Planning Services Townend Directors: A W Newby B.Sc DMS Waterfall G Peacegood B.Sc PhD Waterhouses Registered in England N* 2458413 Staffs ST10 3HZ VAT N* 536 8272 24 Tel (01538) 308043 web: www.pmeplanning.co.uk email: [email protected]

Heritage Statement Former Tollhouse, Flash Bar, PP-01878560

1. Site: The Craft Barn, Flash Bar Stores, Quarnford , BUXTON SK17 0TF.

OS Grid Ref SK 032678 Northing 367857 Easting 403216

Fig. 1. The former toll house. 1.1 The Flash Bar Stores and Coffee Shop is located on the A53 at the junction with Summerhill Lane, the C0030 which leads to Longnor

1.2 The Craft Barn (former toll house) is the stone building adjoining the south east corner of the store.

1.3 Please refer to the site location plan accompanying this application for further details.

2. Application Reference: PP-01878560

3. Scope: 3.1 Application PP-01878560 seeks to reinstate the former tollhouse as a dwelling for the proprietor of the stores.

3.2 The application is submitted with reference to the Peak District National Park Authorities Adopted Core Strategy Policy HC1, part C:1

Exceptionally, new housing (whether newly built or from re-use of an existing building) can be accepted where:

C. In accordance with core policies GSP1 and GSP2: I. it is required in order to achieve conservation and/or enhancement of valued vernacular or listed buildings

Since the proposal is for a single dwelling unit, the policy does not require an a restrictive local needs occupancy agreement.

3.3 This statement examines the historic importance of the building, it’s design and changes to the building. This statement may be used to help determine whether the proposal can be supported.

4. History: 4.1 The history of the Flash Bar toll house is inseparable from the development of the turnpike system. The turnpike era coincided with the transition to an industrial economy with an increase in population and trade.

4.2. Toll Roads: The Leek-Buxton road formerly entered Flash near Goldsitch House. It ran over Goldsitch Moss and continued north over the west side of Oliver Hill, crossing into Derbyshire beyond Oxensitch.2 By 1749 the route had been re-aligned, following New Road through the village.3

The significant change came through the introduction of the turnpike acts. The turnpike era ran from 1715 to 1840, with most roads being turnpiked between 1750 and 1835. The Leek to Buxton Road was turnpiked in 1765 as a branch of the road between Newcastle under Lyme to Hassop. 4

In later years the side roads were also turnpiked. 5 Key Events: 1765 Leek - to Buxton via Middle Hills and Leek to Hassop via Middle Hills and Warslow 1771 Tollgate and Toll House built at Flash Bar 6 1773 Royal Cottage to Gradbach via Gib Torr Flash Bar to Knotbury 1793 Winking Man junction to Gradbach via Hazel Barrow 1810 Winking Man junction to Warslow 1825 Tollhouses built at Goldsitch Moss and Bradley Howel. Replaced by.. 1842 Tollhouse built at Swindle Bridge, Gradbach Tollhouse built at Ramshaw Roacks road to Hazel Barrow 1875 Roads disturnpiked 7

Turnpike roads were introduced to counter the deterioration in road conditions brought about by the rapid increase in population 8, trade and traffic. Before the introduction of toll roads, local roads were maintained by the parish. The state was impoverished by the Seven Year’s war with France, the American War of Independence and later the Napoleonic conflicts and did not have the resources to fund the improvements directly.

The turnpike acts empowered local turnpike trusts to collect tolls for the upkeep of the roads. The trustees were the principal landowners and included amongst others, the Duke of Devonshire, the Earls of Derby and Macclesfield and the Harpur-Crewe family. 9

The main beneficiaries were the principal road users, not least the trustees themselves. Early industrialists like the Duke of Devonshire had become extremely wealthy from huge reserves of copper at Ecton.10 He had plentiful labour from his tenant farms and used the mineral spoil for the construction of roads.

The railway arrived in Buxton in 1865.11 The development of railways combined with Victorian views on free trade led to the demise of the turnpike system in 1875. 12

4.3 Toll Houses Tollhouses were erected by the trusts to provide accommodate for the toll collectors. Initially, the trusts built and operated the toll houses directly, although it became common to lease to the toll houses to the highest bidder.

