The most common type of milestone is what we call the “tombstone” type, a thick stone pillar well embedded in the ground with mileages carved or painted, or with a cast-iron plate screwed onto it.
Occasionally, however, a different type is found, the horse mounting-block, or horsing-stone. They combine the directions and mileages of the traditional milestone in a (usually) three-stepped stone to enable travellers to get on or off a horse easily.
Quite why anyone should need to do this at a milestone is not clear. It does, however, indicate that many travellers were on horse-back.
Mounting-block milestones survive in all three Yorkshire Ridings.
The only road entirely in the North Riding to have them was the York-Oswaldkirk turnpike. In 1772 the trustees ordered that milestones be erected “in the form as follows: wood mile post 4½ feet in length; every third mile a horsing stone”. Four of these are still in position. Others can be seen on roads leading into the east Riding.
In the West Riding there are half-a-dozen on the road between Bradford and Harrogate. These have (or in most cases had) a cast-iron plate giving destinations and distances. One, at Pool, retains its plate – illustrated here.
Another six survive on the original turnpike between Leeds and Otley, dating from the middle of the 18th century. This road is now an unclassified road leading more directly and steeply from Otley and was replaced by the present A660 in 1842. With destinations carved on the front and side, most are now badly weathered.
It is in the East Riding, however, that most can be found: in fact over 50 of the 108 milestones recorded by the Milestone Society are of the mounting-block type – a feature unique in its frequency in the country.
The roads with mounting-block milestones include Beverley-Hornsea, Hull-Beverley, Hull-Hedon, Hull-South Cave, York-Beverley and York-Driffield. Many have deteriorated from weathering, or suffered damage from grass-cutting, or traffic accidents, and many have lost their plates, but the County Council and Milestone Society members have been actively renovating them as time and resources permit.
Click here for more information on the East Riding milestones.
Outside Yorkshire there is an interesting series of “horsing-stones” on the old Great North Road in Lincolnshire. The 4th edition of Paterson’s Roads of 1788 notes: ‘From Stilton to Grantham, at every Mile are Blocks, made of the famous Ketton Stone, with three Steps, which were placed there by a Mr. Boulter, for the easy mounting of his Horse, he being a very corpulent Man, and travelled that road every Week for many Years; each Stone engraved E.B. 1708.’ Milestone Society members have been researching these “Boulter stones” and their latest findings can be found on the Milestone Society website.
RWH / revised Jan 2022