2012

Apart from Stott Hall Farm, nothing stood in the way of the builders of the M62 trans-Pennine motorway as it made its way over the moors and peat-bogs of Rishworth and Scammonden in 1969 – certainly not the old milestone at Outlane informing drivers (and originally cab-passengers) that they were 3½ miles from Huddersfield.

Ray Wilson, a former Huddersfield Town footballer and a member of England’s World Cup-winning team of 1966, could see it from his father’s funeral parlour which overlooked the construction site.  On learning it was about to disappear along with everything else into one of the huge crushing machines on the site, he asked if he could have it, and was told to move it before the machines arrived.

Accordingly, after much strenuous effort (for the stone had as much under-ground as was visible above), it was re-erected in Ray’s garden at Barkisland.  It lived there for 32 years.

When Ray left Barkisland in 2006, he and his wife wanted the stone repositioned in Outlane, and finally, in 2012, following the intervention of the Milestone Society, and as part of Kirklees Council’s milestone refurbishment project, it returned home.

Just a few hundred yards from its original site on the westbound sliproad of Junction 23, it can now be found on the original section of New Hey Road, now a cul-de-sac just on the Huddersfield side of the roundabout.  Painted white, unlike all the other “to and froms”, but already weathered, it was the furthest from the town centre, and the only 3½ mile stone in existence.  They were erected by Huddersfield Corporation in the 1880s or 90s for the purpose of calculating cab fares, which, it is thought, were priced per half-mile.

Source: Milestones & Waymarkers, 2012, vol 5, p 20; Huddersfield Examiner, 29 Nov 2006.  RWH / November 2012

In 2006 funding was obtained by Kirklees MBC (covering Huddersfield and district) to restore and conserve the many milestones – there are over 100, not counting an even greater number of boundary stones – in the District. 

A number of Brayshaw and Booth stones on the Wakefield to Denby Dale road (A636) were duly refurbished and then all went quiet.  Persistent enquiries revealed a catalogue of unfortunate events: those involved had retired, been transferred, or made redundant; the depot had been closed; the foundry in Cheshire where the plates had been sent for refurbishment had gone into liquidation.

A happy ending has, however, finally been achieved, and in 2012 a number of stones have re-appeared.  These include stones at Lepton (A642), Grange Moor and Flockton (A637), Holmfirth, and the only 3 1/2 mile Huddersfield “to and from”.  (See separate article for the saga of this stone.) 

Another development has been a “Diamond Jubilee” refurbishment of a Brayshaw & Booth stone at Mirfield.  This has been painted blue, in accordance with the colour stipulated in the original contract in 1893 (see Brayshaw & Booth article), but with gold rather than white lettering.  It looks very fetching, but one can understand why the colour was changed to white, as it is far harder to read.

The Milestone Society is grateful to Kirklees for its continuing commitment to this project.

Source: Milestones &Waymarkers, 2012, vol 5, p 48.  RWH / November 2012

In the 16th century a stone was found in Booth Bank Clough, between Slaithwaite and Marsden, one of the little streams that drops down into the River Colne.  It was set up, in 1587, in the grounds of Slaithwaite Manor House, and became known as the Dial or Dyall Stone.  Despite having been taken, for some unknown reason, to the Isle of Man in the 19th century, and later re-sited outside Slaithwaite Town Hall on Lewisham Road, it can still be seen at the Manor House, off Nabbs Lane in the centre of Slaithwaite.

It is cylindrical, about five feet in height, 19” in diameter and with a circumference of five feet.  There are no signs of any inscription on it.

For a long time it has been thought to be a Roman milestone, and recent excavations by the Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society have shown that it almost certainly is one.  A route connecting the fort at Castleshaw in Saddleworth via Marsden to the fort at Slack, near Outlane on the outskirts of Huddersfield, has long been reported to exist (eg by mapmaker John Warburton in 1720), but its exact line had always been in doubt.  Excavations by the Society over nearly 40 years have now enabled this route to be ascertained much more clearly, and a milestone could well have been erected near the spot where the Dial Stone was found.  The absence of an inscription is not unusual: letters, etc could have been painted on it.

Although the Dial Stone had a sundial positioned on it at one point in its eventful history, it is probable that Dial is an alternative form of the word Devil, from some mediaeval superstition relating monoliths such as this to the Devil.  Roman milestones have elsewhere been referred to as “devil stones”, and one of the milestones now at Aldborough was found at a place still known as Duel Cross – Duel being one of several variant forms of the same concept.  The Devil was thought to be responsible for all sorts of geological formations or prehistoric features (causeways, dykes, ditches, etc).

It has been suggested that a stone that can be seen in a garden in nearby Golcar is also a milestone from the same road.  It is very similar in size and shape.  This is on Church Street near its junction with Manor Road.

Sources: Norman Lunn and others: The Romans came this way (HDAS, 2008); www.roman-britain.org

RWH / rev October 2021

William Mattison of Richmond started a foundry in 1851 on railway company land at Leeming Bar (on the Great North Road in Bedale Parish).  They made almost anything that could be cast in iron, from mill machinery to oven doors. And mileposts.  They made at least three designs of post, of which about 100 survive in North Yorkshire.

The earliest were the triangular posts produced for some local Highways Boards, including Askrigg, Richmond, Hang East  and Langbaurgh West (the last two taking their names from the wapentakes).  (Highway Districts had been set up to maintain major roads in groups of parishes in rural areas.  They became increasingly common after 1862, and also took over any turnpike trusts which became insolvent.)

These have raised pointing hands at the top of each face, though on many posts the hands pointed the wrong way – possibly through mis-information, the founders being confused working with a mirror image mould, or the milepost being erected on the wrong side of the road.  Consequently, new hands were made and fixed over the offending ones; or sometimes the hands were repainted pointing in the opposite direction.  Examples of both can still be seen.  The words F Mattison & Co / Bedale appear inside.

With the establishment of County Councils in 1888 the functions of the Highway Boards were taken over, and there are two designs of posts made for the North Riding County Council.   The more elaborate of these has a round top with a Yorkshire rose surrounded by the words North Riding of Yorkshire; below this, on the bevel, is the name of the RDC (rather than the parish) or UDC.  The direction is indicated by elegant flighted arrows.  The word MILES appears if only one place is named; if more than one, MILES is omitted.  These have the same maker’s name as the Highway District type.

The other, probably later, NRYCC type is much simpler (and cheaper).  Similar to the HD type, but wider (22” compared with 14”), it simply has NRYCC on the bevel, and no hands or arrows.  It has Yorks added to the maker’s name.

By 1913, perhaps when the County Council had completed their mileposts programme, the company was advertising cast iron boundary posts, and claiming to have made “many hundreds“ of boundary posts.

They were taken over in 1937 by John H Gill & Sons Ltd, agricultural engineers, still trading at Leeming Bar.

Main source: Article by Christine Minto in the Milestone Society Newsletter, no 22, Jan 2012, pp34-5.  RWH / February 2012.