Fiddleton

Fiddleton Toll Bar Cottage is a late 18th- or early 19th-century single-storey toll bar cottage with a basement to the rear (east), built to a rectangular plan of three bays. It stands directly alongside the A7, the historic Carlisle to Edinburgh road, north of Langholm in Ewes.

The building is constructed of stugged grey ashlar with painted margins to the principal elevations, while the north and south elevations are of snecked and squared rubble with ashlar quoins. The front (west) elevation features a central canted and crenellated bay, with a window to its right and an entrance door with fanlight to its left. The north elevation has a single centrally placed window.

The rear (east) elevation reads as two storeys owing to the drop in ground level. At basement level there is a central door flanked to its right by a small square window, and a small timber lean-to with a corrugated iron roof sits to the right of this door. At first-floor level there is a single off-centre window.

The south gable is formed by a 20th-century two-storey rendered brick addition, which is excluded from the listing along with the single-storey timber extension to the east. The addition's east-facing elevation has timber double doors at basement level with a small single window above; its south elevation has a pair of windows at first-floor level, and its west elevation is featureless.

The cottage has a piended (hipped) roof finished in graded slates with projecting eaves. Two symmetrically arranged rooflights are set into the rear pitch, and there is a central apex chimney stack with three replacement cans. The windows, which were recorded as 12-pane sashes in the 1972 listed building record, have since been replaced throughout with plastic windows. The entrance door is also a replacement.

Internally, as seen in 2017, the ground floor and basement are separate compartments: the ground floor is entered from the west entrance door and the basement from the rear east door. Few late 18th- or early 19th-century features survive inside. Those that remain include some timber doors, architraves, and a press cupboard. The basement has a cobblestone floor. The ground floor interior largely dates to the 20th century.

The canted bay is a functional feature characteristic of early 19th-century toll cottages, designed to give the toll keeper a clear view along the road in both directions. The crenellated detailing of the bay is less common, but is shared by all four surviving toll bar cottages on the former Scotsdyke and Haremoss Turnpike: Scotsdyke (Old Tolbooth), Langholm Townfoot (Tollbar Cottage South), Langholm Townhead (Tollbar Cottage North), and Fiddleton itself. It is probable that Scotsdyke and Fiddleton were either substantially altered or rebuilt when the Langholm tolls were constructed, so that all four cottages share the same architectural style.

The turnpike road was established under an Act of Parliament obtained in 1764 by Sir William Pulteney of Westerhall, a Scottish advocate and Dumfries landowner who had applied in 1763. The act provided for a road from Scotsdyke to Haremoss through Hawick in Roxburghshire. This was the first turnpike in Scotland not directed towards Edinburgh or Glasgow, having originally been called for in 1749 by the Lords of Justiciary to assist their circuit route travel. The Caledonian Mercury reported in 1767 that the road was completed in the summer of 1766, and it was managed by the Scotsdyke and Haremoss Turnpike Trust. The Taylor and Skinner map of 1775 shows tolls in place at Fiddleton and Scotsdyke, and shows the Fiddleton building as a simple rectangle. By 1834, two additional tolls had been added to the north and south of Langholm. The current form of the cottage, with its canted bay to the west elevation, is evident on the first edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1857 and published in 1862. The toll bar cottages ceased to operate following the passing of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act 1878.

Turnpike roads were a principal means of land transport until the mid-19th century. From the mid-18th century, local turnpike acts enabled capital to be raised for road maintenance by charging tolls. A physical barrier or toll bar across the road or bridge was lifted on payment, and a cottage was typically provided to house the toll operator. Around 100 former toll houses, toll bar cottages, or tolbooths are listed in Scotland. Comparable examples with canted or bow-fronted bays include Ye Olde Toll Bar at Newton Stewart (1813), the example by engineer Robert Stevenson listed with Marykirk Bridge near Brechin (1817), and two examples by Thomas Telford: the Former Tollhouse on Hyndford Road, Lanarkshire (1820) and Old Toll Cottage, Dinwoodie, Lockerbie (1822–23). Grander examples include the former toll house by engineer John Rennie (1802), built as part of his Kelso Bridge scheme in a classical style, and those at Barnhill near Perth and Boat of Brig in Moray.

The cottage stands within its own plot of land immediately alongside the A7. The toll bar itself that would have accompanied the cottage no longer exists. The proximity of the canted bay to the road remains as direct physical evidence of the building's original function. The building was previously listed under the name Fiddleton Bar Tollhouse; the listing record was revised in 2018.