Scatterford Toll at Clearwell, 1851 Census (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Tuesday, February 11, 2014, 17:17 (3939 days ago) @ Sandra F

Hi Sandra,
I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with Clearwell or it's toll house. However hopefully this info and links are still helpful. Turnpike roads and their associated tollhouses were in use from about the mid 1700s until the mid-late 1800s, i varied around the Country. This table shows many of the Gloucestershire turnpike roads including some FoD ones, look under "GL" in lefthand column
http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/English%20turnpike%20table.htm
(I guess some in the Clearwell area may possibly have come under Monmouthshire control ?)
From the same excellent website is this list of the county's Toll houses including Scatterford.
http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/Tollhouses%20of%20Gloucestershire.htm

The authorative British History site states
"The spine of the road system that developed to link the villages and hamlets of the parish was provided by the route running from Bream Cross at the south-eastern corner of the main part of the parish, where roads from Lydney and Aylburton met, through Clearwell and Newland villages to the Wye at Upper Redbrook hamlet, where it joined a route to Monmouth.
South-east of Newland village the main spinal route was joined at a place called Scatterford by a road from Coleford and Whitecliff.
The road on the northern boundary of the parish from Highmeadow down through Upper Redbrook hamlet was turnpiked in 1755, and during the late 18th century and the early 19th it was part of the main Coleford to Monmouth route. The road joining it at Cherry Orchard Farm, running from Coleford through Whitecliff, Millend, and Newland village, was turnpiked under the Forest of Dean trust established in 1796. The Forest trust also covered the road from Clearwell village towards Coleford, following the Forest boundary to Milkwall. In 1827 the same trust was extended to include the Lydney to Newland village road between Bream Cross and Scatterford and also the ChepstowColeford road by way of Bearse common, Trow green, and Clay Lane End. Under an Act of 1824 a new Wye Valley road from Chepstow to Monmouth was built, incorporating much of the old riverside route within the parish, and at the same time a branch from near the new Bigsweir bridge to the Forest, by way of Cockshoot Lane, Shop House, and Clay Lane End, was turnpiked. In 1840 there were tollhouses at Trow green, Clay Lane End, Scatterford (later moved north-westwards to the junction with Rookery Lane), and above Upper Redbrook hamlet. The upper Red brook valley road was disturnpiked in 1878, the Wye Valley and Bigsweir roads in 1879, and the roads of the Forest trust in 1888."
From: 'Newland', A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 5: Bledisloe Hundred, St. Briavels Hundred, The Forest of Dean (1996), pp. 195-231.
URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=23260

The "norm" was for the tollkeeper to live at the tollhouse 24/7, that was his job and his place of work, to collect tolls from passing roadusers to finance the road's upkeep. This was often an unpleasant if not dangerous job as many would try to avoid paying the toll, perhaps by bypassing that part of the road or by trying to sneak past in the middle of the night, or just plain refusing to pay. If the toll house was in a remote place it was therefore a risky job, from assault from roadusers or even robbery as there would clearly be cash in the house. It was normal for the tollkeeper's family to live in the toll house and help share the workload.

Re the 1851 Census and your question, is it possible the keeper's wife and child were actually living at the tollhouse but just happened to be out visiting another household during the evening the Census was taken ?. How far away were the two households concerned ?. Were the family close-knit or maybe separated, ie were they still living together in previous/later census's etc, I assume so but I don't know ?
Don't forget a Census is just a "snapshot" of life on that one night, in this case 31st March 1851.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_Census_1851

You may find these links of interest to help explain your ancestor's daily life.
http://www.georgianindex.net/ldn_tollgates/Toll_gate.html
http://www.dorsetlife.co.uk/2009/11/taking-their-toll/
http://www.thepastwhispers.com/House_Road.html

This prior forum thread may also interest you re Coleford area tollhouses.
http://forum.forest-of-dean.net/index.php?id=2335

I hope this helps you, J.

UPDATE: I've searched for the Tollhouse on the Old Maps site, but unfortunately the oldest map is relatively recent at 1881, and at the end of the turnpike era. http://www.old-maps.co.uk/maps.html
This shows a turnpike at the top end of Rookery Lane, so virtually at Newland rather than Clearwell. I suspect this is the "old" Scatterford turnpike as mentioned above as having moved northwest, ie away from Clearwell towards Newland. If the turnpike hence tollhouse moved, it's reasonable to suppose some of the family may have stayed, or at least still spent some time, in Clearwell, perhaps with close relatives ?. HOWEVER we're not told when this move occurred, except "after 1840", so ???