2019

As well as a variety of Yorkshire meetings in various locations the Society held an annual Yorkshire (later expanded to Northern) Spring Meeting, from 2004, in the village hall at Hebden near Grassington (not to be confused with Hebden Bridge).  The meetings and speakers were organised by Jan Scrine, who (almost) invariably chose a bright sunny day when the Dales were looking their best.  There were 23 people at the first meeting, and 24 at the last, though attendances had reached over 40 some years.  Details of these meetings follow, excluding references to cakes, sheep, lambs and the weather.

2004

The first Hebden meeting, with 23 people in attendance.

Brian Ellis and Lionel Scott gave talks on milestones and roads (what else!)

It was agreed to have a Yorkshire Newsletter.

2005

Janet Niepokojczycka gave a superbly-illustrated and fascinating talk on “Packhorse days and packhorse ways”, describing her trips for charity with a horse, pack-saddle and panniers over many muscle-aching miles.

Christine and Frank Minto covered a lot of ground with their travels and recent developments including North Yorkshire restoration efforts.

June Scott described the “Perambulation: beating the bounds of Harrogate”.

Jan Scrine gave a national update and also described the Barnsley to Grange Moor project.

2006

Alan and Ruth Thompson gave a “virtual tour” of the picturesque island of Arran and its milestones.

Martin Imeson showed a miscellany of milestones from around the UK.

June Scott entertained with “dark doings” at toll-gates in historical fiction.

2007

The Thompsons returned to Scotland with a “Hebridean Hopscotch”.

Chris Marcus told us all about Saddleworth, a “milestoner’s paradise”.

June Scott introduced us to the “obnoxious” William Cobbett, of “Rural rides” (1830): “Those who travel on turnpike roads know nothing of England”.

Colin Smith from Cumbria enthralled with their HLF-funded restoration project.

2008

Chris Marcus described his research on fingerposts, with reference to Saddleworth.

Brian Ellis shared some anecdotes about his restorations.

Jan Scrine looked at a highway surveyor’s costs for repairing roads in Cornwall in the 1770s.

Richard Heywood gave a comprehensive overview on boundary markers.

Christine Minto updated the meeting on the so-called Brayshaw and Booth milestones of the West Riding: a copy of the original contract has come to light.

2009

Local historian Maurice Taylor introduced us to the Ancient Right of Sanctuary, including boundary stones around Ripon.

Christine Minto took us on a tour of Scotland, with excellent photography of landscapes as well as mileposts.

June Scott cast light on the life of the rakish Blind Jack of Knaresborough, from the research by Dr Arnold Kellett. Dr Kellett came along and read a poetic tribute, too.

2010

Terry Witham gave us a light hearted introduction with her research on the history of the village and its roads and tracks.

Our guest speaker Dr Geoffrey Boswell amused and enlightened us with his anecdotes about Causeways, Guide Posts and Crosses around Todmorden.

Richard Heywood introduced us to his discoveries on Chapelry boundary stones.

Christine Minto took us on a tour of Cumbria and Scotland, well illustrating the vast variety of waymakers that exist.

Jeremy and Dave (the “Dynamic Duo”) updated the meeting with news of their restoration projects.

2011

Mike Lea, with Kate, managed to convince his audience that fingerposts are actually worth studying, by showing different Cumbrian styles and amusing anecdotes, supplemented with practical expertise by Duncan Armstrong.

Janet Niepokojczycka gave her latest talk “The Packhorse in Art and Literature”, with colourful illustrations ranging from the Luttrell Psalter to Christmas cards, of beasts of burden and their accoutrements.

June Scott had some vivid coaching tales including insights from ‘Pickwick Papers’.

Jeremy Howat explained how the Ryedale project had been such a successful collaboration. the day, Christine Minto set a quiz based on the recent OTG and Newsletter, which caused much merriment as well as blank looks – won by Richard Heywood with just 12 out of a possible 20 marks!

2012

Curiously there was little mention of actual milestones.
Christopher Evans from Scarborough, described his findings on “Trods – paved ways in north-east Yorkshire”, as used by panniermen, fish merchants and smugglers. Click here for full details.

