The Alma Bridge Toll Gate

So on my wander round Portland Basin Museum after the steampunk event earlier... I found something that properly caught me off guard...

An actual gate and sign from the old Alma Bridge toll.

I’ve not been to the museum in about 8 years, so I’ve probably just walked past it before without thinking ... but I only started building Harrowden a year or so back.

Didn’t even know any of this still existed. I’d only ever seen it in photos. Seeing it in person felt strange straight away ... the sign and the gate ... like recognising something you’ve already been carrying round in your head. It’s ended up inspiring the toll bridge that’s appeared across loads of my Harrowden work, sometimes front and centre, sometimes just sitting in the background of pieces.

The sign’s still there, worn but readable ... “LIST OF TOLLS” across the top. Official, all laid out in neat rules and charges. It was 2d for horses and carriages, more depending on what you were taking across.

And yet everything you read about it says the same thing ... people hated it. Constant source of irritation locally. Fees just to move between Ashton and Dukinfield, right on the boundary between Cheshire and Lancashire. Someone stood there collecting off you just to pass.

Then you look at it again... and it’s still here.

I went back for a closer look at the gate itself close up...

The sign’s all neat and official... rules, charges, everything laid out proper.

But the gate’s something else.

Carved into it... rough marks, initials, bits scratched in by hand. A single big “A” cut deep. Another bit that just reads “pric” ...

And when you read into it, it makes sense. This wasn’t some quiet crossing. People hated this thing. Fees just to pass. The toll booth was dragged off and burned in the end ... along with effigies of the toll keepers set on fire.

All that frustration, and these marks are what’s left of it.

Strange thing to come across on a day out... especially when it feels like you’ve already been drawing from it!