From the start of the Council houses, directly opposite the public park entrance was the lower end of the “Toll Brae”. This was a local name from the 19th Century for a short part of Glasgow Road for about hundred yards before the old Blantyre Cotton Works Toll Point (not to be confused with Monteith’s Cotton mills).
The Toll Brae, Glasgow to Hamilton Road, Blantyre in 1859
The toll building was not at the park entrance, but formerly sat at the corner of what would become Station Road. It would tax horses and carts upon passing that building, a prime spot for tax collection given the populated centre of Blantyre Works Village to the north.
The collection of tolls was made illegal shortly after this map was surveyed in 1859, by local surveyor N Fleming. In the mid 1800’s the toll collector was Blantyre man, Stephen Hunter. Rising on an incline the further west you went, this part of the road would later cause trams to slightly decelerate as the cars progressed up the hill.
The “Toll Brae” name is now largely forgotten, a throwback to old generations and seems likely to disappear from memory.
From the book, “Blantyre Glasgow Road – The Real Story” by Paul Veverka (c) 2017
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