David Garside gave a profusely illustrated talk, with the provocative title “Boundary stones – more interesting than milestones?”  Those of us who share that view were treated to a wide variety, plain and fancy: county, monastic, manorial, chapelry, industrial and parish – as were those who don’t. 

Jan Scrine showed us the Society’s latest publicity ventures, being produced with the cooperation of Barnsley poet Ian McMillan.  Already out on YouTube is The Rabbit and the Milestone, showing how easy it is for any rabbit to find our milestones on Google Earth.  Watch it here:

“Cross at the cross-roads, 230 miles to Clovelly and a real puzzle” by Dr Lionel Scott, who showed us some intriguing waymarkers at junctions, ending with a plea for anyone to identify an obliterated destination “67 Miles” on a pre-turnpike milestone from the Great North Road at Robin Hood’s Well, seven miles north of Doncaster.  Rescued when the A1 was widened back in the 1960s this now resides in a garden in nearby Brodsworth. [Personally, I think it’s lost the figure 1 and is 167 miles to London – Ed.].

2013

Michelle Atkinson described a project to produce a series of walk leaflets in Kirkburton (in Kirklees, West Yorkshire).  Each of the ten walks is based on one of the villages in the parish area and a local character, and each features a stone guide-stoop carved by local sculptor Dave Bradbury, fashioned in the style of the notable Farnley Moor stoop, and depicting a feature of the village.  These can also be found at http://kirkburtonparishwalks.co.uk

Michelle managed the project, and she described the entire process from to conception to fruition – a most useful presentation for anyone planning anything similar.  She discussed everything from how to manage volunteers to sources of finance (starting with www.fundingcentral.org.uk); who knew, for example, that landfill companies (such as SITA in Kirklees) have funds for relevant projects in their area?  See http://www.entrust.org.uk/home/lcf for further details.  Some of us would also have liked to have seen some more of the guide-stoops.

Dave Bradbury then enthralled us with his description, with photographs of every stage, of the processes involved in another of his works: the Milestone Society’s Diamond Jubilee project replica Roman milestone at Wall, Staffordshire, by the site of the Roman town of Letocetum.  See his website at http://bydavebradbury.co.uk.

Jan Scrine then went on to tell us about some of her many plans to interest young people and other groups, from geocachers to trainee bricklayers and home educators, in milestones – details of her activities can be found on the new “Beyond Graffiti” section of the Yorkshire website.  After which we all(?) joined in the chorus of The Jagger’s Refrain.

Gordon Hallas showed us many fascinating old photographs of Holme (at the top of the Holme Valley) on his epidiascope, a historic magic lantern.

Jeremy Howat did “The ones that got away – or did they?”, telling the stories of some of our more elusive milestones.

2014

A “Milestone Miscellany” presented by the double-act of Dorothy Burrows and her husband. We were shown a selection of slides taken over many years showing interesting and unusual waymarkers from Yorkshire and beyond.

Shirley Addy, founder of the Village Sign Society (www.villagesignsociety.org.uk) gave a most interesting presentation on village signs. We think of these as an East Anglian phenomenon (Norfolk has the most) but there are over 200 in Yorkshire and over 3,000 across the country as a whole.

Jan Scrine gave us an update and short film on the Beyond Graffiti project. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JwREVwVmRU.

Richard Heywood then gave a whistle-stop tour of street-names and their meanings, with particular reference to those connected to road and transport history.

David Garside presented moorland crosses, with around 70 examples of all types (Saxon, monastic, estate, boundary, waymarker, etc) from the well-known ones on the North York Moors to lesser-known ones around Penistone and Thurlstone and farther-flung crosses on Dartmoor.

2015

The double-act of Brian and Dorothy Burrows gave us another entertaining selection of slides from around the world: not just milestones, but waymakers of all kinds, as well as amusing signs (eg “Toilets. Maximum stay 2 hours”).

Jeremy Howat told us about the milestones on the A19 (York-Easingwold-Thirsk-Northallerton), and reporting on his research into their possible ironfounders. Click here for full details.  Jeremy highlighted the milestone in Thirsk showing on one face a sheep and lamb, and on the other a figure thought to be a drover.

