Devon, publ. by the authors and Polystar Press. (ISBN 978 1 907154 03 4)

Kanefsky, J. (1976) Devon Tollhouses, Exeter Ind Arch. Group, University of Exeter (ISBN 0 9501778)

Lawrence, K (1972) Tollhouses of Oxfordshire, Oxford Museums Information Sheet 6

Raikes, C. (1978), Portraits of Devon Tollhouses, Exeter Ind Arch Group. (ISBN 0 90623-01-9)

Rosevear, A. (2004) RUTV10; Milestones and Tollhouses on old turnpike Roads (privately published)

Searle, M. (1930), Turnpikes and Toll-bars, publ. Hutchinson

Serjeant, W.R. & Penrose, D.G. (eds) (1973) Suffolk Turnpikes, E Suffolk RO

Sheldon, L. (1933) Devon Toll-houses, Trans. Devon Assoc. for Advance of Sci. Lit. & Art, Vol LXV, pp 293-306.

Taylor, P. (2001) The Toll-houses of Cornwall, publ. The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. (ISBN 0 902660-29-2)

Taylor, P. (2009) The Toll-houses of Norfolk, publ. by the author and Polystar Press. (ISBN 978 1 907154 02 7)

Taylor, P. (2009) The Toll-houses of Suffolk, publ. by the author and Polystar Press. (ISBN 978 1 907154 00 3)

Tonkin, M. (1996) Herefordshire Toll Houses – then & Now, Trans. Woolhope Soc, Vol. 48.

Viner, D. (1969) The Industrial Archaeology of Hampshire Roads : a survey" in Procs. Hampshire Field Club & Arch. Soc . vol. 26 for 1969, pp. 155-72.

Viner, D. (1970) "The toll-house at Charminster, Dorset" in Procs. Dorset Nat. Hist. & Arch. Soc. vol. 92 for 1970, p. 155.

Viner, D. (1975) "Roads and toll-houses" in Hampshire Industrial Archaeology: a guide, Southampton 1975, pp. 25-6.

Viner, D. (1981) "Turnpikes and toll-houses" in Popular Archaeology, vol. 2. no. 7, January 1981, pp. 21-3.

Viner, D. (1982) "The turnpike toll-house" in Period Home, vol. 3 no. 2, Aug-Sept. 1982, pp. 5-12.

Viner, D. (1982) "The Wimborne & Puddletown Turnpike Trust (1864-/8) and the toll-house at Athelhampton" in Procs. Dorset Nat. Hist. & Arch. Soc., vol. 104 for 1982, pp. 25-32.

Viner, D. (1987) "The Kington Turnpike Trust (1756-1877) and the Kingswood toll-house" in Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, vol. XLV Part III for 1987, pp. 733-42.

Viner, D. (2007 ) Roads Tracks and Turnpikes in the Discover Dorset series. Dovecote Press, Wimborne

This page created by Alan Rosevear 11^th Jan 2008.

Edited 26th July 2010.