A REMINDER of more leisurely days, this toll-house at the bottom of Bar Lane was a prominent feature of Stockbridge for a century and a half, although tolls had last been collected here in 1868.
This photograph was taken before the development of this stretch of Bradford Road between the wars.
As far back as 1936, during a road safety campaign, this corner had been identified as one of three main danger-spots in the Keighley district – the other two were Steeton Top and the junction of Cavendish Street and Lawkholme Crescent – but it would be another 36 years, with vastly increasing traffic, before the problem was seriously tackled.
In 1972, despite being a Grade II listed building, the Bar Lane toll-house was demolished in order to improve the sight line and provide a pedestrian footpath. By then the toll-house was being used as a shop and was officially deemed to be “architecturally not now attractive” – a description not borne out by this photograph.
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