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Summary

Description

Dating from the early 19^th century, the building is a single storey, with basement at rear (east), T-plan, former toll house. It has a canted bay at its roadside (west) elevation and is built of stugged grey ashlar with polished margins. Its principal (west) elevation is three-bay with a central canted bay window, a door to left and single window to right, and is built of stugged grey ashlar with polished margins. The side bays are of cherry-caulked and snecked red ashlar. There is a modern glazed porched addition on the south elevation and a low wing at the east elevation

The central bay features 12-pane timber sash and case windows with other openings replacement uPVC in 12-pane pattern. It has a piended, slated roof with corniced central axial stack and projecting eaves.

Historical background

The former toll house at Scotsdyke is located fronting the A7 road to the south of the village of Canonbie, neighbouring the English border. A Toll at 'Scots Dyke' is labelled on Taylor and Skinner map of 1775 with the structure shown as a simple rectangle. While a toll building may have been at this location since the late 18^th century it is likely that the current toll house was the result of alteration or rebuilding in the early 19^th century at the time of construction and reconstruction of other toll houses on the road which share a similar design including Langholm Townfoot (High Street, Tollbar Cottage South LB37135), Langholm Townhead (Townhead, Tollbar Cottage North LB37145) and Fiddleton Toll Bar Cottage (LB9770). The building is first shown in detail as a T-Plan structure on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (surveyed 1858, published 1859). The Ordnance Survey name book of 1858 notes the building is on the Scotsdyke turnpike (road) and describes the former toll house as a 'one storey house with garden attached used for the purposes of collecting Toll'.

From the mid-18^th century local turnpike acts made it possible to raise capital for road maintenance by charging tolls. Turnpike roads provided one of the key means of land transport until the mid-19^th century and Tolls were usually accompanied by a cottage to house the operator. In 1764 an Act was passed for a road from Scotsdyke to Haremoss, through Hawick in Roxburghshire. The toll house at Scotsdyke was one of a group of tollhouses built on this road that connected Edinburgh and Carlisle and would have functioned to collect tolls from passing stagecoaches.

Statement of Special Interest

• It is a major surviving example of a toll house cottage associated with the late 18^th century development of the turnpike road network.
• While some changes have been made to the interior and by the addition of a glazed porched on the south elevation, the building largely retains its early 19^th century form and traditional character including the ashlar principal elevation with canted bay which allowed for monitoring traffic along the toll road.
• The canted bay is a distinctive feature which the building shares with three other toll house cottages on the former Scotsdyke and Haremoss turnpike road.
• 19^th century toll houses are a relatively rare building type, and this is a notable surviving example of the building type which is still connected to a historic network of other toll houses on the original toll road.

Supplementary information in the listed building record was updated in 2024.

References

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