VINTAGE LUNDIN LINKS AND LARGO
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Lundinmill Toll Bar

1/9/2015

9 Comments

 
For most of the 19th century, a toll house and bar stood at Lundinmill, on the site of the present Post Office and the adjoining road. Tolls were collected as part of the 'turnpike' road system and it was back in 1790 that the main road through Lundin Mill was given turnpike status. On 15 April that year, an advert appeared in the Caledonian Mercury proclaiming "CONTRACTORS WANTED, For making the roads in the County of Fife". It went on the provide further detail, including:

"Persons willing to contract for carrying forward that branch of the road from Cameron Bridge to Pitcorthy, by Lundin Miln, will please apply to Mr Christie of Durie and Mr Calderwood Durham of Largo."

Once the road was 'made', the infrastructure for collecting tolls would follow. An early reference to the toll-gate can be found in the Caledonian Mercury of 18 Oct 1807 (see below). Further below is an 1824 notice that Lundymill Toll is to be let by public roup.  The highest bidder would become lessee of the toll-bars would live in the toll house, attending to all that stopped at the gate.  In 1841, 69-year-old Agnes Bell was recorded in the census as Tollkeeper at Lundinmill. She was the mother of Andrew Bell, innkeeper at the old inn which occupied the site of the Lundin Links Hotel. By 1851, Pittenweem-born David Fulton was in the post of Lundinmill Toll Collector (he would move to Wellsgreen Toll Bar near East Wemyss by 1861).
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The network of toll-bars became unpopular and in the mid-1840s there was much debate around their future.  A piece in the Fife Herald of 1 May 1845 described the system as "awkward and absurd".  Not only was the "loss of time" suffered by travellers lamented but also the fact that much of the funds raised by tolls were eaten up by the cost of having a turnpike house and gate every few miles and the support of a keeper. Lundinmill was name-checked in the article as follows...

"On entering the road from the east (and having paid at Lundinmill toll-gate, in the St Andrews District, only two miles back), we are taxed at Scoonie toll-gate....what is called a half toll..."

...the writer then describes being charged at the bridge at Leven and again at Methil-hill toll-gate. 

A William Pagan of Cupar wrote a paper entitled "Road Reform" in 1845 which called for the abolishment of the system. He argued that less than half of monies raised were actually spent on upkeep of the roads and suggested that rules were frequently being bent "...with smallholders evading tolls and pikemen attempting to take more than were due to make up the difference" from others.  Court cases were common.  

More on the toll bar and turnpike system in the next post.
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9 Comments
Iain Mackinnon
11/2/2017 04:25:51 am

My great-great-grandmother's brother, Andrew Trail, is recorded as living in "Toll House, Lundin Mill, Largo" in 1870-74, when his children were born there. Do you know when the toll was abolished?

Reply
Wendy Myles
26/3/2018 11:09:46 pm

My great grandfather and his family were also recorded in the 1871 census as living there. They were still there in the 1881 census but it was then called the Old Toll House.

Reply
Iain Mackinnon
26/3/2018 11:42:25 pm

You mean William Grubb? Andrew Trail was married to his daughter, Isabella - so we're talking about the same family. Which would make us (probably) fifth cousins!

Do you know any more about the Grubbs?

Reply
Wendy Myles
27/3/2018 02:49:52 am

No, John Myles is on the 1871 census. That's the first family on the 1871 census page I have. Do you have this census for Andrew Trail?

Reply
Iain Mackinnon
4/4/2018 07:54:04 am

Sorry to be a few days responding; I was working from someone else's notes, which referred to Andrew Trail living at the Toll House and I've now gone back to the 1871 Census to check. I think "Toll House" must be used there in a geographical sense as the Census records them as being at "1 Lower Largo". Sorry to mislead, and thank you for prompting me to check!

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David Milroy
4/7/2018 03:03:56 pm

It was really interesting to read of the old Toll Roads and their relatively short and controversial existence. I noted that Scoonie Toll booth was mentioned. I have been trying to find out more on this as my 3rd great grandparents James and Jean Barnett are recorded as living at Scoonie Toll house between the 1851 census and Jean's death in 1885. It intrigued me that he was not the toll keeper but gave his occupation as "labourer on the roads". Perhaps by the 1850s some of the tolls were already being abolished and the toll houses used otherwise.

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Audrey Falconer
7/10/2020 06:37:08 pm

My 4 times great grandfather, James Berwick, is listed as the Toll Keeper here on his death certificate in 1859 and his place of death is listed as Lundinmill Tollhouse. The 1961 census has this widow, Jane Berwick, listed as Toll Keeper. Here, the parish is listed as Largo and the residence the Toll House, so I am unsure if it is still for Lundinmill or Largo?

Reply
Vintage Lundin Links and Largo
8/10/2020 12:41:51 am

Thanks for sharing a missing piece of the puzzle. James Berwick must have been toll keeper at Lundin Mill after David Fulton and before Peter Ormiston. At the time of the 1861 census, Peter Ormiston was in Lundin Mill Toll House and Joseph Moyes was at Largo Toll House. Jane Berwick was at Balcormo Toll House (also known as Brankston Toll) to the north part of Largo Parish.

Reply
Wendy Myles
9/10/2020 05:16:11 am

Thank you for this! I think Joseph Moyes' sister, Elizabeth, married John Myles (mentioned in my comment above).


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