16 September 2025

The Brayshaw & Booth milestones in the Colne Valley west of Huddersfield have tended to cause confusion: where is Austerlands?  And why Wakefield? 

Austerlands is a blink-and-you-miss-it place on the A62 in Saddleworth, right on the border with what was Lancashire.  The turnpike was planned to connect this part of the West Riding with Manchester, the Lancashire section having already been turnpiked, in 1735.  From Huddersfield there was already a road to Leeds, so a link eastwards to Wakefield was deemed desirable.  There were three turnpikes, whose routes differed in varying degrees, dating from 1758, 1788 and 1820, the last one being basically the same as the present main roads between Wakefield and Oldham.  The trust was wound up in 1882 and responsibility for the road reverted to the district councils along it.

This article covers the main features of the roads; a more detailed article is to follow.  The milestones on the present road are of course all those erected by the West Riding County Council in the 1890s (detail illustrated at top), but others exist elsewhere on the route.

Part one: Wakefield to Huddersfield.

The earlier turnpikes had two divergences from the A642: the section between Horbury Bridge and the present Mining Museum ran south of the present road; and the original route went through Lepton to Almondbury before going down into Huddersfield.  An old toll-house exists at Horbury Bridge (though now called The Cottage), and another on Rowley Lane going down through Lepton, an attractive little building which has survived for over 200 years despite its redundancy.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Most interesting, though nowhere near its original location, is a milestone from perhaps the second turnpike which can be found near Middlestown.  It marks nine miles from Huddersfield and four miles and (what one presumes is a later addition) 794 yards from Wakefield.  It can be found by the side of a brick wall on Low Lane.  We have no idea when or why this came to be here but it is well-preserved and likely to remain so.

Part two: Huddersfield to Standedge.

The first two turnpikes went up to Crosland Moor and Blackmoorfoot before descending into Marsden.  And from Marsden they took separate routes up to the watershed at Standedge and over the moors.

Two milestones can be found on the old stretch up to Marsden, three and six miles from Huddersfield.  They are plainer than the one at Middlestown; the latter, slightly better preserved of the two, on Chain Road (itself a relic of the turnpike days) says simply “TO / A / 9M” and “TO / H / 6M”.  They possibly date from the first turnpike but we cannot be certain.

Interesting features above Marsden include a boundary stone where the road passed from Marsden-in-Almondbury township into Marsden-in-Huddersfield.  This reads “M+H / 720 / Yard”; it is thought that this distance represents the length of the road before it enters Saddleworth.  Where Mount Road and Old Mount Road meet a section of the second turnpike crossing a stream was demolished to avoid people trying to avoid taking a free alternative route; this is still visible.

.

.

Part three: Standedge to Austerlands.

Saddleworth was therefore entered by three routes which met for a brief stretch before Delph but then took different routes again before reaching Austerlands.

Three milestones (or two and a bit to be more exact) survive from the earlier turnpikes in the same design as the Middlestown stone.  Part of one exists, incorporated onto the top of a wall, near Delph.  The no longer entirely legible destinations once read Huddersfield 13 miles and Oldham 4½.  Another, marking 12 miles from both Huddersfield and Manchester, is complete and still in its original position just above Delph.  And a third is in the museum in Uppermill.

Sources include Crump: Huddersfield highways down the ages (Tolson Museum, 1949) and Bodey: Roads (Batsford, 1971).

RWH / Sept 2025