Maidenhead Bridge - Tolls

Tolls

Throughout its history the tolls on Maidenhead Bridge had been considered high and were the subject of disquiet. In 1337 the toll for a loaded barge to pass under or a loaded cart to pass over was 1 old penny (equivalent to £10 today). By the 1830s the bridge was recorded as raising £1,245 per annum in tolls (equivalent to £100 thousand today). It remained a toll bridge until 1903, after an Eton man named Joseph Taylor, who had already made a successful legal challenge against the tolls on Windsor Bridge petitioned the Charity Commissioners in 1902 that the toll was illegal as the funds raised had been used by the Maidenhead Corporation for purposes other than bridge maintenance - a fact freely admitted by the town clerk. The Charity Commission agreed that the toll was illegal and an Act of Parliament was passed in 1903 which legislated for tolls to cease after 31 October 1903. A large crowd gathered at the bridge and in the first moments of 1 November 1903 they removed the toll gates and threw them in to the Thames. The tolls in 1903 were 1 shilling (equivalent to £10.00 today) for a coach and horses, sixpence (equivalent to £5.00 today) for a car and 10 old pence (equivalent to £8.00 today) for twenty sheep.