Toll on the links road
THE route to Blyth along Whitley Links was once a private road and near the Culvert Inn, the site of the later Briar Dene public house, was a toll gate.
The owners of Whitley Lodge Farm, W Davison and W Crawford, built a cutting and embankment at the dene at a cost of over 600, and opened the toll gate on June 18, 1840.
Part of the toll was paid as a rent to Lord Hastings.
In the 1880s the highway authority tried to buy the road from John Thomas Davison, a Whitley landowner and North Shields shipowner, but the price was too high.
Whitley and Monkseaton Local Board later persuaded him to sell, the price to be decided by John Martin Winter, of Tynemouth.
In 1893 Mr Winter awarded Mr Davison's executors 1,537 18s 2d, and a number of authorities combined to meet this figure. Lord Hastings agreed to provide his share of the embankment and bridge free of charge, together with materials to build a bridge at Seaton Sluice.
The sketch shows the toll gate and the old Culvert Inn on May 2, 1894, the day on which the toll ceased. At that time it stood at 3d for one-horse carts, and 6d for two horse carts.
Incessant heavy rain meant a very small attendance so the abolition ceremony was cut to a few minutes.
Sir Matthew White Ridley, Chairman of Northumberland County Council, declared the road to be forever free to the public and knocked down the gate with a heavy kick.
If anyone has further information ask for Local Studies on (0191) 200 5424 or leave a message at any branch of North Tyneside Libraries.
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