The River Tees was the traditional boundary between the North Riding of Yorkshire and County Durham. Local government boundaries in the 20th century have changed this, however.
Spoiler alert: if you’re not very interested in local government history, please skip the next couple of paragraphs.
Firstly the County Borough of Teesside was created in 1968, combining Middlesbrough with Stockton-on-Tees, etc. This was expanded to create the new county of Cleveland in 1974, which was then abolished in 1996 when four unitary authorities were established. So Middlesbrough is still for ceremonial purposes in North Yorkshire, though from 2016 part of the Tees Valley Combined Authority, which now includes Darlington, and with a mayor.
And secondly, further west, the parts of the North Riding that formed the Startforth Rural District were transferred to the new Teesdale District in County Durham in 1974. This was abolished in 2009 when County Durham became a single unitary authority. The Startforth Rural District villages are now lost to Yorkshire, even for ceremonial purposes, but we in the Yorkshire Milestone Society claim them anyway.
The Teesdale Way is a long-distance footpath, starting (or ending, depending on where you start) at Redcar. It follows the south bank of the Tees, crossing to the north bank just after Middlesbrough, and then following the river quite closely as far as Whorlton near Barnard Castle. It then continues, sometimes south, sometimes north, and sometimes on both sides of the river until it reaches Middleton-in-Teesdale, where it joins the Pennine Way.
Between Middleton-in-Teesdale and Gainford (just west of the Great North Road) you will find a series of parish boundary markers – short rust-coloured cast-iron columns resembling chimney-pots or milk churns. These are in pairs, with the name of each parish carved vertically down the middle. The following townships or parishes are marked, Y denoting those in Yorkshire: Middleton, Eggleston, Romaldkirk (Y), Hunderthwaite (Y), Cotherstone (Y), Lartingon (Y), Barnard Castle, Startforth (Y), Marwood, Egglestone Abbey (Y), Rokeby (Y), Wycliffe (Y), Westwick, Whorlton, Winston and Gainford.
The boundary markers were created in 1996 by artist and sculptor Richard Wentworth (born 1947). It was an artwork commissioned by Teesdale District Council and part lottery-funded. A book about the project, entitled ‘Marking parish boundaries along the Teesdale Way’ by A J Lewery, was published by the Council in 1997.
Illustrated here are the Startforth and Egglestone Abbey markers. These are on each side of a bridge over the little Thorsgill Beck. This was originally crossed by an old packhorse bridge, the listed 17th century Bow Bridge, which runs alongside the present one (pictured below).
RWH / December 2021
Bow Bridge, or Thorsgill Beck Packhorse Bridge, with the ruins of Egglestone Abbey
Disputes over boundaries range from the international down to the local – from the arguments that racked Latin America following independence in the 19th century to innumerable arguments locally between townships over unwarranted incursions, either by animals or people.
At least 300,000 Paraguayans lost their lives in the so-called Paraguayan War (or War of the Triple Alliance) in the 1860s, and Paraguay lost a lot of territory. The break-up of the West Riding in 1974 was perhaps less hotly opposed, and did not lead to bloodshed, but was just the most recent of several centuries of disputes.
Here are a few of them.
