TOLL BRIDGE SURVIVALS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 23 May 1936, Page 9

TOLL BRIDGE SURVIVALS

Although the Road Traffic Act proides for the removal of toll; bridges, the right to levy tolls for a (year on all vehicles crossing the River Parrett at Eurrowbridge, Somerset, has been sold for £1,350. Last year the same ri«ht was sold for £1,200, ‘[and the year before for £1,250. By the terms of an Act passed in King Geprge IV’s reign, bids must be made while sand is running through an old wooden-framed sand-glass. The sand must run three times through the glass before a bid becomes a sale. .They number of tollbridges is steadily declining.'! In 1929 there were 8 in England, and Wales, 24 on first-class .roads', and in 1934 only 37. Acquiring the toll rights is apt to be expensive. The Southern. Railway was paid £50,000 for the Sheppey toll, the Marquess of Bute-i£2’2,000 for a toll between Cardiff and Penarth; and it cost the Hertfordshire County Council £IO.OOO to free Whitney Bridge.