Toll Houses and turnpikes

[Lisajb]

According to Wiltshire Archives, there was never a turnpike or tollhouse at West Kington.

Yet I have an ancestor who twice gives her abode as Toll House, West Kington in the 1851 and 1861 census, and in 1861

She is Hannah England, with husband George, daughter Hannah and grandson William Woodman in the 1851, and she is on her own there in 1861.

I'd be grateful for any Rootschatters thoughts on this mysterious toll house

Thanks
Lisa

[josey]

Have you looked for it on old maps? The 25 inch to the mile 1841 - 1852 is here for the east side of West Kington.
https://maps.nls.uk/view/120377040
and from the census enumerator's route you may be able to place it in the village.

[arthurk]

From the piece descriptions, I think you need to be looking somewhere in the north of the parish, though I haven't managed to find a tollbar marked on any old maps.

What I have found is the following page from the Victoria County History, which has a map showing the turnpike roads in Wiltshire. (The map is an image which you can click and then expand to view at a larger scale.) The ones passing through West Kington appear to be those numbered 20 and 30.

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol4/pp254-271

Comparing this with an OS map, I wonder if the toll road in question is the one you can see running roughly south-westwards from Burton towards Hinton and Dyrham.

[radstockjeff]

The nearest I can find is at Burton, B4039 ST83  80 - Civil Parish Nettleton- Marshfield Trust?
Try   www.turnpikes.org.uk/Tollhouses/Wilts.htm

[JenB]

I can't see it on any maps either.
In 1861 it appears between Down Farm and Rownham which can seen here
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=51.4920&lon=-2.3163&layers=10&right=BingHyb
and these are followed by Magsgrave which lay to the south-east

[JenB]

In the District Descriptions in both 1851 and 1861 it says Westfield Road and Toll house

[josey]

Hope I am not repeating anyone's links. Could it be the house in the centre here?
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=51.5067&lon=-2.2986&layers=6&right=BingHyb
and at the T junction SW of Westfield Farm here
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=51.5075&lon=-2.2924&layers=10&right=BingHyb

[JenB]

Hope I am not repeating anyone's links. Could it be the house in the centre here?
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=51.5067&lon=-2.2986&layers=6&right=BingHyb
and at the T junction SW of Westfield Farm here
https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/side-by-side/#zoom=15&lat=51.5075&lon=-2.2924&layers=10&right=BingHyb

I was just zooming along the road looking for that one. It's called Kington Down Cottage.

[josey]

Picture of that cottage here....
http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/327027
though I wonder if this is a modern rebuild?