Halfpenny Bridge Tollhouse, Lechlade
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A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Those built in the early 1800s often had a distinctive bay front to give the pikeman a clear view of the road and to provide a display area for the tollboard. There were over 5000 tollhouses operating in England in 1840, according to the Turnpike Returns in Parliamentary Papers - these were sold off in the 1880s when the turnpikes were closed. Many were demolished but several hundred have survived, largely as domestic houses, with distinctive features of the old tollhouse still visible.
This former road toll house stands at Halfpenny Bridge Gate, Lechlade, straddling the River Thames. Lechlade was an important coaching stage. The principal structure is thought to have been built for the Lechlade to Swindon Turnpike Trust in 1792 in the form of a simple booth.
It is currently occupied as a shop, which retains the tollhouse features almost unaltered. It is located on A361, Lechlade to Swindon road. This small square building has foundations down to the river level, on the north side of the bridge. Formally, a single-room cottage, it may not be permanently occupied.
It is a single-storey construction with with walls mainly of squared stone and a rectangular floor plan. It has a pyramidal roof, roofed in slate; square headed windows with casements; no porch with a square headed doorway. It is a Grade II Listed Building.
By road: On A361, Thames Street
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