In 1614 the free-holders of the Manor of Oakworth, near Keighley, bought an area of land on Oakworth Moor, off the road to Wycoller and Colne. The Manor of Colne, however, claimed some of this land was theirs. Despite the Oakworthies claiming, logically enough, that the border – a county boundary – was the watershed, the commission set up to investigate concluded that they were wrong. And since the Manor of Colne was part of the Duchy of Lancaster, and the Duke of Lancaster was the king, the commissioners obviously knew which side their bread was buttered on. One piece of evidence, however, was the so-called Hanging Stone or Water Sheddles Cross. Marked as an antiquity by the Ordnance Survey, while Historic England think it probably 19th century and therefore a replacement, this stands on what is still the Lancashire-Yorkshire boundary. The boundary line is today marked by boundary stones, though many of these say “K C 1902” – presumably denoting Keighley Corporation’s ownership of the land by their nearby Watersheddles Reservoir. 1
LB: Lingards boundary
Lingards was a very small township in the Colne Valley hemmed in by, clockwise from the east, Linthwaite, Meltham and Marsden. It was later absorbed into Slaithwaite on the north side of the river. Arguments about the boundary between it and Meltham flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries. Again it featured moorland, probably as featureless then as it is now, but Lingards had very little while Meltham’s was “spacious”; and again a watershed was claimed as the logical boundary. A plan of 1627 attempted to resolve the dispute though evidence suggests it rumbled on until at least 1641. A row of boundary stones had been erected, and the boundary today is marked by nearly a dozen stones, incised LB on one side and MB on the other. One is pictured here. Although these probably date from the 19th century, they are perhaps a reflection of the earlier dispute. 2
Fixby and Rastrick, 1711
To the north of Huddersfield, on Bradley Road the A6107, and now surrounded by a brick wall, is a stone which reads HERE PARTS FIXBE AND RASTRICKE 1711 — pictured left. Another stone once stood on the same road, not far away, which read HERE PARTS BRADLEY AND FIXBY. These were occasioned not by a dispute over bleak moorland, but over road-mending – another major source of disagreements. In this case the problem was exacerbated by different judgments by separate authorities: the Manor of Wakefield ordered repairs by one township, and the County Sessions by the other. In 1641 a judgment by the County (which had taken over the Manor’s responsibilities) ordered the townships each to repair the disputed stretch of road in alternate years, but it is not clear why it was another 70 years before one of the boundary markers was erected. Another stone, now in the Tolson Museum and dated 1761, marked the boundary between Bradley and Firtown (Fartown) – two hamlets in the township of Huddersfield. This may also be a result of boundary disputes. 3
Langfield’s: keep off!
The townships in the Upper Calder Valley generally have water-courses as their boundaries, reaching up to the watersheds with the surrounding valleys and on the west with Lancashire. Langfield is one of the exceptions, sharing a long moorland boundary with Sowerby township. It is a peculiar shape, having what one might term a panhandle to the south. Its boundaries have been disputed for centuries: there are references to problems as far back as the 14th century, and there was litigation in the early 17th century. Finally, in the 19th century, the boundaries were fixed by the Ordnance Survey while preparing the first edition 6-inch maps published in the 1850s, though their work was also challenged. A few boundary stones can be found on the moor, including one, pictured here, on which are chiselled the words “This common doth belong to L…”. The rest of the word Langfield has been erased, perhaps by someone who thought it didn’t. 4
References
J J Brigg: A disputed county boundary in The Bradford Antiquary, August 1933, new series part 26, pp 1-16.
George Redmonds: The Lingards and Meltham dispute in his Slaithwaite places and place-names (Lepton: G R Books, 1988), pp 42-47.
W B Crump: Huddersfield highways down the ages (Huddersfield: Tolson Memorial Museum, 1949), pp 119-122.
Nigel Smith: Township boundaries and commons disputes in the South Pennines: Langfield and the case of the Mandike in History in the South Pennines: the legacy of Alan Petford (Hebden Bridge: Hebden Bridge Local History Society, 2017), pp 1-32.
Stanbury is a township in Haworth Chapelry in the Parish of Keighley. To the west is Lancashire, and its Yorkshire boundaries are with Oakworth on the north, Haworth to the south, and the Halifax township of Wadsworth to the south-west.
A boundary perambulation was carried out on 12th August 1805, and its report, in the archives of the Manor of Bradford, was transcribed in the Bradford Antiquary as follows (with minor amendments)
Manor of Bradford: The Court Baron of Benjamin Rawson, Esq, Lord of the Manor or Lordship of Bradford and the Court for perambulating the boundaries of the township of Stanbury (parcel of the said manor) held at the house of Mathew Wilkinson, the Cross Inn in Stanbury on Monday the 12th day of August in the 45th year of the reign of His Majesty King George III and in the year of our Lord 1805. Before me, Jo. Bentley, Steward.
Names of the Jurors for the Lord of the said Manor: John 5turges Esq, Mr Geenwood Bentley, Mr Joseph Hollings, Mr Thomas Fearnley, Mr John Key, Mr Mathew Watkinson, Mr William Sharp, Mr Jonas Tasker, Mr John Priestley, Mr Jonathan Walton, Mr James Broadbent, Mr Robert Ray
We the above named Jurors at this Court being impannelled and sworn upon the Homage touching the said Court Baron did, on Monday the 12th day of August instant, proceed to perambulate the boundaries of the said Township of Stanbury, and beginning at a Bridge called Smith Bank Bridge we did find the Boundaries as follows, viz.
