Image Ref : NH 0668.tif

Totnes Bridge, toll house and gates

The toll bridge opened in 1823. The dates were purchased by public subscription that they might be publicly burned when the turnpike powers expired 1st November 1881. The toll house on the right was built in 1826-28 as a single storey, with basement; the first floor was built on between 1890 and 1907. At midnight on the night of Monday 31 October 1881, when the powers of the Totnes and Bridgetown Turnpike Trust expired, the gates were indeed burnt. The Western Morning News, Wednesday 2 November 1881, published a detailed account of the event. A crowd of between 150 and 200 people had gathered near the Seven Stars, 'waiting for the town clock to strike twelve'. Around 20 to 30 people then took down the gates and took them to the town marsh for burning, 'bundles of straw, paraffin oil, tar, etc. being in readiness'.