29th January 2019 - Yorkshire Milestones

Industrial boundary markers

With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, individual canals and railways were established by acts of Parliament. The companies formed were keen to mark the boundaries of the land they owned, leading to the erection of many boundary stones. The following are a few of those whose stones can still be found.

Canals

Leeds-Liverpool Canal: a stone remains at Oddy Lock, Armley, marked ‘L & L Co’.

Rochdale Canal: stones marked ‘R C Co’ can be found at Todmorden, Luddenden Foot and Mytholmroyd. The stne pictured here is at Todmorden

Railways

Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway: a stone marked ‘L Y R’ stands beside a Calder & Hebble Navigation milestone at Kirklees Lock, facing onto the canal, with three other markers; other examples can be found at Luddenden Foot and Anchor Pit.

London and North West Railway: around 12 stones on the hillside in the vicinity of Pule Hill, Marsden, marked ‘L N W R’ indicate the boundary around ventilation shafts servicing the three-mile long tunnel under the Pennines. And at Beldon Brook near Lepton a handful of ‘L & N W Ry’ stones mark the company boundary around the foot of an impressive disused viaduct.

Waterworks

The late 19^th century was a time of increasing municipal enterprise, including providing a growing population with clean drinking water. These works also needed boundary markers.

Ashton: numbered stones marked ‘ASDWW’ (for Ashton, Stalybridge and Dukinfield Water Works, set up in 1870) can be found around Chew and Dovestones Reservoirs above Greenfield in Saddleworth. These may be estate boundary markers, but according to www.doveheritage.com they mark the lines of underground water pipes.

Bradford: around 20 stones marked ‘B W B’ can be found around the two Lanshaw Dams on Burley Moor near Ilkley.

Manchester: some ‘M C W W’ stones on Langsett Moor by Salter’s Brook – the catchment grounds for the reservoirs in Longdendale. (Pictured right)

Oldham: ‘O C W W’ stones can be found at, among others, Blackstone Edge, Castleshaw, and the delightfully-named Broadhead Noddle in Saddleworth.

Source: an article by David Garside in the Milestone Society Newsletter, no 27, July 2014, pp 26-27.

RWH / Jan 2019

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Refurbished milestones in the Holme Valley

Milestones around the Holme Valley have been having a clean-up. New Mill resident Rowan Denton was stuck in road works one day and noticed a very decrepit milestone out of his window. Someone ought to do something about that, he thought – and then, the lightbulb moment, why shouldn’t he be that someone?

A sculptor, joiner and mould-maker, and former film prop designer, Rowan, now with some funding from the Milestone Society, set about work in the blissfully hot summer of 2018, and his handiwork can be seen on all the roads leading into Holmfirth, and elsewhere. The Brayshaw & Booth stones erected by the West Riding County Council in the mid-1890s, have had their lettering beautifully restored, and Rowan has also painted some of the earlier turnpike stones on the Woodhead Road. These may date from 1768, or 1831 when part of the route of the road was revised – detail above.

Not content with milestones, Rowan has also restored some boundary stones (in This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is HV-Rowan-HCWW-det-812x1024.jpg which the Holme Valley abounds), road name signs, and some plates from former water undertakings (Batley Corporation, Huddersfield Corporation and New Mill Urban District Council). The lamb that tops Huddersfield’s coat-of-arms looks especially attractive now – pictured right.