The Turnpike
The main road through Red Lodge was turnpiked in 1768 and known as the
Newmarket to Thetford Turnpike Road. A Turnpike Trust was formed which levied
tolls to upkeep and improve the road although in 1795, according to local
newspapers, the bridge at the Red Lodge was destroyed by a torrent of water and
the mail coach was diverted via Freckenham and Chippenham.
At the same time, on the turnpike road at Chalk Hill, a mail coach fell into a
'deep and awful gulf ' and the passengers and four horses died.
The trust erected gates and appointed a toll collector and so it must have been
at this time a tollgate house was built between the brook and the Red Lodge. In
September 1776 the toll collector, John Flower, was called out to open the gates
and was confronted by a man on horseback waving a pistol and demanding the toll
money.
Flower was shot in the shoulder and his frightened wife handed over the
takings of 15 guineas and some silver. The robbery was committed by a short man
with a red lapelled waistcoat, white fustian frock (coat) and black hair.
Someone answering the description had been seen in the neighbourhood selling
scissors and knives and had offered a watch for sale. The suspect said his name
was Giles and that he was born in Cavenham. He claimed to be a butler from the
Half Moon in Bury but eye witness reports stated 'he looked more like a pot
boy'. The tollgate keeper was expected to recover.
Newspapers advertised the letting of the tolls and the meeting held in the
Bull Inn, Barton Mills in January 1850 decided to let to the best bidder, by
auction, the Red Lodge gates which the previous year had been let for £130.
The last mail coach had passed through the gates in 1846.
Census returns show that James Melton of Pakenham was the last foreman of the
turnpike. In 1866 the toll house, gardens and outbuildings were sold by the
trust to Nathaniel Barnardiston for £30.22
Tollgate Cottage was still in existence in 1918 and a new bridge across the
brook was built by West Suffolk County Council in 1933.
©2000 Susan Cook