Toll Gate, Southerham, East Sussex
Two women standing by the toll gate and house at Southerham. It looks a bleak and isolated location. Toll gates were used to stop travellers who had to pay a toll (fee) to use the road. A keeper generally lived in the toll house alongside the gate - these typically had a window with a good view along the road so that the keeper could make sure people stopped at the gate. The money collected went to the owners and shareholders of the Turnpike Trust who built and maintained the road. This road was turnpiked in 1819 and the toll was collected until 1865. The building remained into this century and was pulled down with its neighbour the Fox Inn when the Lewes by-pass was built in 1976.