Toll houses were sited at significant junctions. The Leek to Buxton Road established by the 1765 turnpike act was a major thoroughfare forming part of a national program of road improvement linking Buxton with Stafford and the A5. 13

Side roads to Knotbury and Gradbach were important regionally, since they were heavily used for local trade including agriculture, coal from the bell pits and drift mines on Goldsitch Moss, Knotbury and Axe Edge, 14 textiles including flax from the mills at Gradbach and Upper Hulme, silk from Leek and Macclesfield and buttons from Flash 15 and metals including copper and lead from Ecton, Warslow, Mixon and Elkstones. 16 To some degree, the size of the toll houses were commensurate with the level of activity. The toll house at Bradley Howell for example being little more than a toll booth. Toll Bridge Cottage at the aptly named Swindle Bridge in Quarnford and Ramshaw Cottage controlled busier junctions and are are somewhat larger.

Fig. 2. Small toll house at Bradley Howel. Note the outline of a blocked doorway in the roadside gable, positioned to aid the collection of tolls.

Fig. 3. Tollbridge Cottage at Swindle Bridge, Quarnford. Fig. 4. Ramshaw Cottage. The position of the chimney, the gable windows and the former doorway, are typical characteristics.

The design of local tollhouses generally accords with the local vernacular tradition: A simple form with gritstone walls under gritstone slate roof.

The distinguishing characteristics are the prominent roadside position and openings positioned to observe the highway and aid the collection of tolls. This often meant placing windows and doors in a gable wall, with the chimney moved to the middle, dividing wall.

Conventionally, small 18th century dwellings conformed to a basic two-unit plan with chimneys at the gables and no doors or windows in the gable elevations. 17,18

When the roads were disturnpiked, most toll houses were sold as private dwellings. Over the intervening years many became derelict or have been demolished or altered to a degree that their distinguishing characteristics have been lost.

5. The Evidence: 5.1 Cartographic evidence and historical records show that the present day craft barn was purpose built as a toll house. There is also early photographic evidence which shows the original form of the building:

5.2 The Cartographic Evidence.

5.2.1 The 1775 Yates Map The 1775 Yates Map of Staffordshire represents a distinctive advance in modern cartography. 19 Earlier maps by Thomas Jeffery published in 1747 and Emanuel Bowen’s map of Staffordshire published in Atlas Anglicanus, 1767, 20 were based upon older maps including Robert Plots 1682 Map and by modern standards are rather inaccurate.

Fig. 5. Bowen’s Map of 1767

In contrast, the Yates map is considered to cartographically precise. Although he was an amateur surveyor, employed as a customs officer by the Liverpool Customs office, his approach to map making was meticulous, expert and professional. 21

Of the 100 or so primary triangulation points, the internal angles of all but two of the triangles summate to 360°. The errors in the two ‘incorrect’ triangles is fractional and amounts to a few tenths of arc seconds.

Whilst the boundary of urban areas appears to be notional, the plotting of isolated and individual farmsteads is considered to be accurate. It is unlikely that isolated buildings in a prominent roadside position would have been omitted from the map.

At the time of the survey, 1769 - 1775, a building existed on nearby Dove Hill but there were no buildings on the on the present day Flash Bar site.

There are two conclusions. 1). No buildings were present prior to 1769-75. 2). The Toll House cannot have been adapted from a pre-existing building. Fig. 6. Yates Map of 1775. The map shows many individual farmsteads but no buildings at Flash Bar

5.2.2 The Weston Heaton Survey Map, 1815,

Fig. 7. Weston Heaton Map of 1815. The map shows the toll house, inn and cart shed.

In 1815, surveyors Weston & Heaton were commissioned to survey the turnpike roads from Leek to Hassop including several recently completed side roads. 22 The Weston Heaton map shows the toll house on the junction with Summerhill lane, marked “Flash Toll Gate”. South of the junction, the Inn and and cart shed are shown.

5.2.3 The Ordnance Survey First Series, Sheet 81, 1842 In 1791, under threat of invasion from France, William Pitt’s government instructed the Board of Ordnance (the defence ministry) to produce accurate maps of the country. From baselines on Hounslow Heath and the Salisbury plain, the whole country was triangulated and the Ordnance Survey First Series published. Sheet 81 published in 1842 covers North Staffordshire. 23

By this stage the network of turnpikes was complete and would remain in force for a further 33 years.

The 1842 Ordnance Survey Map, see inset, marks the Toll gate as “TG”, shows the toll house, Inn and cart shed and also appears to show a building to the east of the Toll House.