A stone marked H; photo by David Garside
From the said Bridge we proceeded up the North side of the Beck called the Sun Beck otherwise Chart Beck to a place called Withens, and from thence we proceeded southwards, along the said Beck, and from the Head of the same Beck southwardly, across certain Inclosed Lands of Joseph Midgley and John Crabtree to certain Stones upon the Moors called the NooningStones, and from thence we proceeded southwardly in a direct Iine across the said Moors to a certain stone called Walshaw Dean Head, and marked with the Ietter H; and from the said Stone we proceeded westwardly in a triangular direction along the north side of an old Ditch to a certain place called Backstone Clough Head and from thence to certain Stones called Awcomb Dean Stones; and from Awcomb Dean Stones we proceeded to a placecalled Robins Ditch; and from Robins Ditch to a place called White Hossocks, and from White Hossocks to Crow Hill Spring and from Crow Hill Spring we went in a northward direction to a certain Stone called “the Lad or Scarr on the Hill”, and from thence we proceeded in a direct Line, northward, to a certain Beck on the south side of the Highway leading from Stanbury aforesaid toColne, called the North Beck, and then we proceeded along the south side of the said Beck, until we came to a certain Beck called the South Beck, which runs from the said Bridge called Smith Bank Bridge into the said North Beck, and then we proceeded up the north side of the said Beck called South Beck, until we came to Smith Bank Bridge aforesaid, the place at which we began.
The boundary of the township can be seen in its entirety on the Vision of Britain website, and followed in more detail on the first edition Ordnance Survey maps of the 1850s (West Riding nos 199 and 200). Several names recorded above are not found on the OS maps, and some have changed, either in minor matters of spelling or altogether, as follows:
Smith Bank Bridge: same
Sun Beck / Chart Beck: OS calls it Sladen Beck and higher up South Dean Beck
Withens: the OS shows three places just called Withins; the one highest up the hillside, marked as Ruins on current maps, is Top Withens, allegedly of Wuthering Heights fame.
Nooning Stones: OS: Noonen Stones
Walshaw Dean Head: some confusion here. Walshaw Dean is a stream that flows into Hebden Water and thence the Calder, with three reservoirs; Walshaw Dean Head is a couple of miles further north, on the boundary with Lancashire. But obviously Walshaw Dean Head is what Stanbury folk called the point at the southern end of the township where the township met Haworth township. The stone marked with an H was one of a number erected by Haworth township on their boundary. Several of these survive, and one is illustrated above.
Backstone Clough Head: not on OS, but possibly what it calls Blue Scar Clough
Awcomb Dean Stones: OS: Alcomden Stones
Robins Ditch: same
White Hossocks: not shown
Crow Hill Spring: same
The Lad Stone; photo by David Garside
“The Lad or Scarr on the Hill”: not named on OS, but this stone still stands at the point where the boundary turns northward. It is incised with the words LAD OR SCARR ON CROW HILL. A story is told (with variations) about a boy (or a man) who lost his way in bad weather and died of exposure on Crow Hill, his remains being subsequently buried on the spot. Haworth and Trawden both disclaimed liability, but in the event Trawden undertook the interment and then claimed an adjustment in its boundary to take in the land as far as the stone. Although there is a ‘kink’ in the boundary, this appears to be another apocryphal tale of tragic death and burial in a remote place. The word ‘lad’ is common in the Lake Diststrict for a pile or stack, and lad stones are a pile of stones on a mountain top. It is also occasionally used for a standing stone.
The Highway leading ,,, to Colne: The Two Laws and Keighley Branch of the Toller Lane Haworth and Blue Bell Turnpike Trust. Two Laws was a house, bridge and turnpike bar just east of the county boundary. The Blue Bell was an inn over the border in Lancashire.
North Beck: this is actually the River Worth, but presumably called North Beck because it is north of Stanbury.
South Beck: the same beck as they started from, called Sladen Beck by the OS, but now with a different name from the two given earlier.
Sources: Transcription by W E Preston in the Bradford Antiquary, October 1927, n s part xxii, pp 71-72; John Thornhill: On the Bradford District’s Western Boundary (Bradford Antiquary, 1989, 3rd series vol 4, pp 11-17).
Roman milestones were generally stone pillars with Latin inscriptions erected when a road was first constructed or when it was repaired. The inscriptions usually give the distance to the next, named, town, as well as the name of the reigning emperor and the particular year of his reign in which the milestone was placed, which allows them to be accurately dated. Over 100 inscribed Roman milestones have been recorded in Britain, according to the Roman Inscriptions of Britain website.
