The building in the photograph, at the end of Victoria Terrace at a right-angle to Station Road, was called The Nook; it was demolished in the 1950s and the three houses of Victoria Place now occupy the site. Before Henry Rice built the Tollgate House just beyond the Railway Station in 1842, The Nook was where the Barn Street Toll Gate was across the road and a payment had to be paid by everyone, except pedestrians, passing through.

In 1817 the payment for riding or leading a horse was 2d, for a horse drawing any form of wagon or carriage it was 6d, for every 20 cattle the charge was 3d, and for smaller livestock, such as pigs or sheep, it was 8d per 20.

The last ‘Turnpike Gate Keeper’ at The Nook, in the 1841 census, was unmarried 20 year old Christiana Foot. Also in the census is her seven year old sister Ann Sowden Foot. Christiana’s career in toll collecting came to an end in September 1842 when she married Joseph Ede at Stoke Damerel; they settled in Bristol and produced three daughters and six sons.

Christiana Ede is next recorded as a passenger, with five of her younger children, aboard the ‘Gilmore’ which set sail from Plymouth and arrived at Port Adelaide, South Australia, on July 5, 1857. Little is known about the family’s life in Australia, apart from Joseph Ede’s death in Victoria in 1865 and Christiana’s second marriage in the same year to Henry Todd in Adelaide. Henry Todd died in Adelaide in 1876, as did Christiana in 1910. If any readers can add to the story email [email protected]

By Brian Oldham

Museum volunteer and Bard of the Gorsedh Kernow