• The Toll-houses of Staffordshire

The Toll-houses of Staffordshire 

150 pages. Authors Tim Jenkinson and Patrick Taylor, published by Polystar Press

This is the first detailed study of Staffordshire's toll-houses, small buildings on the highway edge, lived in by the pike-men who collected the tolls used to pay for maintenance of the roads.  Toll-houses were both functional buildings and to some extent expressions of architectural style, coming as they did at the beginning of the industrial revolution, they made use of essentially local materials for their construction and yet often employ a non- vernacular octagonal ground plan to advertise their special purpose. The introductory chapters describe the origins and development of the turnpike road system in the county, the following gazetteer section describes the area's toll-houses from south to north.  The descriptions are complemented by the use of mid to late 19th Century Census returns that identify some of the occupants of the toll-houses at that time.  In addition some of the toll-houses that were used on the county's network of canals are included in the commentary.

 

 

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The Toll-houses of Staffordshire

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Tags: Toll Houses