The family left Morecambe when she was eight years old, after her grandparents died, and Toulmin took part in travelling fairground life, selling candyfloss and working on children's rides around Lancashire and Wales with her uncles' and aunts' fairs.
[3][6] While working on her PhD, Toulmin set up the National Fairground Archive in the University Library, working with the Showmen's Guild of Great Britain and the Fairground Association of Great Britain, and was its first director.
The archive received a grant from the National Heritage Lottery Fund to digitise its photographic collection.
[7] She led a project team looking at "COVID-19 and Sheffield's cultural sector: planning for recovery",[8] and together with Sarah Price submitted evidence from this work to Parliament.
[10] In 2020 she became chair of the Morecambe Winter Gardens Preservation Trust, which is restoring this celebrated theatre.