How toll roads came into being

Tracks and paths are among the earliest features of organised life, and not just amongst human beings. Tracks are made by ants as they forage from their nests and migrating herds of larger animals such as cattle also create tracks, particularly in the more restricted parts of their journey.

It was based by the town's cricket club (Image: SWOP)

But mankind is the great track creator, as we moved from the life of the hunter to a more settled way of life. Here in the Chilterns we have many such tracks, such as the Icknield Way running below the escarpment, which is believed to have existed long before the Romans came to Britain and built their roads.

The Romans were the creators of roads as we think of them today and changed the whole concept of travel. Being conquerors, they had to be able to move their military assets rapidly and efficiently, so they built roads, paved and maintained them throughout their length. When they left around 400 AD the maintenance of these roads more or less ceased, except in large cities like London, until the widespread development and use of wheeled traffic around the 16th century.

The buildings were based in High Wycombe (Image: SWOP)

At that time, generally throughout the country no one was responsible for maintaining the roads, which were in very poor condition. So in 1555, the government passed an Act which made each parish responsible for maintaining the roads on their ‘patch’. It was the duty of all able-bodied men to supply their labour for four days per year to repair the roads. The Act directed that each parish should appoint two Surveyors to oversee the work, but there was little planning or coordination, and no standard methods of repairing roads. Easch parish just did its best.

A lot of local history for you! (Image: SWOP)

It was not until some 100 years later in the mid-seventeenth century that a solution was found. In 1663 the first Turnpike Act was passed by the UK Parliament. This authorized the collection of tolls to repair a section of the Great North Road in Hertfordshire and Huntingdonshire. But the concept was slow to catch-on and only two more such Trusts were established before the end of the century.

However, 45 Trusts were started between 1700 and 1725, including the first in Buckinghamshire in 1718. This was for part of the London to Oxford road, the Beaconsfield to Stokenchurch Trust, which was operational with toll gates on the 12.5 mile route the following year. These were at Holtspur, Wycombe, West Wycombe, and Stokenchurch.

The Wycombe Toll-house

The toll-gate and original toll-house, which was probably little more than a hut, was initially situated further west than the toll house we remember, towards the town centre, near where Pann Mill is located. It appears that early in the 19th century the Turnpike Trust wanted to widen the road there and decided to re-position the toll-house further east of the town to where it stood until 1977.

Some more history for you (Image: SWOP)

The new toll-house was built in 1826 at a cost of £500, equivalent to some £65,000 today, in the then fashionable neo-gothic style. This is not typical of toll-houses throughout the country, which may be due to its proximity to Wycombe Abbey. It consisted of a front room used both as an office and living room, with two windows facing in each direction up and down the road to enable the toll-keeper to keep a good look-out for passing traffic. Behind this room was a kitchen and a bedroom. There were fireplaces in each room and the kitchen had a stone sink. At some time later, an extension was added at the back with a boiler for the laundry, and a ‘privy’.

On the outside of the building, high at the front overlooking the road, was a clock, which was an important time-keeping aid for local residents. Towards the end of the toll-house’s life in Wycombe the clock was not maintained and for several years was not working. A keen amateur horologist Mr. Harold Vickerstaff, who lived in Liverpool, heard about this and agreed to restore the clock without charge, after which it was on view in the library in 1877. According to markings on the back plate, the clock was originally made by a Charles Strange of Queen Square, High Wycombe, in 1827. It had a ‘beautifully heavy brass movement and elegant pendulum. The dial, which was not the original but dated from 1875, had been damaged and was badly corroded , but Mr Vickerstaff made an exact copy.

A cricket match takes place near the building (Image: SWOP)

Normally the occupants of the toll-house were a childless couple, but at one time it was said to have been occupied by a family of husband, wife and three children!

New uses for the building

The building functioned as a toll-house for only 40 years, ceasing in 1867, 13 years after the railway came to Wycombe. The toll-gate was removed, but the toll-house remained and for a period after that it became a dwelling house, the occupants in 1901 being James and Eliza Norcott, but they left with the imminent birth of their first child in 1904.

