Toll Collection. How did it work?

[Grebe]

I'm currently looking at some old Great Central Railway papers from the 1920's. They also owned a number of canals and employed various grades of staff on their canals from lenghtsmen and lockkeepers to toll collectors, checkers and clerks, let alone management and supervisory grades. I've become curious about how it all worked in practice.

 

My question is - what were the practical ways of working to collect tolls?

 

My thoughts are - skipper gets a delivery note at loading point and somewhere on journey he will be 'assessed' by a collector, based on his delivery note and boat freeboard.

 

Does the payment get made there, or go on account?

 

Does the skipper then get a docket to say he has been checked and dues sorted out for future inspections?

 

Are the details described in any books?

 

 

[ditchcrawler]

Wasn't that something to do with why they had a ticket draw

[Pluto]

The system seems to have varied from canal to canal, another reason why through traffics were difficult to operate. Some canals had gauging books, with details of loads sent back to a central office, while others just relied upon the weight given on the loading ticket, with the actual weight very rarely being checked. Of course there were also local standards, such as what the actual weight of a cwt was taken as, with some canals allowing a higher figure, say 120lbs, to allow for any spillage etc. The weight for grain was another where the standards varied, with railways complaining that the higher L&LC weight for a bushel amounted to a toll reduction. If you visit Kennet next year on the L&LC, we do have some examples in our displays of the way general cargoes were controlled over the years.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Pluto

[Grebe]

Thanks Mike and Brian,

 

As I thought different systems for different places and some with loopholes. I've seen cases where skippers were fined for not stopping at a particular place, usually where there was a company wharf/warehouse, presumably to be charged.

 

The Chesterfield Canal’s Act of Parliament defines that on that waterway “ the Ton of Coals and Lime-stone shall consist of Twenty two Hundreds of One Hundred and Twelve Pounds each to the Ton”. That makes a ‘canal’ ton 2464lbs, that is 10% more than our current standard.

[Hugh]

Here is a sample of a Cromford Canal 'Permit Book' entry. The toll ticket given to the boatman to show that he had paid would have been cut off from the right hand side.

[tarboat]

On the Trent and Mersey Canal in the first half of the nineteenth century most traders appear to have carried on a credit basis with an account being submitted to them every so often for payment of all tolls incurred over that period. It is clear that there were cases when cash on the nail was required if a carrier's credit was not good, but this does seem to have been the exception. This would also reduce the amount of cash in the hands of boat captains and passing to toll collectors along with the temptations that go with it.

 

Many carriers supplied details of the cargo on their own printed notes, and if those were not available, then any old bit of paper or another carrier's paperwork with the heading altered would do. These were issued for each individual consignment and thus the paperwork was voluminous. The permits issued by the canal company were signed at each checking point.

 

Some examples below, starting with the permit and the signatures of the toll clerks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grebe]

Thanks Hugh and Tarboat (whoever you really are).

 

The information and documents have greatly clarified the picture for me.