With the exception of one (or perhaps two), all the nine surviving Roman milestones in Yorkshire are in museums, and can be seen as follows.
Aldborough. There are three milestones from Dere Street, the road north to Catterick, in the museum at the Aldborough Roman site, now in the care of English Heritage. One, dating from the 3rd century AD, was found in 1776 at Duel Cross, about 2 miles from Aldborough. It was re-used AD 249–51 and given a later inscription: IMP CAES G MESSIVS Q DECI TRA PO FELICI AVG (To the Emperor, Caesar Caius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius, the good, happy and great from…). It is not known why it was re-used, or whether it retained its use as a milestone or was used as a dedication stone. The last line XX C (20 miles from C) was probably from the original inscription. (Milestones of Decius, RIB no 2276; the other two are nos 2277 and 2278)
Castleford. Castleford lies on a road between Doncaster and Tadcaster (Margary 28b), known generally as Roman Ridge or Rigg. In 1861 it was reported that a milestone had been found at Half Acres, just south of the town centre. It was dedicated to the Emperor Florian in AD 276. It was given to the Yorkshire Museum in York, but is now back home in Castleford, at the Forum Museum, on loan from York Museums Trust. Click here for further details (external site),
Hawes. Two milestones from the road through Stainmore Gap, which crosses the Pennines between Bowes (formerly in the North Riding) and Brough in Cumbria are now in the Dales Countryside Museum – one is pictured on the right. The Roman road roughly follows the line of the present A66 (or more exactly vice versa). This was an important part of the road network by which the Romans controlled the Dales.
Leeds. In about 1880 a milestone was found in central Castleford, near the south end of Beancroft Road at the junction with Beancroft Street. It was cylindrical in shape and had two inscriptions on it. The first was to the Emperor Trajan Decius and dates to AD 250-251. Soon after the stone was turned upside down and a new inscription was added to Gallus and Volusian. It can be dated to AD 251-253. It gave the distance to York (Eboracum) as 22 miles. It was bought by Francis Haverfield, later professor of ancient history at Oxford, who presented it to Leeds City Museum.
Pontefract. The so-called Milestone of Florianus, found in 2002 at Rhydings Farm between East Hardwick and Ackworth, in a hedgebank on the line of the Roman road from Doncaster to Tadcaster (Margary 28b) – as the one at Castleford. Now in Pontefract Museum. Click here for further details (external site).
Rokeby Park: a Palladian country house south-east of Barnard Castle, and formerly in the North Riding. Among other Roman fragments is a milestone of Gallus and Volusian (RIB no 2279): found in the 18th century nearby at Greta Bridge on the Roman road from Scotch Corner to Carlisle.
Besides these the so-called Dial Stone at Slaithwaite is thought to have been a milestone from the road across the Pennines between the Roman forts at Castleshaw, in Saddleworth, and Slack, near Huddersfield. A similar stone can be found in the garden of a house in nearby Golcar and may be another one. See separate article.
Other milestones outside the old county are worth a mention. Two are still in or near their original positions. One is at Middleton, near Lancaster: this has been moved to a safe place in the village churchyard. There is an interesting article on it on the Yorkshire Dales National Park website. (Although the National Park was extended into bits of Lancashire in 2016, it has not yet completely taken over the old enemy). The other one is at Temple Sowerby on a by-passed section of the A66 between Appleby and Penrith. There are no traces of any inscription and only its form and location provide evidence of its former purpose.
The Bowes Museum at Barnard Castle has a milestone found off the Piercebridge – Gainford road, just over the North Riding county boundary,
Sources: links as above; Historic England; https://romancastleford.blogspot.com; www.romanroads.org; https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/
In 1939, with war looming, an Emergency Powers (Defence) Act was passed enabling the government to make orders as the need arose for the defence of the realm.
One such was the Removal of Direction Signs Order of 30th May 1940. This was in the middle of the Dunkirk evacuation, when fears of a German invasion were at their peak. To prevent direction signs being used by an invading army (albeit no doubt armed with maps), all such signs that were visible from a road were to be taken down or otherwise rendered useless.
Daily Express, Friday 31 May 1940
This was reported in the Daily Express of the following day under the headline Signposts to be removed: Sir John Reith, Minister of Transport, announced last night that highways authorities have been instructed to remove signposts and direction indications which would be of value to the enemy in case of invasion. The work was put in hand on Wednesday.
