Florilegium urbanum - Tolls and customs - Usages governing the collection of tolls at Torksey

DISCUSSION

Torksey, Lincolnshire, is situated at the River Trent's junction with the Fossdyke, a Roman cut connecting the Witham (which ran through Lincoln) with the Trent, which itself came northwards from the future site of Nottingham and continued flowing north into the Humber. The name Torksey ('Turoc's island') suggests early settlement on a raised area standing above marshy ground, perhaps a different site from its later riverbank location. Regardless of the Roman reasons for creating England's first canal, the Fossdyke was a boon to inland transportation and trade. A settlement was established there in consequence and was important enough to be used in 873 as the base for a Danish army – doubtless because of its location on waterways that facilitated forays by invading forces. By the tenth century it had become one of England's major pottery-making centres, with Torksey ware being sold across the country. It was considered a borough, if a small one, by the time of Domesday. It appears to have had a close relationship with Lincoln, ten miles southeast of Torksey – being described on one occasion as a "suburb" of Lincoln; the Fossdyke allowed Lincoln's trade an alternative route to that via the Witham entering the North Sea at the site of Lincoln's competitor, Boston.

The canal, however, was not maintained well and periodically became so badly silted as to be unusable; in 1121 the Bishop of Lincoln had it scoured to restore its navigability. By the beginning of the fourteenth century the canal appears was becoming impassable again (although perhaps only during the dry period of each year, when its water-level fell), for goods sometimes had to be carted by road between Torksey and Lincoln; the scouring process was repeated in 1335. The Trent, however, was and remained an important inland transportation route between the Midlands and the North of England.

The adverse effects of the Conquest and its aftermath was another contributor to Torksey's fluctuations in fortune: the burgess population dropped by over 50%. Torksey was unable to maintain its early importance into the late Middle Ages.

This document takes the form of an inquisition into what tolls might rightly be taken along a stretch of the Trent by the lord of Torksey, and how the taking of tolls was to be administered. One of the principal features of interest is that the document explicitly deals with some issues that most lists of tolls take for granted, such as the circumstances governing exemptions. The document reflects not only a network of toll-stations along inland waterways, but also the growing number of urban exemptions from such tolls (Nottingham, for example, had its exemption investigated and confirmed by Torksey authorities in 1342), as well as personal exemptions on goods that were not for commercial use (i.e. re-sale) but for personal or household use. At the same time, there was the attempt to restrict loading and unloading of cargos to certain locations where, and situations under which, toll collection could be effectively administered.

Subject:	Usages governing the collection of tolls at Torksey
Original source:	British Library, Rot.Cott. ii, 14
Transcription in:	N.S.B. Gras, The Early English Customs System, Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1918, 155-158.
Original language:	Latin
Location:	Torksey
Date:	1228

Keywords: medieval Torksey tolls jurisdiction exemption commerce ships customs administration regulations transportation routes

Concerning tolls