Tondu : mileposts old and new

Last week, I found this wonderful contrast between mileposts old and new when I walked down the woodland trail from Parc Slip Nature to Tondu railway station.

Almost at the bottom of the trail, at the junction of the turn in to the Tondu Heritage Park, I found this once bright, now rather grubby modern post. It’s one of the markers for the National Cycle Network, route number four.

A thousand of these cast-iron markers were installed to celebrate the turn of the millennium and to mark the creation of the National Cycle Network. They come in four different types: the ‘Fossil tree’ design by John Mills, ‘The Cockerel’ by Iain McColl, ‘Tracks’ by David Dudgeon and the one pictured here, the ‘Rowe type’ by Andrew Rowe.

However, I doubt many cyclists use this route, particularly as the long boardwalk, further up the hill towards Parc Slip, has several broken boards and could potentially be rather dangerous for anyone cycling over it, as it also could for walkers who aren’t watching carefully where they’re going.

At the bottom of the path, where it meets the main road, and I turned right to walk around the roads to reach the railway station, I almost immediately found this much older milepost. Sadly, this is also looking rather neglected and obviously hasn’t had a clean or a lick of paint in many years.

You can see that this milepost gives the distance to the railway station as 3¼ miles but that’s certainly not the distance to the Tondu station – it must be less than a kilometre and that by a rather higgledy-piggledy route. I presume the post was installed prior to that particular station being built and I’m not sure which station the distance refers to.

I’ve written about these mileposts before, after finding several still surviving in the streets of Cardiff (you can see and read about those mileposts in this blog from November 2015). Let’s hope both these mileposts in Tondu get some of the care and attention they require and deserve before their condition deteriorates any further.

Bow Bells mileposts

Number 43 is in the centre of Uckfield

I think many people will have heard of the Bow Bells, the bells on the Church of St Mary-le-Bow in London’s Cheapside: you can’t call yourself a true Cockney unless you were born within earshot of those bells ringing. But I wonder how many people know that the Bow Bells also have a part of play in measuring road distances.

On the old main road south from London to Lewes, the distances were once measured from the church door of St Mary-le-Bow, and mileposts – decorated with bells and marking the miles from the London church – were placed alongside the route so travellers knew how far they had journeyed, or had still to journey, if they were travelling towards London.

The Public Sculptures of Sussex website reports that the mileposts lining much of this road – now the A22 and parts of the A26 – are thought to be the longest sequence of mileposts in England, though sadly many have been removed, lost and/or stolen.

Photo © Peter Jeffery
(cc-by-sa/2.0)
geograph.org.uk/p/4541557

The mileposts were commissioned around 1754 by the Union Point to Langney Bridge Turnpike Trust, which was responsible for the maintenance and smooth running of the coach road. The posts were mostly made of cast iron and show a varying number of bells hanging from a bow – perhaps originally they all had five but some have eroded over time – dwindling in size from the top of the milepost to the bottom. 

At the top of the post, above the mileage figure, most of the posts show a single black dot (as shown in my photographs, of numbers 43 and 53) but those in the area around Halland, the 44 to 54 mileposts, have a buckle (as shown in the photo at right, by Peter Jeffery, used under a Creative Commons licence, as credited).

The buckle represented the Pelham family who were local landowners involved in financially backing the turnpike’s extension southwards in the 1750s. The Public Sculptures website again:

In 1356 at the battle of Poitiers a local knight Sir John Pelham together with Sir Roger de la Warr captured Jean the King of France, [and] because of this Sir John was given the King’s belt buckle as a badge of honour. This badge can be seen on many churches and buildings in the area around Laughton showing the influence and power of the Pelham family.

The number 53 milepost in my photograph is actually a replica from a museum in Lewes and, as the sign alongside explained:

Bow Bells milestone, Lower Dicker, Sussex.

This is a cast iron replica of a milestone from a series on the turnpike from Uckfield to Langney Bridge prior to 1810 and marks the distance of 53 miles to London.

The original of this post should bear the Pelham Buckle, intended as a mark of respect for this family and found on all mileposts situated on their land. In this case the buckle has been replaced with the more usual dot.

So far I have only photographed two of these historic mileposts, though I’ve seen a few more whilst travelling along that road, and I’ve managed to track down the location of several others that I hope to photograph in the future.

I find these physical reminders of Britain's history incredibly fascinating and hope they continue to be preserved (and not stolen!) for future generations to appreciate.

Going the extra mile … post

Before the days of odometers, satnav, GPS and TomTom, travellers could only measure distances travelled by looking at the numbers marked on signposts along the way. (In fact, the less gadget-obsessed amongst us – like me! – still do.)

Here in Britain, the original mileposts were milestones – actual stones, laid by the Romans to mark every one thousandth double-step, which was their way of calculating distance. The Latin for thousand was mille, hence the word ‘milestone’. Though one thousand Roman double steps equated roughly to 1618 yards, the eventual British standard measurement for a mile was 1760 yards. Maybe the British had longer strides!

