Thames Valley Milestones

What is on this Webpage?

This is the gateway to information on Milestones that have been surveyed recently beside roads in the Thames Valley. These surveys were undertaken by Alan Rosevear as part of a national project by the Milestone Society. The survey captures information on the location, construction and known history of each of these wayside markers. Only the key information on location and a photographic record of each milestone can be accessed through this web page.

To find an individual milestone, start with the list of milestones in each county. The information on location is enhanced using data supplied by English Heritage. Click on the grid reference to see more details and a picture of the milestone.

Each milestone is generally part of a series placed along a highway running between two important towns. Where there is a series of stones these are grouped together under a highway ID (e.g. LB London to Bath). For the more important highways there are additional notes on the history of that road.

Milestones

The word milestone is used here to mean all wayside markers that give indication on distance or boundaries along the road. Although the majority of milestones in the Thames Valley are carved stones, there are also good examples of stones with cast iron plates attached and of markers made solely of cast iron. The latter are sometimes referred to as Mileposts but serve the same purpose as the stones that they may have replaced during the 19^th century.

A few examples of 17^th century milestones survive, notably the Oxford Mileway stones that mark limits of the highways to be maintained by local parish contributions. However, the turnpike trusts originally erected most of the milestones in the Thames Valley, during the 18th and 19th centuries. The Minutes of the Colnbrook Trust in 1741 provide the earliest record that I have found of milestones being erected. The surveyor was instructed to seek tenders for milestones, "similar to those recently erected on the adjoining Turnpike to Cranford Bridge". He placed the job with Mr Thomas Windsor, a stonemason of Windsor, who put in the lowest bid of 16 guineas for seven stones (£2-8s each). Amazingly, a few of these original stones still survive on the Bath Road and the Exeter Road around Hounslow, though the original simple square pillars were re-used and re-carved into more elegant shapes by the Trusts in the early 19^th century. By the late 18^th century most turnpike Acts required the trust to erect stones at each mile indicating the distance between towns along the road. Around 1822 trusts were also required to mark where the turnpike crossed a Parish Boundary.

These stones were regularly repainted and, when necessary, replaced by the trusts. There is no ready supply of carvable stone in the Thames Valley so good quality blocks are a luxury product. There are several examples where new faces have been carved onto older stones. The newer inscription is in more modern format; for instance distances are “To London” rather than the more archaic “from Hyde Park Corner”. In the early 19^th century the cost of an iron casting was presumably less than the cost of re-carving stones and in some cases metal plates were bolted onto badly worn stones. The inquisitive can sometimes still see the remains of these earlier carvings where a plate has been lost. Other stones were completely replaced by cast iron posts, often a V-shaped casting to aid the display of information when approached from both up and down the road. When Local Highways Boards, and later County Councils, took over responsibility for the roads in the late 19^th century, this form of wayside marker was generally used. In the Thames Valley, metal mileposts are found most frequently in the sub-urban areas close to the larger conurbations such as London and Reading.

Road transport went into decline as the railways dominated long-distance travel in the UK through the 19^th century. Like the roads, the roadside furniture also deteriorated although the rise in popularity of cycling provided fresh champions for the preservation of the stones. Nevertheless by the early 20^th century there were gaps in the network of stones. However, the largest threat to the milestones was in 1941 when local authorities were obliged to deny information to potential invaders by removing or defacing all waymarkers. Some counties such as Berkshire appear to have removed stones or buried them close by. Others such as Oxfordshire chose to deface many stones. Later during the War when Councils reinstated wayside markers, the benefits of the Berkshire approach were starkly illustrated.

Today around half the original milestones survive across the Thames Valley. A substantial proportion of these are now Grade II Listed monuments (see more about these on the English Heritage Website at http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk/  ). However, this does not protect them from random accidents or sad neglect. Council grass and hedge cutters take an annual toll off the edges of many stones and traffic accidents have demolished prominent stones. Old stones have been hidden deep in encroaching hedges whereas others have been slowly eroded by salt enriched wash from passing traffic. The regular limewash that once protected stones from the corrosive effects of the weather is no longer undertaken by cash-strapped Highways Departments. In some instances it would be too dangerous to do any work on stones that once lay beside country lanes and are now brushed regularly by juggernauts.

Milestones Today

The Milestone Society aims to identify and record the surviving wayside markers and to aid those who want to conserve what remains or even reinstate damaged or lost milestones. To learn more about Milestones in the British Isles and the organisation that hopes to protect, preserve and promote these historic markers, contact the Milestone Society.

Alan Rosevear is the County Coordinator for the Milestone Society in Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. For information on Turnpike Roads in the Thames Valley, you may visit his Website at; http://members.aol.com/Rosevear1/titlepg.htm. Or contact Alan at rosevear1@aol.com with specific questions about milestones and turnpike roads.