In April of that year it was reported at the AGM of the High Wycombe cricket club, whose ground, which they rented from Lord Carrington, the toll-house bordered, that their captain Mr Browning had converted it into “convenient dressing rooms for the club”.

Toll-house neglected

During WWI the building was neglected, leading to a reader of the Bucks Free Press (BFP) writing a letter to the editor in May 1919 “On my return to the town I notice with regret that the clock in the tollgate house has together with many other things suffered severely during the war.” The following March it was reported that “Mr Albert Emler [Emler’s was a well-known jeweller’s in the town] has kindly undertaken to repair the clock and keep it in going order”.

Two years later the toll-house was restored after an appeal for donations to do that. In November 1935 the clock was damaged by a stone thrown at it by vandals. This caused something of an outrage because it was the ‘only roadside clock in that part of town’ and was an invaluable aid to those hurrrying to catch a train or reach the factory before the buzzer sounded’.

In May 1933 the BFP published a picture with a somewhat incongruous view of a telephone box which had been installed right next to the toll house.

During the WWII years of 1939 to 1945 the toll-house was used as an Air Raid Precaution Wardens post. At a Town Council meeting in January1944 it was suggested that the toll house should be demolished, as it was difficult to see in the Black-out and so was a danger to pedestrians. This caused several residents to protest, including Frederick Skull the Museum Curator. It was pointed out that in any case it was a bit late to suggest this as the war had already lasted over 4 years and hopefully would not last much longer.

During the war and for a few years afterwards the toll-house had been allowed to deteriorate and the windows were boarded-up. In 1944 Lord Carrington agreed ‘in principle’ to sell the cricket ground ‘and adjoining toll house’ to the Club for £2,050, who now needed to raise the necessary funds. In November 1948 the cricket club announced that thanks to the generosity of Lord Carrington they had bought the cricket ground and the toll-house.

The Club immediately set about repairing the toll-house and by August 1952 were storing their ‘cricket equipment’ there, some of which was damaged by a small fire.

The end of the London

Road toll-house

Although a Grade 11 listed building, by the early 1970s the toll-house was once again in a poor state, ‘presenting a dilapidated state to the world’. The High Wycombe Society (HWS) announced that they planned to seek funding of £2,000 to restore it to its full glory, with the cricket club agreeing to maintain it after restoration.

But fate then intervened and hopes of restoring it ‘received a crushing blow’. Early on the morning of Saturday March 2, 1974, a car driven by Mr Ernest Richardson crashed into the building, demolishing the front. Although taken to hospital, Mr Richardson was not seriously hurt and was discharged later the same day. After assessing the damage, the HWS decided to continue with their plan to restore the building.

The cost had now increased to £5,000-7,000 and the HWS asked for a grant from the Town Council. The application was refused, so the restoration did not go ahead. It was three years before the Council decided that what remained of the toll-house should be demolished, and another year, 1977, before what remained of the building was removed from the site. But this was not the end of the Wycombe toll-house.

The toll-house is reborn

It was fortunate that at the time the fate of the toll-house was being considered, discussions were also taking place with the county authorities about the formation of a new museum – the Chiltern Open Air Museum (COAM). This was an initiative by the Chiltern Society, to form a museum of old buildings. On a 20 acre site at Newland Park near Chalfont St Giles, the museum was formally opened in 1981, although preparatory work at the site had been underway for several years previously.

The remains of the toll-house were taken to the COAM site, but it was not until several years after the museum opened that the building was re-created. Only about one third of the bricks used in the reconstruction are original, and they are in the upper parts of the walls of the new building. Some components in the building, like the metal window frames are mainly original, though repaired, but others are reconstructions. The furniture and other items are contemporary with the mid nineteenth century, but have no connection with the toll house and have been collected from various other sources.

For further information about the Wycombe toll-house and other restored local buildings visit the COAM website www.coam.org.uk