During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many roads were maintained by turnpike trusts.

These were individual bodies established by acts of Parliament which had powers to extract tolls for the upkeep of roads.

Turnpike Cottage, Trow, Salcombe Regis (cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Alan Rosevear - geograph.org.uk/p/6114900)

The trusts declined in popularity with the coming of the railway, and in 1888 the Local Government Act transferred responsibility over to local and district councils.

Your historian carried out a little research and was surprised to find so many toll houses in and around the Sidmouth area.

Pebblestone Cottage, Seafield Road, Sidmouth (cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Jaggery - geograph.org.uk/p/3527874)

Many still exist today, and although we have lost the old turnpike cottage at the bottom of Winslade Road, Greenway Cottage, Sand Cottage, Turnpike Cottage, The Old Toll House and Pebblestone Cottage still remain.

Greenway Cottage, Greenway Lane, Sidmouth (Google Maps)

More by Graham Symington:

1. The history of the now-demolished Blackmore Hall
2. The history of Sidmouth's Connaught Gardens
3. A dancing bear, girls of bad character and smuggling: The history of Sidmouth's The Old Ship Inn
4. Sidmouth, Jane Austen and ITV's Sanditon
5. The history of The Byes, in pictures
6. Tar Barrels... in Sidmouth?
7. Remembering Pike's Cottages