Heritage Statement Former Tollhouse, Flash Bar, PP-01878560
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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.