TOLL GATES AND GATE-KEEPERS.

As this book is devoted in great measure to the mail services of old time—which had to be carried on entirely by horse and rider or driver—allusion may fittingly be made to the toll gate system, which played its part in connection with mail vehicular transport.

Toll bars originated, it seems, so far back as the year 1267. They were at first placed on the outskirts of cities and market towns, and afterwards extended to the country generally. The tolls for coaches and postchaises on a long journey were rather heavy, as the toll bars were put up at no great distances from each other. In the year 1766, Turnpike Trusts, taking advantage of Sabbatarian feeling, charged double rates on Sundays, but experienced travellers sometimes journeyed on that day, and submitted to the double impost, to gain the advantage of avoiding highwaymen, who did not carry on their avocation on Sunday, but gave themselves up to riot, conviviality, or repose.

Coaches which carried H. Majesty's mails were exempted by Act of Parliament from paying tolls. The exemption of mail coaches from paying tolls, a relief provided by the Act of 25th George III., was really a continuation of the old policy, by which the postboys of an earlier age, riding on horseback, and carrying the mails on the pommel of the saddle, had always been exempt from toll, and the light mail carts of a later age were always exempted.

It was no great matter, one way or the other, with the Turnpike Trusts, Mr. C.G. Harper tells us in "The Mail and Stage Coach," for the posts were then few and far between, and the revenue almost nil; but the advent of numerous mail coaches, running constantly and carrying passengers, and yet contributing nothing to the maintenance of the roads, soon became a very real grievance to those Trusts situated on the route of the mails. In 1816 the various Turnpike Trusts approached Parliament for a redress of these disabilities.

Mail coaches continued, however, to go free until the end of the system, although from 1798 they had to pay toll in Ireland. In Scotland in 1813 an Act was passed repealing the exemption in that part of the kingdom. Pack horses were superseded by huge wagons on the busiest roads early in the eighteenth century. Over 5,000 Turnpike Acts for the improvement of local roads were passed during the years 1700 and 1770. At the latter part of this period, narrow wheels were penalised more heavily than broad wheels.

Lewis Levy was a prominent man in the days of Turnpike Trusts, as he was a farmer of Metropolitan turnpike tolls to the tune of half a million pounds a year!

The history of toll bars is not wanting in romance: "Blow up for the gate," would say the coachman to the guard, when drawing near to a "pike" in the darkness of night. Lustily might guard blow, but it did not always have the desired effect. "Gate, gate!" would shout coachman and guard. Down would get guard and tootle-tootle impatiently. And out would shuffle in his loose slippers the "pike" keeper in a dazed condition from fatigue produced by frequent disturbances. As he opens the gate he is soundly rated by coachman and guard, and enjoined to leave the gate open for the next mail down, or he would have to pay a fine of 40s. to the Postmaster General, that being the penalty for not preserving an unobstructed way for H. Majesty's mails.

In the Bristol district toll bars were plentiful, and attempts were made to erect ornate little houses which should be pleasing to the eyes of travellers. That such attempts were not always unsuccessful, the picturesque toll-gate houses depicted in these pages will demonstrate.

In 1804, Sarah Rennison, widow of Thomas Rennison, advertised that she lately had the ladies' and gentlemen's cold baths, near Stokes Croft Turnpike, effectually cleaned. "These baths are supplied with water from a clear and ever-flowing spring, uncontaminated by anything whatever, as it flows from a clear and limpid stream from its source to the pipes in the baths."

This turnpike, named the Stokes Croft Gate, stood on the turnpike way designated Horfield Road. The gate was erected across the lane leading from the said road to Rennison's Baths.

Very soon after "Sarah's" announcement, this landmark of the old city was doomed to disappear, and the gate was removed from the top of the Croft to a site some four or five hundred yards further up the road, near to the present railway arch.

An advertisement from the Bristol Journal, Saturday, July 14th, 1804, ran as follows:—"To be sold, the materials of the old Turnpike House at the top of Stoke's Croft. The purchaser to be at the expense of pulling down and carrying the same away. Also of pitching the site of the house by the 20th of August next. For further particulars apply to Messrs. John and Jere Osborne."

The tolls for the year ended the 29th September, 1823, realised the sum of £1,800. The notice respecting the letting of the tolls for the succeeding year, based on such takings, was signed by Osborne and Ward on the 14th of October, 1823:

The following is a toll gate announcement, issued on July 13, 1826:—

"Notice is hereby given that the Tolls arising at the Toll Gates hereinafter particularly mentioned will be severally Let by Auction, to the best Bidders at the White Hart Inn, Brislington, on Wednesday, the 16th day of August next, between the hours of Eleven o'clock in the forenoon and One o'clock in the afternoon, in the manner directed by the Acts passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of his Majesty King George the Fourth, 'for regulating Turnpike Roads'; which Tolls produced last year the several Sums, and will be Let in the several Parcels or Lots following—viz.:—

Clears Gates on the other side

The other Bristol "Gates" were known as Clifton, Redland, White Ladies, Horfield, St. Michael's Hill, Cutler's Mills, Gallows Acre, Barrow's Lane, Stapleton Bridge, Pack Horse Lane, Fire-Engine Lane, George's Lane, West Street, Cherry Garden, Fire-Engine, Blackbirds, one full toll in each case.

Thomas Brooks was the last toll-keeper at St. Michael's Hill, Bristol. He held the office until it was abolished in 1867. In the following year he was appointed sub-postmaster of Cotham, and removed from the old Toll House to a house nearer the city. The Toll House stood at the corner of Hampton Road and Cotham Hill, where the fountain is now.

Benjamin Gray, the last keeper of the "Stop Gate" which stood near the Royal Oak Inn at Horfield, held the office for 30 years. The gate was to stop travellers entering the city by way of Ashley Down Road, and thus escape paying the tolls at the Zetland Road end of Gloucester Road. There is a family connection between the Gray and the Brooks families, and the daughter of Benjamin now resides with Samuel Brooks, the old sexton of Horfield Church. A model of the Horfield Stop Gate may be seen at Robin Hood's Retreat near Berkeley Road, Bristol.

The last barrier on the great London to Bristol Road was removed when the bridge crossing the Thames at Maidenhead was freed from toll at midnight, on November 30th, 1903. There was a remarkable demonstration on the occasion. Five hundred people waded through the flooded streets to see the toll-gate removed from the bridge which was erected so far back as in 1772.

Precisely at twelve by the toll-house clock Corporation employÉs proceeded to remove the gate, amid loud cheering. Many of the crowd closed in, and finally seizing the huge gate, carried it to the top of Maidenhead Bridge and threw it into the river.