According to the Mile Stone Society, there are around 9000 waymarkers still surviving around Britain, though many thousands more have been lost to thieves, collisions with cars, destruction by hedge-cutters, or removal during the Second World War, when the intention was to confuse the Germans if they invaded. The notion of reaching a significant point along the road has, of course, led to our more modern idea of a milestone as an important event or stage in life, progress or development.

Since moving to Cardiff, I’ve been gratified to see that many of the old mileposts still exist and that most are listed structures, so protected from destruction, though some have been moved in the course of road widening and motorway building. Because of their status I’ve managed to locate several posts by searching the British Listed Buildings (BLB) website and have walked many a mile to photograph them. These are they … and more may follow in the future as I continue to roam the roads and trails of my newly adopted country.

1) Westgate and Castle St corner   

We start first near the centre of Cardiff, with one in a series of mileposts that mark points along the route of what is now the A48, a road that was once the principal route between the south-west of England and south Wales (the construction of the Severn Bridge in 1966 changed the course of that link somewhat).

Made of moulded cast iron in a rather ornate style, this milepost has survived remarkably well when you consider it is 180 years old and located near the centre of a busy city.

2) 240 Cowbridge Rd East  

One mile down the road we come to the second in this series along the western section of the A48. The style is the same as the previous milepost but, as you can see, in that short distance we have moved from Cardiff town to ‘Landaff Parish’ (now known by its Welsh spelling, Llandaff), and further away from London.

3) A48 near Gabalfa interchange  

Next we cross town, and the River Taff, to find a milepost that now sits adjacent to the Gabalfa interchange on a slip road that gives access to the eastern section of the A48, here called Eastern Avenue. According to the BLB website, this post is ‘shown on the Ordnance Survey [map] of 1880’ and ‘was located at the junction of two important routes out of Cardiff, Merthyr Road and Caerphilly Road.’

4) West boundary wall of Lidl supermarket car park,
Caerphilly Rd  

What a wonderful find these two stones were at the end of quite a long walk! Though differing in design from the previous mileposts, the newer one (on the left above) almost certainly dates from around the same time, the early 1830s, and was erected when improvements were made to the road that ran from Cardiff through Caerphilly to Merthyr.

The stone – literally, a stone – (shown in close up here to the left) probably dates from the late 1700s and, though I couldn’t read the inscription, it appears to mark the same route as its more modern neighbour. 

The BLB website notes that both stones have been re-sited, as they appeared in a more northerly position on an 1898 OS map.

How marvellous that both have survived.

5) 273 Cowbridge Rd East  

We return now to Cowbridge Road East, in Canton, as this milepost (in the photograph at right) is located between numbers one and two above. (Don’t be mislead by the street number; they are simply more numerous on this side of the road.) 

This milepost is not one of the A48 series, however. It has been moved from its original position and is one of a series that mark the Cardiff-Llantrisant turnpike. Though it is undated, it was probably erected in the early to mid nineteenth century.

6) Cardiff Rd, Llandaff

The milepost shown below is the second in the Cardiff-Llantrisant series and is located near the entrance to Llandaff village, the historic ‘city within a city’ as the locals say. The BLB website provides some interesting additional information for this entry:

The turnpike toll-house stood at the junction of the Llantrisant Road with Bridge Road in Llandaff, about 500m north. The toll-house was demolished in the late C19. The milepost was sited in its present position when Cardiff Road was widened at the junction with Western Avenue in 1976.

7) Albany Road, Roath

This last milepost was a bonus find when I was out walking one day, as it isn’t included on the BLB website. Yet, just like several of those above, it is a cast-iron milepost with a flat back, canted faces and top, so probably also dates from the 1830s. It has suffered a little damage over the years, with either a four or a two missing from the mileage shown on the top.

As you can see, the sizes and shapes of these old mileposts vary quite considerably but their functions are the same. And I’m sure that in the days of hot dusty journeys in bum-numbing horse-drawn coaches along bumpy pot-holed roads, both the coachmen and their passengers would have been very glad indeed to see that final post that read ‘Cardiff 1'!

It’s a sign: England, part one

Signs are another of my enthusiasms. Obviously, they can be useful and informative – they point the way, they warn of hazards, they welcome you to town, they try to sell you things. There are whole vocabularies of signs we learn to recognise from quite a young age (road signs, for example) and those that are essential for our well-being (safety signs in the workplace). These signs are usually regulated and painted in specific recognisable colours but other types of signage are multi-coloured and jazzy and just plain fun.

I’ve blogged before about signs that have caught my eye and my imagination, in Peru, in Cambodia and in New Zealand. Here are some I’ve noticed during recent months living in England.

