Historic Welsh toll house dating back nearly 190 years goes up for sale

Nation.Cymru Staff

A Grade II-listed former toll house built nearly 190 years ago to collect fees from travellers using some of Wales’ early turnpike roads has gone on the market for £265,000.

The Toll House in Woodside, Llanbadoc was built in 1837 by the Usk Turnpike Trust when the Usk Bridge was widened, and the turnpikes at Little Mill and Caerleon required re-alignment.

Gatekeepers, who lived in these houses, would collect money from travellers to fund the construction and maintenance of the area’s roads.

The Usk Turnpike Trust was set up in 1758 after Valentine Morris, a wealthy local landowner, promoted the 1755 Monmouthshire Turnpike Bill, which helped finance and construct over 300 miles of toll roads in the region.

Fees were determined by the type of vehicle travellers were using, as well as any cargo they were carrying, and the local gentry often also placed rudimentary toll barriers across popular pathways, leading to their unpopularity.

Toll houses later became a target during the Rebecca Riots, which saw rural communities protest against toll charges and wider economic hardship across Wales between 1839 and 1844.

Protesters known as Merched Beca, or the Daughters of Rebecca, attacked tollgates and other symbols of economic oppression, beginning in south and west Wales and eventually spreading to Monmouthshire, with almost 300 attacks recorded by the end of the unrest.

With the passing of an Act of Parliament to reform turnpike trusts, alongside the rise of the railway network, the responsibility for roads was passed to local councils and many were no more by the end of the century.

The Usk Turnpike Trust officially dissolved in 1881, bringing the building’s original role as a toll house to an end, and the Listed Buildings archive notes that its exterior “has been little altered since”.

The property, which features on a tapestry highlighted by Usk Town Council, is built in the Tudor Revival style with a Welsh slate roof and stucco front.

Inside, original features such exposed timber beams and thick stone walls are still present, and despite Cadw noting that its original rooms would have been “very small”, M2 Estate Agents note that they are now “thoughtfully arranged and surprisingly spacious”.

The ground floor includes a lounge, sitting room, kitchen/breakfast room and bathroom, along with a storage room currently used by the owners as a bedroom.

Located on the first floor are two bedrooms which make use of the property’s “characterful” architecture, with sloping walls and beams.

To the rear is a small garden with a separate space that can be used for storage, as a shed or workshop, along with pedestrian access, and an allocated parking space available for an additional charge.

The Toll House is within walking distance of Usk town centre, which has a range of independent shops, cafés and pubs, as well as Usk Castle, built near the site of Owain Glyndŵr’s Battle of Pwll Melyn.

For more information on the Toll House, on sale for £265,000 through M2 Estate Agents, view the listing here.

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