Father and son give Sidmouth Toll Gate a new paint job

SIDMOUTH’S 200-year-old toll gate, which leads into The Byes, has been given a makeover by father and son team, Nick and Scott Beavis, from Sid Vale Metalcraft.

They were asked by Sid Vale Association to undertake the work.

SVA chairman, Alan Darrant, said: “It got into a neglected state. Rust was beginning to show and as it was the SVA who got it installed there after we rescued it and put it in place, we have a sense of responsibility for it.”

He said he had been told it was “looking a bit sad” and so Nick and his son were asked to give it a sandblasting and re-paint.

There were delays to the start of work after the nearby Toll House underwent renovations this year.

“It is an historic gate and we didn’t want it to slip into history,” said Alan.

The gate was said to have been made by a toll ironmaster at Honiton and is almost identical to the gate on the Axminster Road at its original position leading into Honiton.

Sidmouth’s toll house, built in the then fashionable Greek style after the road and Waterloo Bridge were constructed in 1817, was made redundant, along with the gate, following the abolition of the Sidmouth and Honiton Turnpike Trust in 1888.

It was re-sited from the road to its position leading to The Byes by the SVA after being found in a field in the late 1970s.