Butterrow Gate turnpike toll house, Stroud

The old road out of Stroud crossed the river Frome at Bowbridge and wound steeply up the hill to Rodborough from whence the re was a flat route to Minchinhampton and on to the old roman centre of Cirencester. Horses and carts needed to climb to escape from out of the mud and clays of the valley bottom. The stagecoach would have followed this route to reachLondon in about thirty-six hours even before the roads were improved by the establishment of turnpikes. These were maintained with relatively good quality road surfaces allowing speedier and safer journeys.

In 1825, the turnpike was built up Butterow and the road was re-routed slightly to make the road less steep and definitely safer as it wound around the steep valley and nearby coombes. At the top of the hill was Rodborough common where an Iron Age hill fort had been built overlooking the valleys on either side.

To access the turnpike you had to go through the 'pike', or toll house, which would have been gated. The gate was only opened on payment of the relevant fee and this board still shows the charges existing when the tolls were last charged. It was built at the junction where the road up the hill crossed the ancient trackway running along the side of the valley just above the spring line, which also provided a relatively dry route.

I have put a close up view of the board on this Flickr page, so you can read the words. I've also included a couple of other pictures recording the views from the turnpike house back across the Golden Valley, showing our house on the far side, the last white building just below, and to the right of the cemetery chapel.


From a transport heritage website:
The Toll House is Listed Grade II, and is thought to have been built for the Stroud, Caincross and Minchinhampton, Lower Division Turnpike Trust in 1825. In the form of a lodge house with angular front, it has two storeys on a canted bay front floor plan, having a hipped, hip over bay, slate roof, with walls mainly of rough stone. It has Gothick arch headed windows with modern glazing, no porch but a Gothick arch headed doorway. There is stone drip moulding around the doors and windows and a toll board in a Gothick blind window. There is an ashlar chimney stack to one side.