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

Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth (), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside town and unparished area in, and the main administrative centre of, the Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. A pop ...

, 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 or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

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: General *Civics, the science of comparative government *Civic engagement, the connection one feels with their larger community *Civic center, a comm ...

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. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

and

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

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

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

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 smugglers 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 other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

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. The Witch trials in the early modern period, classical period of witch-hunts in Early Modern Europe and European Colon ...

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

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

. In the 18th century, the Tolhouse used hard labour, 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 nearby. In the early 19th century, British prison visitor

Sarah Martin Sarah Martin (1791 – 15 October 1843) was a prison visitor and philanthropist. She was born at Great Yarmouth; and lived in nearby Caister. She earned her living by dressmaking, and devoted much of her time amongst criminals in the Tolh ...

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 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 building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

, 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 HM Prison Norwich is a Category B/C multi-functional prison for adult and juvenile males, located on Mousehold Heath in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. History Norwich opened as a prison in 1 ...

. 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 a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

. 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 was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

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 Great Yarmouth 12th-century establishments in England Historic house museums in Norfolk Toll houses Grade I listed prison buildings Grade I listed museum buildings