Wooden sign-posts were dug up (or had their arms removed), enamel village signs were unscrewed, and all were put into storage – hopefully to be replaced at the end of the war. Milestones and boundary stones suffered varying fates: some were removed for safety to council depots, etc; some were covered over with earth, or buried. A council workman in Norfolk said that his instructions were simply to “dig a trench, push the stones into it and cover them up”.
Others, however, had the ignominious fate of being defaced, their legends chiselled away. This latter act was contrary to the government’s intentions, as the instructions said clearly that “a chisel should not be used to cut out lettering on milestones”.
Not everyone was happy. It was reported from the West Riding that milestones were being “chipped with a chisel … and now they are dumb.” This was clearly seen as an act of vandalism. “Never since milestones were first put up on the rolling English road have the milestones lost face – except when old age has made them speechless. Their gashed faces now have brought the war to the quietest of country lanes.”
Similar sentiments were evident in Derbyshire, their concern being that “Many of these stones represented an interesting link with the past and one wonders whether it will ever be possible to restore them in their original condition.” What was of particular concern was that the “old-time spellings and the quaint abbreviations” were not lost forever.
Such fears were not entirely misplaced. From 1944 the government permitted the re-instatement of signs in inland areas, though labour shortages did not make this a top priority for local authorities. Many milestones and signposts were replaced after the war, but some buried stones remained buried for many years (and some possibly still are).
Conversely, some stones still stand in their original locations showing the brutal treatment they have received. A few examples are pictured below. Some have had their legends restored, as far as possible, but current thinking is that they should remain as they are: the war is part of our history, and the defacement of milestones is part of their history.
Sources: articles in Milestones and Waymarkers: Keith Lawrence: Emergency powers and the milestones (2014, vol 7, pp 3-6) and David Viner: Emergency powers and the milestones – further examples come to light (2016, vol 9, pp 49-50).
RWH / August 2021
The same, “restored” recently.
Guidestoop in Ripponden at junction of A58 and B6113 – as defaced.
One of half-a-dozen stones erected by the Borough of Mossley after incorporation at all its boundaries and all similarly defaced. This is on the A635 at the Yorkshire – Lancashire county boundary. It would have read, on the left: County of / West Riding / of Yorkshire [no mention of Saddleworth]; and on the right: County of / Lancashire / Salford / Hundred / Borough of /Mossley.
One of the 1860 Bradfield guide-stoops
Boundary stone on the A643 between Cleckheaton and Gomersal.
Boundary stone on the A62 marking the boundary between Linthwaite and Slaithwaite.
The first Act of Parliament relating to roads was in 1555, and they have followed thick and fast ever since. This is a brief list of the main ones and what they contained.
1555. This first act, “for amending of Highways, being now both every noisom and tedious to travel in, and dangerous to all Passengers and Carriages” was passed during the reign of Queen Mary. It laid responsibility for the upkeep of highways throughout the country on the parish (interpreted as the township in those parts of the north of England with large parishes). Each highway authority was to elect a surveyor every year whose job it was to maintain the roads in good repair, using the local peasantry who gave their labour unremuneratedly (and no doubt unwillingly).
1663: The Wadesmill to Stilton Turnpike Act. This was the first ever turnpike act, to improve the road from Wadesmill in Hertfordshire to Stilton (of cheese fame) in Cambridgeshire, along the line of the old Great North Road. It established the principle that road users should pay for road improvements, although it was over 30 years before the next turnpike act.
1697: An Act for enlargeing Common Highways. This act permitted the compulsory acquisition of land where the road was too narrow. More significantly for our interests it made provision for the establishment of guide-stones or posts “where Two or more Crosse High-ways meet”.
1706: The Fornhill [Bedfordshire] to Stony Stratford [Buckinghamshire] Turnpike Act, covering part of the old Roman Road to Chester, Watling Street. The half-dozen turnpikes set up after the first were all under the control of the County Justices. This, however, was the first where the road was effectively privatised, and a board of local worthies, businessmen, etc took it over, and it set the pattern for all future turnpikes
The Wakefield Austerland Act of 1759
1735: The Rochdale to Halifax etc Turnpike Act, the first in Yorkshire. In the same year there was an act for a turnpike from Manchester to Austerlands, on the Lancashire-Yorkshire boundary, though it was not until 1759 that the continuation to Huddersfield and Wakefield was authorised.
