Milestones and other street furniture

[oldscrote]

I've had a fascination with milestones for years.These forgotten bits of our heritage lie derelict and rusting in the hedgerows of the country.Most are plain but some are ornate and must have cost the turnpike trusts of the time a lot of money.Many have been lost to the ravages of time. souvenir hunters. the second world war, and scrappies but a lot still survive Heres a small sample of the more ornate ones

1 a simple cheapie to start with



2


3 there are 5 of these placed on most of the approach roads to Bath


4


5 mileage plus furlongs


6 again including furlongs


7 a very old one this, shows signs of attempted removal plus an ordnance survey mark.It lies at the bottom of the wonderfully named labour in vain hill outside Calne on the A4



8


9


10


11


12


13 my personal favourite

A couple of bits of street furniture the first is a sign erected by the Somerset automobile club to warn drivers of the steep hills to be faced in the village of Freshford



there's a whole line of these running along the A4 from Keynsham to Corsham I've counted around 25, they are obviously survey markers but why only on that stretch of road



OK they are not all unloved and forgotten, there are people out there who do maintain some of them,long may they do so.

 

[night crawler]

You and me both mate. I love the huge ones along the A4 bath road and the London road near me. I also got involved with finding benchmarks like the one in pic7, you find a lot of them on milestones.

 

[Goldie87]

Nice, I like this kind of thing. The last one is actually a 1900's GPO marker.

 

[bodrick]

Thanks for this post, i have allways liked the mile post.
Thanks
ATB
ALAN.

 

[RichCooper]

I'll be lookingout for em now sure Ive seen some on our hikes up the coast

 

[oldscrote]

I'll be lookingout for em now sure Ive seen some on our hikes up the coast

Milestones and pillboxes combined makes it very hard to keep your eyes on the road.....

 

[night crawler]

There are a few of mine on here http://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=30408719

 

[oldscrote]

There's some gooduns there NC we were lucky down this way that a lot of them have cast plates rather than than being engraved into the stone so the WW2 confuse the enemy tactics merely involved removing the plate.Unfortunately a lot were never replaced,tho saying that all the ones along the London Bath A4 road mostly seem to have survived without being chiselled out [picture 9]

 

[night crawler]

From what I read they removed them then replaced them after the war. Certanly the ones I have seen along the A329 bare that out, some are perfect others have had the town and milage chisled away.

 

[flyboys90]

What a great thread,I,ll keep my eyes open!.