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        THE STORY OF THE STANLEY TOLLHOUSE
The Stanley Tollhouse originally stood alongside the Telford Road at the Holyhead end of the embankment.  In the late 1960's Anglesey County Council needed to lay a water-main along the embankment because of the development of the Anglesey Aluminium smelter further up the road, and found the tollhouse was in the way.  To preserve the historical building, and with the consent of the owner, Miss N. Borthwick, the council undertook to take the Tollhouse down stone by stone, and re-erect it 100 yards down the road, to its present position, in the Penrhos Coastal Park.Each side of the building was painted in 2 different colours and every stone was numbered in sequence. 
There are several photographs on our display board which shows the care and skill involved to move the tollhouse to its present, most attractive setting.

  SITE MAP

      TOLL
      HOUSE
    RECIPES

      BACK

                  INTERESTING SERIES OF EVENTS!
1.  During the 1950's a new front door was fitted to the Tollhouse, replacing the solid oak door which was 135 years old.  The key for the old door was 9"long and 2"wide at the top.
2.  Gas was piped along the A5 & this provided gas lighting,
replacing candle light and oil lamps.  This story was covered by "The Liverpool Daily Post".
3.  Water pipes were run into the house to provide cold running water.
4.  A  Keegan & Flannigan's bottling stores lorry with crates and bottles, once crashed into the house.
5.  A steam train emptied its tinder box and the hot cinders landed in the Tollhouse garden and caused a huge fire, which encircled the Tollhouse and though undamaged structurally, the exterior was blackened and
discoloured and had to be re-painted.
6.  Another time a car coming from the Valley direction, turned the corner too fast and crashed into the wall underneath the kitchen window, destroying a bush that grew there.  Though the car was badly damaged, the stone walls of the Tollhouse, being made of solid stone, withstood the impact.

                THE TOLLHOUSE - A PERSONAL FOCUS
Anne Hindley, whose grandfather and father worked as gamekeepers on the Penrhos Estate, lived at the Tollhouse with her father from 1945 until her father's death in 1960.
Anne's father bought the Tollhouse from Lady Stanley for £350, which was payable in weekly instalments of £1 and was deducted from his wages as gamekeeper.  Her father was a keen market gardener and grew vegetables, fruit and flowers for sale.  Anne's mother kept boarding kennels including a quarantine section.  The family was self-sufficient, eating their own vegetables, chickens, ducks, guinea fowl, rabbits and pigeons.  There was a goat for milk and Anne's father was a keen goat for milk and Anne's father was a keen fisherman, so there was often freshly-caught fish for the table