Hale Village sign

There are many pretty village signs here in England and the one marking the entrance to the lovely little village of Hale, in Merseyside, is a perfect example. It’s attractive and colourful and, though not physically accurate – the tower of St Mary’s Church doesn’t actually loom over the small cottages next to where local giant John Middleton lived, the sign advertises the town’s attractions in a much more subtle way than a huge neon sign. I’d definitely recommend a visit to this delightful town – you can read more about things to see here. 

Within Way, Hale

Let’s stay in Hale for a moment longer as that is where I photographed this intriguing street sign. According to one of the village’s websites (for some reason they have two) this road leads down to the old ford crossing of the River Mersey and was the route used by the army of Prince Rupert during its Civil War operations.

And, according to Ernest Broxap’s 2005 publication The Great Civil War In Lancashire, 1642-1651, ‘The ford at Hale was for a long time the principal pass over the Mersey between Liverpool and Warrington. It ceased to be generally used about 150 years ago; but almost within living memory horses were taken over by this way for hunting in Cheshire.’

The ford is no longer usable, of course, and it seems the name ‘Within’ may actually have its root in the word withy (or withe), the name for a strong flexible willow stem used to make things like baskets and fences.

Milepost on Trent and Mersey Canal

We move on to a different waterway now, leaving behind the River Mersey and heading to a section of the Trent and Mersey Canal near Northwich. The canal weaves its way through the English countryside for 93 miles, running from Preston Brook in Cheshire to Shardlow in South Derbyshire, and all along its length you can find mile posts like these, designed to inform passing river traffic of the distances to the canal’s start and end points.

The original cast-iron posts were made in the early 19th century to a standard design, with a circular post and embossed inscriptions on the faces of the moulded head, all painted in distinctive black and white. The post maker’s name and the date are shown on a quatrefoil on the front of the post – and here we have a little mystery. The milepost shown at left above (located near Marston, inscribed ‘Shardlow 84 miles, Preston Brook 8 miles’) appears as Grade II listed on the English Heritage register of protected structures, where it is described as showing ‘R&D Stone 1814’ for the maker’s details. In fact, as you can see in my photo, the details are ‘T&MCS 1977’, which seems to indicate that this is not the original milepost and that it was replaced by the Trent and Mersey Canal Society in 1977. The photo at right shows one of the originals, made in 1819, which sits two miles further along the canal, near Barnston. (I have emailed English Heritage to advise them of the change.)

200 sign on River Weaver at Dutton Locks

Staying with the theme of signs alongside waterways for a moment, here’s an intriguing sign I spotted recently while walking part of the Weaver Way, a trail than runs, as the name implies, alongside the River Weaver and the Weaver Navigation (the manmade parts of that waterway).

I was walking the section from Acton Bridge to Dutton Locks (for photos of that walk, see here) and found this sign beside the towpath just past Dutton Locks. Luckily, Colin Edmondson, the historian for the River Weaver Navigation Society, was able to provide me with some information about it. As I suspected, the concrete post marks ‘200 yards to a lock or swing bridge. Once a boat had passed the post, it was assured of its correct place in the queue. The first mention of them came in the rule book for 1853’:

A post placed at a distance of 200 yards above and below each lock. Vessel first coming within such distance shall have priority over any other vessel passing in the same direction. No vessel to moor within 200 yards of any lock, bridge or weir unless loading or unloading.

Colin believes the signs we see today are more recent replacements for the original posts, and probably date from the 1920s or 1930s. My sincere thanks to Colin for providing these fascinating details.

Cows and 40

“You have how many cows?” I know, I know. The number has nothing to do with the cow sign – it’s indicating the maximum speed limit for the following section of road – but the placement of the two signs together just tickled my fancy.

The cow sign is a fairly common sight in Cheshire where dairy-farming is now the dominant industry. As reported by DairyCo on their website, in 2010/11 22% of the UK’s milk production came from the Midlands, and Cheshire was the 4th highest milk-producing county, recording 742,479 litres. And I’m sure everyone’s heard of Cheshire Cheese, which may well be the oldest recorded named cheese in British history – it was reported in Thomas Muffet’s Health’s Imrpovement that dates from around 1580. 

House-name signs

In my Antipodean ignorance, I have always assumed that house names were somewhat pretentious, an affectation, particularly when attached to less valuable properties (‘Oaktree Manor’ attached to a cosy cottage, for example), or a frivolity (‘Dunroamin’ for the home of a settled retiree). In New Zealand that may well be the case but not here in the UK.

Though the Britain follows the standard, common in most English-speaking countries, of numbering houses in a street to facilitate postal and other deliveries (e.g. ’25 Frog Lane’), it is also quite common for properties to be identified solely by their name, especially in smaller towns (thus ‘Waterview Cottage, Frog Lane’). And this system also prevails in locations where there has been infill house construction subsequent to the numbering of the original houses in a street – it seems that it’s easier than renumbering the whole street or using the rather cumbersome method of adding a, b or c to a house number.

It seems an eminently sensible solution to me and, when you can buy such pretty house-name signs as these two examples, who wouldn’t rather have a name than a number?