Why is Dovercourt’s Tollgate called Tollgate?

Any Harwich Society members who wish to know the answer to that question will enjoy the guest speaker at the Harwich Society’s monthly meeting on Friday, March 31.

Throughout the winter the Harwich Society holds a monthly meeting at the Navigator in Barrack Lane, Harwich starting at 7.30pm.

At each of these meetings there is a guest speaker and a wide range of interesting topics are covered.

The March meeting is certainly no exception as the guest speaker is Philip Cunningham who is the secretary of Manningtree Museum and the Manningtree History Group.

His talk is titled ‘The Harwich turnpike road, toll houses, milestones and posts’ and will tell the story of the Harwich turnpike road that ran the 72 miles between London and Harwich.

This was one of the first turnpike roads and was introduced because of the strategic importance of Harwich both in terms of the military and trade.

Colin Farnell, chairman of the Harwich Society, said: “All of our guest speakers are interesting in their own way but this talk will no doubt increase our historical knowledge of our town which always heightens interest.”