On that subject Mike Lea showed extracts from a Border TV film of 1988, “The Drove”, in which their intrepid reporter, fellow masochists and a dog recreated a journey made regularly in the 18th century, driving a herd of cattle from Galloway via Malham (a hub of the trade, controlled by the local Birtwhistle family) and Norfolk (St Faith’s, near the airport, and for seven centuries host to one of the country’s largest cattle fairs) to London. Drove roads once covered the country (albeit without milestones), but the drovers’ lives were made increasingly difficult with the growth of turnpikes (with their attendant costs) and the enclosure movement, and the trade was dealt a final fatal blow by the railways.

David Garside introduced a completely new (to us) type of boundary marker, the turbary stone. These are found on moorland areas where peat was dug, turbary being land where turf or peat may be dug for fuel, or as a legal term the right to dig for it. Click here for all the details. He also revealed that Garside Hey, part of Marsden Moor, is named after his ancestors, who had such rights.

Jan Scrine updated us on her ongoing Beyond Graffiti project, and entertained us with the triumph, trials and tribulations of the award-winning Crossing the Pennines scheme – grand opening on July 4th (barring acts of God or Kirklees).

2016

This time we were entertained (again) by Dorothy and Brian Burrows, informed by Margaret Hill (eg about stiles, of which there are four kinds: step-through, climbing, combination and mechanical), and exhausted by David Garside (illustrating five ancient routes across the Pennines – he’s walked them all, and more). 

Bill Froggatt was our guest speaker, who won the Terry Keegan Award in 2014.  He now works for the Canal & River Trust on the Leeds-Liverpool Canal.  Its 127 miles and 91 locks were completed in 1816 – it is thus celebrating its bi-centenary this year.  He took us along the canal and its branches, illustrating mileposts and describing current restoration works.  It was a valuable perspective reminding us that we are but a part of a wider network appreciating our travel heritage.

Christine Minto illustrated her own canal travels at home and abroad, with some excellent photographs.

2017

Dorothy and Brian Burrows began the proceedings with the usual cornucopia of photographs of milestones and related objects from around the world.

David Garside told us about the South Pennine Walk and Ride Festival, an annual event each September, for which he has been organising walks for a few years.  David’s Blackstone Edge walk covers 10-11 miles, including Roman (allegedly), packhorse and turnpike roads, mediaeval crosses and boundary stones.

June Scott gave a talk on historical distance measures.  Younger members of the audience (had there been any) would have marvelled at the peculiar units that were once everyday concepts: how much simpler (but less colourful) the metric system is.  Besides miles and their fractions older milestones often feature furlongs (originally the length of a furrow in mediaeval strip fields, later standardised at 220 yards – or 660 feet as the Americans would prefer to say).  A few may even show rods, poles or perches: some of us well remember these from primary school.  And, of course, the chain, one tenth of a furlong, the length of a cricket pitch, and ideal for measuring distances: June had an original one to show us.  The chain continued in use officially and on the railways until very recent times.  Finally some measures not found on milestones, shorter ones relating to the human body, and therefore not precisely defined: the cubit, for example, the distance from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about 18 inches (46 cm for our younger readers).

Keith Benton took us on a milestone tour from Anglesey (Ynys Môn) – the Holyhead Road – across to Northumbria, down through Derbyshire and back up through Cheshire to Cumbria.

2018

We were entertained again by Dorothy and Brian Burrows with their international miscellany of slides.

Our guest speaker had had to drop out a couple of days beforehand with a bout of flu, but David Garside ably stepped into the breach, taking us on a scenic tour of Yorkshire’s waterways and their waymarkers.

Lionel Scott described a turnpike that failed, between Leeds and Wetherby, despite much interest from local property speculators.

Christine Minto concluded with a lightning overview of Scottish milestones.

2019

Keynote guest speaker Edgar Holroyd-Doveton filled in some of the gaps in our knowledge about turnpike roads.

David Garside showed a wide selection of interesting bridges from around the country.

