The Tolhouse (also the Tolhouse Gaol) is a 12th-century building in

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...

, Norfolk, England. The building has been used as a jail and a courthouse and is currently a museum. The Tolhouse is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

Architectural detail on the Toll House - geograph

The Tolhouse was built around 1150, and is believed to have been built by merchants. It is the oldest

civic Civic is something related to a city or municipality. It also can refer to multiple other things: Civic or CIVIC can also refer to: General *Honda Civic, a car produced by the Honda Motor Co. *Civics, the science of comparative government * Civic ...

building in

and one of the oldest remaining buildings in the town. The house is built of

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

and

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

with a tiled roof. The hall of The Tolhouse measures around . From the 13th century, it was used as a

toll house A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road, canal, or toll bridge. History Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and ...

for

herring Herring are various species of forage fish, belonging to the Order (biology), order Clupeiformes. Herring often move in large Shoaling and schooling, schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate wate ...

catches from the quay and is believed to have first been called The Tolhouse in 1360. In 1261, King Henry III gave permission for the Tolhouse to be used as a jail (gaol). The prison was in the basement of the building, and its main occupants of the jail were

smuggler Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...

s and

pirate Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and valuable goods, or taking hostages. Those who conduct acts of piracy are call ...

s. In the 1400s, some inmates at the Tolhouse jail waited 10 years for a trial. In 1645,

witch-hunt A witch hunt, or a witch purge, is a search for people who have been labeled witches or a search for evidence of witchcraft. Practicing evil spells or Incantation, incantations was proscribed and punishable in early human civilizations in the ...

Matthew Hopkins Matthew Hopkins ( 1620 – 12 August 1647) was an English witch-hunter whose career flourished during the English Civil War. He was mainly active in East Anglia and claimed to hold the office of Witchfinder General, although that titl ...

used the Tolhouse jail during his witch trials, in which several local women were

hanged Hanging is killing a person by suspending them from the neck with a noose or ligature strangulation, ligature. Hanging has been a standard method of capital punishment since the Middle Ages, and has been the primary execution method in numerou ...

. In the 18th century, the Tolhouse used

hard labour Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour that prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included inv ...

, on a

treadmill A treadmill is a device generally used for walking, running, or climbing while staying in the same place. Treadmills were introduced before the development of powered machines to harness the power of animals or humans to do work, often a type of ...

or picking

oakum Oakum is a preparation of tarred fibers used to seal gaps. Its traditional application was in shipbuilding for caulking or packing the joints of timbers in wooden vessels and the deck planking of iron and steel ships. Oakum was also used in p ...

nearby. In the early 19th century, British prison visitor Sarah Martin criticised the living conditions in the jail, as the cells were too warm and the jail was unsanitary. She also objected to the fact that the inmates had no access to a church or chaplain. Until 1823, prisoners had to pay jail fees. In 1864,

HM Inspectorate of Prisons His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons is the head of HM Inspectorate of Prisons and the senior inspector of prisons, young offender institutions and immigration service detention and removal centres in England and Wales. The current chief inspe ...

criticised living conditions in the jail, as five people were sharing one room. They recommended that female prisoners be sent to

Wymondham Bridewell Wymondham Bridewell was the local prison or bridewell in Wymondham, Norfolk. The site was in use as a prison from as early as 1619. The present, grade II listed building dates from the 1780s. It closed as a prison in 1878. Since then it has had ...

, to allow for more space and better living conditions for the remaining prisoners. The underground cells stopped being used in 1836, and, later in the 19th century, the building's dungeons were used as storerooms. The hall of the Tolhouse has also been used as a

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a structure which houses judicial functions for a governmental entity such as a state, region, province, county, prefecture, regency, or similar governmental unit. A courthouse is home to one or more courtrooms, ...

, and the building has also been used as a police station. The Tolhouse was bought by the local authority in 1552, following which significant repair work was undertaken. In 1648, The Tolhouse was used as a "council of war" room. The last council session at the building was in 1823. In the 1870s, the Tolhouse was proposed for demolition. The Tolhouse jail was closed in 1878, and the prisoners were transferred to Norwich Prison. The building was then briefly used as a

town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...

. In 1883, The Tolhouse was given over to the mayor, and since then, the Tolhouse has been used as a museum. The building was bombed in 1941 during

The Blitz The Blitz (English: "flash") was a Nazi Germany, German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom, for eight months, from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941, during the Second World War. Towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a co ...

and was restored between 1960 and 1961. In 1953, the Tolhouse became a Grade I

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tolhouse, The Grade I listed buildings in Norfolk Buildings and structures in Great Yarmouth 12th-century establishments in England Historic house museums in Norfolk Toll houses Grade I listed prison buildings Grade I listed museum buildings