Fig. 8. Ordnance Survey Map of 1842. The map shows the toll house, inn, cart shed and a further building to the east

5.2.4 Subsequent maps The Ordnance Survey Map of 1879 was prepared four years after the roads were disturnpiked. The map shows the toll house, the inn and outbuildings, Mark Cottage to the south and a field barn to the north west. References to the toll gate have disappeared.

The map is similar to modern day Ordnance Survey maps, with the exception that the sharp bend in the A53 had not yet been realigned (1953) and the Flash Bar stores had not yet been built: The stores appear on the subsequent OS map of 1899. The map is sufficiently detailed to make out that the building is not rectangular in plan, but is wider at the north western end and presents a straight frontage to the south west, facing Leek.

Fig. 9. Ordnance Survey Map of 1879. The map shows the toll house, inn and cart shed

5.3 Photographic Evidence Modern photogaphy using light sensitive silver halides was invented by Daguerre in 1837. However it was not until Eastman developed more sensitive film emulsions and Eastman-Kodak brought out the box brownie camera in 1900 that photography became affordable: Photographs taken before 1900 are therefore quite rare.

There are no known 18th century paintings of the Flash Bar or Traveller’s rest area.

5.3.1 Photograph circa 1900 This photograph is taken circa 1900. The photograph shows the Inn, the store and the the toll house with it’s north west facing gable intact. 24

Although the image is not sharp, the image shows the outline of a doorway, partially obscured by a figure standing in front of it, with a window to the left. There is another window in the gable, close to the south west corner of the Gable. Fig. 10. Photo Circa 1900. The photo shows the toll house with the west facing gable intact.

At first sight, the openings appear to be blocked with stone. However, subsequent photographs suggest that the building was derelict. The window openings simply reveal the exposed stonework of the internal walls behind.

Presumably the gable openings were required to observe traffic and collect tolls from travellers journeying from Buxton and Knotbury. It also explains why the chimney appears to be set further back, in the middle of the building rather than on the gable elevation.

5.3.2 Photographs 1911 These photographs were taken in 1911 at the 65th anniversary of the foundation of the Flash Loyal Union Society (Tea Pot Club). 25

They show the south eastern end of the building in a derelict condition. The roof is missing and the wall dividing the two halves of the building has been reduced in height. The quoins, eaves corbelling and door lintel are prominent although the windows and doors are missing.

The north western side of the building has been reconstructed as a single storey lean-to with a door in the centre of the north west elevation, facing Knotbury, and a window retained in the south western elevation, facing Leek. The straight frontage as per the plan view shown in Fig. 5, remains. Fig. 11. Photo 1911. The photo shows the south west elevation of the toll house with the north western end reconstructed as a lean-to.

Fig. 12. Photo 1911. The photo shows the lean-to with the derelict two storey part behind. 5.3.3 Photographs circa 1935

Fig. 13. Photo circa 1935. The photo shows the toll house serving as an annexe to the store and petrol station with rear part rebuilt.

This photograph was taken circa 1935 and shows Wood & Sons Stores, the inn, and the lime-washed toll house serving as an annexe to the store & petrol station. 26

A second doorway has been added to the north western side of the building, facing Knotbury and the south eastern end, facing Longnor, reconstructed with a pitched roof.

The roofline on the Longnor side does not meet the roofline on the Knotbury side at a single point. The modern photograph in Fig. 1 has been taken from a similar viewpoint and shows a similar form.

Comparing the 1911 images, with the present day photo also shows that the prominent quoins and the door lintel have been removed.

It appears that the south eastern end was demolished and rebuilt as a subordinate lean-to, with the roof set lower and the side elevations set back slightly. A survey of the existing building also shows that the walls at the reconstructed south eastern end are reduced in thickness.

6. Conclusion: 6.1 Historic records including cartographic evidence demonstrates conclusively that the present day Craft Barn was purpose built as a toll house. 6.2 Historic photographs of the building and a study of other toll houses in the district provide sufficient evidence to be reasonably certain as to the original design.

6.3 The Flash Bar toll house is not a listed building but has genuine historic significance and should be considered a heritage asset by definition:

Definition, NPPF Annex2. Heritage asset: A building, monument, site, place, area or landscape identified as having a degree of significance meriting consideration in planning decisions, because of its heritage interest. Heritage asset includes designated heritage assets and assets identified by the local planning authority (including local listing). 27

6.4 The Flash Bar toll house has seen many changes. Photographs show that it went through a period of dereliction in the late 19th Century, followed by various stages of reconstruction in the early part of the 20th Century.