New member Annie Lloyd filmed the sessions and posted the results in our facebook group afterwards.

Yorkshire member Ian Thompson (no relation to the Cornish one) introduced us to an Ordnance Survey mapping project.

Jan Scrine did a round-up of events that had happened in the past decade, our Yorkshire projects (Beyond Graffiti, Crossing the Pennines, Teach the Highwayman), the Repository and the happy outcome for Uncle Frank’s Archive.

JHS, RWH / rev April 2026

Cleckheaton residents can now once again enjoy a local landmark in its original glory, the 80-odd-year-old fingerpost outside the Fire Station – at the junction of Westgate and Hightown Road. (We refer to it as a fingerpost, though no fingers are to be seen on it).

Hightown, in the parish of Liversedge to the south of Cleckheaton, was in the 19th century a straggling collection of small settlements along the Wakefield to Halifax Turnpike, from Hightown Heights down to Middle Gate. Its main claim to fame was as, briefly, the residence of Patrick Brontë, assistant curate at nearby Hartshead Church (since restored to its original Norman glory), prior to his move to Thornton, the birth of his famous children, and his final settlement in Haworth. It has grown since then, and now includes the Windybank Estate, built after the Second World War, with its imaginatively-named streets – First Avenue, Second Avenue, and so on up to Thirteenth Avenue. Unlike their American namesakes, however, their numbering does not reflect the layout. But I digress.

Hightown Road was built sometime between 1922 and 1934, according to the dates when it appears on Ordnance Survey maps – perhaps as a belated by-product of the creation of the Spenborough Urban District in 1915.

The signpost was probably erected at the same time, directing along the main road, Westgate, now the A643, to Birstall, Leeds and Bradford to the east, and Brighouse, Elland and Huddersfield to the west. The new road, up to Hightown, directs the motorist not to Hightown, but again to Huddersfield – same distance, 7½ miles, but a more convoluted route. When he (because it probably was a he) reached Hightown, to cross the present A649, the motorist will have been directed onwards by another signpost of similar date and design.

Both finger-posts were made by the Royal Label Factory of Stratford-on-Avon.  This company, as its name implies, had been established in 1874 and made labels for the gardens of Queen Victoria’s estate at Sandringham in Norfolk.  From other labels of all types for less royal customers they were making finger-posts and other signposts for local authorities from the 1930s onwards.  It is said to have produced half the finger-posts in the country.  As part of Leander Architectural, but now in Buxton, they still produce street furniture and signs of all kinds, and have been involved in the restoration of heritage signs.

The Spen Valley Civic Society restored the latter in 2003, and then decided in 2016 to restore the one at the bottom, on the A643. Over the years, unloved, un-noticed and uncared-for, it had lost two of its arms and become a rusty relic. Thanks to a grant from Kirklees Council’s You and Your Community funding programme, volunteers were able to work on its restoration: new metal letters were made to match the originals, brackets were manufactured using the one remaining original as a pattern, wooden finger-boards were created, and the metal post was stripped of rust and repainted with numerous coats of paint.

The restored signpost was unveiled in April 2017 by Jan Scrine, and the finished result is inspirational – even for those of us who are not inspired by finger-posts.

Sources: Milestone Society Newsletter, no 33, August 2017; Graces Guide to British Industrial History (www.gracesguide.co.uk); www.leanderarchitectural.co.uk; not forgetting Wikipedia.

RWH /Feb 2019

Around the Skipton area are over 20 small triangular stones, mostly painted white with black lettering, most with a pyramidal top, and found mostly at minor road junctions. Village names, sometimes with arrows or crude hands painted on them, direct the traveller along the lanes.

They can be found throughout the Craven District – in Bolton Abbey, Coniston Cold, Cracoe, Draughton, Eshton, Gargrave, Linton, Stirton-with-Thorlby, Thorpe and Threshfield.

A typical example, YN_XXSGCT, illustrated here, is on the B6265, about a mile north of the Skipton northern by-pass. It is at the junction of Bog Lane (an indication, perhaps, of its formerly uninviting condition) with the B6265, just before the oddly-named None-Go-Bye Farm. The narrow Bog Lane leads directly to Stirton, and thence to Gargrave – as indicated on the left-hand side of the stone. The right-hand side shows directions to Cracoe and Threshfield (though these destinations are incomplete, perhaps following an altercation with a road vehicle).