1766: The General Turnpike Act. A consolidation act repealing all earlier legislation and replacing it with one supposedly simple law. This was the first general act to require that milestones be set up on all turnpikes, although many individual turnpike acts had already made this stipulation, particularly from the 1740s onwards.
1822: General Turnpike Road Act: another consolidation act. Among other things this had reference to extra horses being taken on up hills at no extra charge, leading to the small number of “take-on” and “take-off” stones that survive. It also had a requirement for marker posts at parish boundaries.
1858: Local Government Act. This act gave parishes and townships the option of becoming Urban Sanitary Districts or combining with others to become Rural Sanitary Districts. Urban Sanitary Districts were to retain responsibility for their roads.
1862: Highways Act. This established Highway Districts as the norm for areas where parishes had not become Urban Sanitary Districts. This applied to most of the rural parts of Yorkshire. Highway Districts were also to take over the roads operated by failing Turnpike Trusts in the same areas.
1888: Local Government Act. This created the local government system that prevailed until the reforms of 1974. It established County Boroughs, responsible for all services (including roads) within their area, and County Councils, which had responsibility for main roads in the rest of the county.
1894: Local Government Act. Sanitary Districts became simply Urban and Rural District Councils, UDCs retaining responsibility for minor roads, and RDCs acquiring it with the abolition of Highway Districts.
Sources: W Albert: The turnpike road system in England 1663-1840 (Cambridge U P, 1972); Sidney and Beatrice Webb: The story of the King’s highway (Longmans Green, 1920); vlex.co.uk
Earby, a small town in the north-west of the old West Riding, boasts an interesting and rare old guide-stoop. It was probably put up early in the 18th century following instructions from the County Justices to set up stoops at cross-highways pointing to the nearest market towns – in this case Skipton, Colne and Blackburn. It does not give distances, as these were not required until 1737.
It is unlike most such guide-stoops in that it is carved in relief, rather than incised in the usual fashion. It was suggested that a sign over the door of the White Lion Inn of 1681 was stylistically virtually identical, and could be by the same stonemason.
Its most unusual feature, however, is its use of mirror-writing. It reads on one side simply “TO SKIPTON”, and underneath, back to front, “TO COLN”. Thus Skipton is to the right, and Colne to the left. On another side it directs, on three lines, “TO / BLAC / KBURN”. The Ns in Skipton and Blackburn are back-to-front.
In 1938 the Craven Herald reported that it was one of only two of this type in the north of England, the other being at Boroughbridge. But if this is refers to one at Kirby Hill, just north of Boroughbridge, anything that may have been carved on it is now illegible. There is, however, one in Derbyshire, at Goatscliff, south of Grindleford. This, according to Howard Smith’s definitive book on The Guide Stoops of Derbyshire (Horizon Press, 2009), is the only one with this feature in the county.
The original location of the stoop has been much discussed. Current thinking is that it was on Long Lane, south of Earby, then a main route between Skipton and Colne, at a point where another track led west to Sough Bridge and Salterforth, and thence on an uncertain route to Blackburn. The article referenced below discusses this in more detail.
After its removal from wherever it had originally been the stoop has had a chequered history: from the garden of the Clerk to the Earby Urban District Council sometime in the 1920s to 1936; then to the council’s yard until after the war, and from there to the War Memorial in Sough Park. Finally, in 1997, having been deemed in the way on Remembrance Days, it was removed for safety to the Mining Museum on School Lane.
The museum, sadly, had to close in 2015, and the exhibits were taken over by the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes, run by the National Park. The stoop, however, remains and can still be seen outside the lovely Old Grammar School building. This was built in 1600 following a bequest by local man Robert Windle who died in 1591, and is still owned by Robert Windle’s Foundation, an educational charity.
Guide-stones (or stoops as they are often called in Yorkshire, from an old Norse word for a post) are equivalent of today’s signposts. They came before milestones which are mainly a product of the turnpike era.
