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The Toll House

((copied from the original post on the ning, the backstory of the old Toll House on Clockhaven’s Square, it used to be my photography studio, now its my more private residence))

During the days of the clockwork era, Clockhaven’s bustling community
spent a lot of time travelling to and from the now barred area of the
Old Quarter. Clockhaven’s plasa and Academy Lane was a natural
throughfaire in which narrow carts and tradesmen along with academicals
using the Old Quarter as a shortcut to the Academy went from clockhaven,
through the old quarter and into the long lost Academy.

At this point in time Fullarton House was still the synagogue and
stretched right to the old barrier wall where the current brewery is
located. It was a time of prosperity and richness for the city state.

With tradesmen coming and going the Academy Lane Toll House was
constructed to charge people for the use of the turnpike road leading up
through the plasa, into academy lane and then on into the Old Quarter.
Toll Booths and Turnpikes were common place in those days, with the road
network in dire need to repair and mostly made of old roman pathway cut
off’s and rubble, the roads were treacherous to say the least.

With the fall of the clockwork era and the rise of the steam era, the
need for Toll Houses went into deline, many of them was demolished. The
site of the Academy Lane Toll House was, up until recently the home of a
bakers shop. When the plot of land was up for tender, the eccentric
Victor1st Mornington took it over and commisioned Mr Rip Wirefly as the
builder. The old Toll House plans were found, and a peice of clockhavens
long lost past was reconstructed from the same materials that the
original Toll Booth was made of. Sitting against the new pallisade wall
and next to the converted Clockhaven stables, if turnpike users didnt
pay their toll fee their horse and cart along with all their goods were
impounded and the tax evader spent up to a week in the toll house upper
floor prison.

Academy Lane Toll House in Clockhaven no longer has a grizzled old tax
man charging people for the use of it’s roads and the interior is now
home to a photography studio, but it’s imposing facade and upper level
bay window looking onto the remains of the turnpike is a distant
reminder of the old history of the plasa and Academy Lane.

Clockhaven Square with The Toll House in the background…

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