There is, however, no indication that the main road leads back to Skipton, suggesting that whoever erected it assumes this is the direction you have come from – though if this was the case and you really wanted to go to Stirton or Gargrave you wouldn’t have come this way.

The stones are stylistically quite different from those erected in response to the demands of the County Justices at the turn of the 18th century: those were aimed at travellers on featureless moorlands. And since there are so many of them in a very similar style they are unlikely to be the work of different parishes.

They were in fact erected in the second half of the 19th century: this stone (like many of the others) appears on the 1896 Ordnance Survey map, but not on the 1853 edition.  And they were put up by the East Staincliffe Highway District (ESHD). This was one of many Highway Districts created in the 1860s, taking over the functions of parishes (who thus gave up their highways responsibilities) and, later, the failing Turnpike Trusts. They were abolished following the creation of Rural District Councils in 1894.  The East Staincliffe Highway District, named from the ancient wapentake of the same name, also erected a number of boundary stones in the area; these are marked E S H D.

RWH / Feb 2019

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 18^th 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

Oswaldkirk is a village 20 miles north of York and four miles south of Helmsley in North Yorkshire. It is named after St Oswald (died 642), Anglo-Saxon king of Northumbria.

The turnpike was established by Act of Parliament in 1768 and followed the line of the present B1363. At Oswaldkirk the turnpike joined the present B1257, which with the A170 connected it with Helmsley. It thus provided a more direct connection to that area.

The milestones on this road are interesting, as every third stone is a so-called ‘horsing-stone’ – a tall block with steps to enable easy mounting of a horse. The minutes of the Turnpike Trust include the following details.

In 1772 ‘. . . milestones were to be erected … in the form as follows: wood mile post 4 feet in length; every third mile a horsing stone; … ‘. Later, in 1776 it was ordered ‘… that the mile posts be painted dark blue, with white letters and figures, old Roman capital letters and figures ‘. At a meeting at the (still there) White Bear in Stillington in 1789, it was ordered ‘. . . that the mile stones be repaired if necessary and that the letters or figures thereon be fresh painted’.

In 1814 it was ordered ‘that mileposts be erected at the end of each mile where the present stones are decayed and defaced, and that the first mile from York be measured from Bootham Bar, or such other place as the distance has commenced, and be so expressed upon the first mile post‘.

The Milestone Society has records of four surviving horsing-stones (or mounting-blocks) on this road. They are, from south to north:

At Wigginton, ¾ mile north of the A1237 York ring-road, on the west side of the road (and usually almost hidden in the grass), opposite the entrance to Villa Farm – three miles from York.

On the west side of the road north of Sutton-on-the-Forest, nearly opposite Low Inhams Farm, south of Moxby Lane, about half way between Sutton and Stillington – nine miles from York.

At Gilling East, just north of the cross-roads – 18 miles from York.

Between Oswaldkirk and Sproxton, about one mile south of Sproxton on the now B1257, on verge opposite the entrance to Golden Square Farm – 21 miles from York. Curiously, this appears to be beyond the remit of the Turnpike Trust, which ended where it met the Helmsley/Thirsk-Malton road at Oswaldkirk Bank Top. (Illustrated on right)

Those six, 12 and 15 miles from York have not been found.

Sources: Jennifer Perry: York-Oswaldkirk Turnpike Trust 1768-1881 (North Yorkshire County Record Office, 1977) and Milestone Society records.

See also the article on mounting-block milestones in the East Riding and elsewhere.

RWH / Jan 2019

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

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 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.

Pictured below are before and after photos of YW_GFSLH13 on the A635 at the top of the hill above New Mill.

Sadly (for us) Rowan has now left the district.

See also the Huddersfield Examiner, 19 July 2018, or watch a BBC news report at www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leeds-45334807/a-milestone-in-yorkshire-history-brought-back-to-life

RWH / Jan 2019