The first Act of Parliament to refer to them was in 1697 (chapter 16 of 8&9 William III: An Act for enlargeing Common Highways). This states:
“And for the better convenience of travelling in such Parts of this Kingdome which are remote from Towns and where several High-ways meet Be it further enacted … That it shall and may be lawfull to and for his Majesties Justices of the Peace … in such Cases as they shall think necessary to direct their Precept to the Surveyors of the High-ways in any Parish or Place where Two or more Crosse High-ways meet requiring them forthwith to cause to be erected or fixed in the most convenient Place where such Ways joyn a Stone or Post with an Inscription thereon in large Letters containing the Name of the next Markett Towne to which each of the said joyning High-ways leads …”
And there is a fine of ten shillings for any surveyor who shall “neglect or refuse to cause such Stone or Post to be fixed”.
Celia Fiennes, travelling the country at around this time,reports in her diary seeing, for example, at Lutterworth a “hand poynting 4 wayes to Coventry, Leicester, London, and Litchfield”. But it was Lancashire with which she was most impressed: “They have one good thing in most parts of this principality …, that at all cross wayes there are posts with hands pointing to each road with the names of the great town or market towns that it leads to, which does make up for the length of the miles the strangers may not loose their road and have it to goe back again.”
There is an absence of dates in Fiennes’s accounts, so we cannot be sure whether these preceded or followed the legislation.
It was not until 1700, however, that the West Riding justices issued an instruction to local parish and township surveyors for “stoops to be sett up in crosse highways” inscribed with “the name of the next market town to which each of the joining highways leede”.
In 1733 this instruction (presumably having been largely ignored) was repeated, guide-stoops to be set up at cross-roads “upon large moors and commons where intelligence is difficult to be had” – a reference to the paucity of the population rather than their IQ! Another instruction of 1738 requested that distances be stated, and in 1754 the constables were called to account for their actions. It also became common practice for dates to be included, although there seems to have been no legal requirement for this. Many stoops have dates around 1738 and the 1750s.
The Kirkheaton stoop
The 1733 instruction perhaps recognises that market towns are few and far between on the moors, and many stones name not far-off towns, but nearby settlements. A stone at Norland, near Sowerby Bridge, for example, directs a traveller to Elland, Ripponden, Sowerby and Halifax. Only the last-named was a market town. Similarly, the stoop outside the Lower Royal George on the A640 near Huddersfield names Scammonden, Deanhead (as Daynhead, presumably how it was pronounced), Marsden and Huddersfield – again the only market town, while the first two, then as now, were sparsely-populated settlements, not even villages.
A stone of 1738, at a crossroads on the B6118 above Kirkheaton, however, fulfils all the requirements: it directs to Barnsley, Dewsbury, Halifax and Huddersfield – all market towns.
Sometimes hands and fingers point towards the destination, but in their absence the custom was that the traveller was to take the road to the right while facing the destination name on the stone.
An unusual alternative can be found on a guide-stoop at Earby in the north-west of the old West Riding. The words TO COLN are written back-to-front, thus indicating that Colne was to the left.
The Farnley Moor End stoop
Many stones name the surveyor who was responsible for the erection of the stoop. A stone at Farnley Moor End between Farnley Tyas and Thurstonland near Holmfirth, also of 1738, has two beautifully-carved names: Jon Hoyle, Constable, and Thos Bothomley, Surveyor. Interestingly, this stoop, like the Earby one, was once used as the base for a sun-dial.
Guide-stones are not exclusively a feature of the early 18th century. Dotted around the county are a number of guide-stones put up in the 19th century by a number of different bodies: local authorities (townships or local boards), turnpike trusts and highway boards. Perhaps they used stone because of its easy availability and greater durability.
Examples are:
In the Craven district, mainly north of Skipton: over 20 stones in one simple style can be found at road junctions, showing the way to nearby villages . These are thought to have been put up by the East Staincliffe Highways District, around the 1880s. Click here for more details.
In the Thurstonland area: four stones were erected in 1861 by the Local Board: the surveyor’s name, John Bottomley, is carved on one of them. Click here for details of a walk visiting them all (as well as the Farnley Moor End stoop).
On the Leeds-Otley road stand a series of thick stone blocks with the names of anything up to a dozen local villages, buildings, railway stations and more distant towns. These were put up by the Turnpike Trust.