6.5 The early photographs and evidence from nearby toll houses make it possible to reconstruct the building to match it’s original form. Peak District National Park Core Strategy Policy HC1, part C is a suitable instrument which could be used to restore and enhance a valued vernacular building.

A W Newby, B.Sc (Eng). DMS. PME Planning Services Friday, 30 March 2012

References 1 Peak District National park Authority Core Strategy, Adopted Oct 2011 p95 2 Peakland Roads, AE & EM Dodd, Landmark Publishing p 37-8. 3 Improved Map of the County of Stafford (1749), E. Bowen, Fig. 5. ibid. 4 The Turnpike Network of Staffordshire, 1700-1840: An Introduction and a Handlist of Turnpike Acts, A D M Phillips & B J Turton, Staffordshire Record Society, 4th series, volume 4. p78-9 5 Buxton Rd. order bks. 1765-1800 & 1814-32, Leek Buxton & Monyash accnt bk. Staffordshire Record Office ref D. 3359/59/4 6 As ref 4 ibid, p105 Alstonefield Inclosure Map, 1839, S.R.O. ref Q/RDc 24 7 Leek Buxton & Monyash accnt bk. Staffordshire Record Office ref D. 3359/59/4 8 The UK population: past, present and future, Julie Jefferies, Office of National Statistics, Focus on People and Migration, Chapter 1 9 Weston Heaton Survey Map of 1815, Staffordshire Record Office ref Q/ RUt/5/14 10 Lead Mining in the Peak District, TD Ford & J H Rieuwerts, Landmark Publishing p 187. 11 Railways of the High Peak: Buxton to Ashbourne, Bentley, J.M., Fox, G.K. Foxline Publishing, p40-42 12 As ref 7 ibid. 13 As ref 4 ibid, p78 14 Collections for a History of Staffordshire, Staffordshire Record Society, 1938, p99 Mineral Deeds, Derbyshire Record Office, refs D 2375M/57/1, D 2375M/71/84, D. 2375M/71/84, D. 2375M/82/23, D. 2375M/56/21 Mineral Deeds, Staffordshire Record Office, ref D. 424/M/19 Coal Mining Around Quarnford, John Leach, Staffordshire Studies, Volume 8, 1996 pp. 66-95 15 Harpur Deeds Collection, Derbyshire Record Office, ref D. 2375M/56/14 Flash Back, Margaret Parker, Ball Stone Farm, Quarnford, P60 16 As Ref 7, p187, p192 Mineral Deeds, Derbyshire Record Office, refs D. 2375M/190/2 D 2375M/189/1D. 2375M/54/3/2, D. 2375M/189/2, D. 2375M/189/14, D. 2375M/189/13, D. 2375M/282/11, D. 2375M/189/13, D. 2375M/101/4, D. 2375M/268/11, D. 2375M/268/20, D. 2375M/56/11, D. 2375M/99/6, D. 2375M/154/15, D. 2375M/154/23, D. 2375M/67/27, D. 2375M/254/9 Mineral Deeds, Staffordshire Record Office, ref D. 3359/Cruso Bulletins of the Peak District Mines Historical Society. v (1), 1-7 ,iv (5), 362-7 v (2), 95-7; v (3), 161-2 17 Illustrated Handbook of Vernacular Architecture, R W Brunskill, Faber & Faber, p100 18 Houses in the Landscape, A Regional Study of Vernacular Building Styles in England and Wales, J & J Penoyre, Readers Union, p 106 19 Map of the County of Stafford, William Yates, 1775, Staffordshire Record Office, ref D590/410 20 As Ref 3, ibid 21 As Ref 4 ibid, p20 - 30 22 As Ref 9, ibid 23 A short history of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain, R Oliver, Charles Close Society, http://www.charlesclosesociety.org/files/HistoryOSGB.pdf 24 Photograph, Margret Parker Collection, Ball Stone Farm, Quarnford 25 Photograph, as Ref 24, ibid, Flash Back, Margret Parker p64 26 Photograph, Wood & Sons village stores, Staffordshire County Museum, Shugborough 27 National Planning Policy Framework, Glossary, p52