A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal.
Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Those built in the early 19th century often had a distinctive bay front to give the pikeman a clear view of the road and to provide a display area for the tollboard.
This toll house is located on the main road in Old Sodbury, and has the National ID AV.SOD
In 1870-72, John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales described Old Sodbury like this:
SODBURY (Old), a parish, with a village, in Chipping-Sodbury district, Gloucester; 3¾ miles E by S of Yate r. station. It has a post-office under Chipping-Sodbury, and a hotel. Acres, 3,637. Real property, £7,294. Pop., 809. Houses, 180. The property is divided among a few. The manor, with Lye Grove House, belongs to W. H. H. Hartley, Esq. There is a Roman camp. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. Value, £460.* Patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Worcester. The church, excepting the tower, was rebuilt in 1858. There are a Baptist chapel and a national school.
It could well be the same W.H.H.Hartley whom this toll house is now named after.
The cache should be a quick and easy find.
FTF certificate for the keen ones.
If other geocachers would like to set caches near UK Toll Houses, please get in touch with The Chens first and they will provide a number them in the same way as the Church Micro series. We would ask that the name is in the form "UK Toll House nnn - Local name". If you have a system of numbering your own caches, as we do, please put that at the end.
All active UK Toll House caches can be found here.