Sources: W B Crump: Huddersfield highways down the ages (Tolson Museum, 1949); Sidney and Beatrice Webb: The story of the King’s highway (Longmans Green, 1920)
All over the country, in towns and villages, and even in the middle of nowhere, you may encounter crosses – usually on a pedestal, some are actual crosses with a cross-piece, others a simple tall erect stone. There are different types:
Beverley Market Cross
Market crosses: found in towns, and sometimes what are now mere villages, where the monarch (or other designated person) had granted the right to hold a market. Some have developed into elaborate covered structures, such as Beverley’s, rebuilt in 1714. Others remain simple, such as Emley’s. Emley’s long-gone market was granted in 1253; now it has a Premier Stores mini-market, and the remains of the cross (pictured top) are painted white to avoid the several traffic accidents it has been involved in over the years. A list of all those in Great Britain can be found on Wikipedia. These and the next type, preaching crosses, do not really fall within the remit of the Milestone Society.
Saxon fragments at Dewsbury
Preaching crosses: during the Anglo-Saxon period wooden crosses would mark spots where priests or monks would preach to local communities, and stone crosses that survive today from mediaeval times (and are not market crosses) may be their successors. It has been suggested, for example that Stainland Cross, near Halifax, listed as mediaeval by Historic England, might have been a preaching cross. Although it now stands outside the church this was not its original location. A preaching cross can be found outside the church in Pocklington: it commemorates a sermon of St Paulinus in 627 AD, though again the cross is much later: its 15th century head is now inside the church. Paulinus became the first bishop of York, and he is also commemorated at Dewsbury where fragments of a 9th century stone cross can be found inside the Minster.
Wayside crosses: this term applies to any crosses found in open countryside or by old tracks outside towns and villages. Stone crosses were erected widely throughout the mediaeval period, mostly between the 9th and 15th centuries and had a variety of functions, although the main purpose of raising such a cross was to reiterate and reinforce the Christian faith amongst those who passed it. Many crosses were erected to mark the boundaries of lands held by ecclesiastical institutions such as monasteries. Others fulfilled a role as waymarkers especially in difficult and otherwise unmarked terrain. Such crosses contribute significantly to our understanding of medieval religious custom and landholding. Decorated examples also contribute to our knowledge of sculptural and artistic traditions. Examples can be found around Malham (see separate article), and another is the Lady Cross on the old salt road on Lansgett Moor.
The north of England had some huge parishes, such as Rochdale (which included part of Yorkshire) and Halifax. So big that for practical purposes they were divided into townships – Halifax had over 20. In the West Riding townships became the main units of local government when this began to be systematically organised in the 19th century.
It has, however, been suggested that in fact the basic unit was actually the township, and that parishes were merely combinations of townships made for ecclesiastical purposes*.
Even if this is the case, the township was not the smallest unit, for many were further subdivided. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey 6-inch maps published in the middle of the 19th century names all these subdivisions and marks their boundaries.
Sub-divisions had various names, frequently simply Divisions, sometimes Hamlets. The names of these divisions could be simple, very often Upper, Middle and Lower or some such combination.
The Saddleworth Meres were subdivided thus and several boundary stones survive showing these names. The one illustrated here marks the boundary between the Middle Division of Lords Mere and the Upper Division of Shaw Mere. It stands opposite the Old Bell Inn on the A62 at Delph.
Huddersfield Township was divided into self-governing Hamlets: Bradley, Deighton, Fartown, Marsh and Huddersfield itself. When the first Huddersfield Improvement Act of 1820 drew a circle, 1200 yards from the Market Place, to denote the Improvement Area there was uproar in Marsh which stood to lose half its territory.
Some have more exotic names, an example being Slaithwaite in the Colne Valley. A stream, Bradshaw Clough continuing as Merrydale Clough, runs roughly west to east through the township, joining the River Colne in what is now the village centre. This stream marks the boundary between the two parts of the township, Sun Side and Holme Side. Holme Side was named from the small settlement of Holme, but there is no evidence of a place-name giving rise to Sun Side: this was to the north, and perhaps got more sunshine than its north-facing neighbour.
Another term we encounter is Constablewick, or Constablery: a district under a constable. [Constables, like surveyors, were often appointed annually]. Adel, for example, comprised two constablewicks, while a guide-stoop cum boundary stone on Penny Pot Lane now on the outskirts of Halifax refers to the Constablery of Killinghall. Part of Killinghall Township was in the Constablery of Nidd.
Clay House in West Vale, Greetland, has a number of old boundary stones rescued from their original locations, and several of these name township divisions.
* D J H Michelmore: Township and tenure in M L Faull and S A Moorhouse, eds: West Yorkshire: an archaeological survey to A D 1500, vol 2: the administrative and tenurial framework; Wakefield: West Yorkshire M D C, 1981, pp 235-239.
