Toll point

On canals where the fee was based on cargo weight it also put the boat in a convenient place to read the gauging mark height from the water line.

On busy canals which were built with a towpath on either side such as the Birmingham Canal Navigations BCN New Main Line the toll house may have been built on an island between two constricted channels so that one toll point could collect from boats travelling in each direction.

Coal, stone and lime were the cheapest, then iron ore, then finished goods, with perishables and packets being the most expensive.

The delivery of straw, manure or road building materials, as well as coal for the poor (5,000 tons per year on the Derby Canal), or contribution to county rates may have freed the carrier of toll fees.

Pleasure boats pay British Waterways an annual licence fee based on the length of the craft.

These measurements were logged in toll-keeper's tables and copies sent to every toll office within the boat's trading range.

On the Birmingham Canal Navigations (BCN) Main Line the Smethwick Gauging Station near the Engine Arm Aqueduct was on an island, with a covered gantry in a centre channel where boats were loaded with weights, plated and calibrated.

Boats were re-indexed every ten years as their wooden infrastructure became waterlogged and they ran lower in the water.