Richard Heywood

William Mattison of Richmond started a foundry in 1851 on railway company land at Leeming Bar (on the Great North Road in Bedale Parish).  They made almost anything that could be cast in iron, from mill machinery to oven doors. And mileposts.  They made at least three designs of post, of which about 100 survive in North Yorkshire.

The earliest were the triangular posts produced for some local Highways Boards, including Askrigg, Richmond, Hang East  and Langbaurgh West (the last two taking their names from the wapentakes).  (Highway Districts had been set up to maintain major roads in groups of parishes in rural areas.  They became increasingly common after 1862, and also took over any turnpike trusts which became insolvent.)

These have raised pointing hands at the top of each face, though on many posts the hands pointed the wrong way – possibly through mis-information, the founders being confused working with a mirror image mould, or the milepost being erected on the wrong side of the road.  Consequently, new hands were made and fixed over the offending ones; or sometimes the hands were repainted pointing in the opposite direction.  Examples of both can still be seen.  The words F Mattison & Co / Bedale appear inside.

With the establishment of County Councils in 1888 the functions of the Highway Boards were taken over, and there are two designs of posts made for the North Riding County Council.   The more elaborate of these has a round top with a Yorkshire rose surrounded by the words North Riding of Yorkshire; below this, on the bevel, is the name of the RDC (rather than the parish) or UDC.  The direction is indicated by elegant flighted arrows.  The word MILES appears if only one place is named; if more than one, MILES is omitted.  These have the same maker’s name as the Highway District type.

The other, probably later, NRYCC type is much simpler (and cheaper).  Similar to the HD type, but wider (22” compared with 14”), it simply has NRYCC on the bevel, and no hands or arrows.  It has Yorks added to the maker’s name.

By 1913, perhaps when the County Council had completed their mileposts programme, the company was advertising cast iron boundary posts, and claiming to have made “many hundreds“ of boundary posts.

They were taken over in 1937 by John H Gill & Sons Ltd, agricultural engineers, still trading at Leeming Bar.

Main source: Article by Christine Minto in the Milestone Society Newsletter, no 22, Jan 2012, pp34-5.  RWH / February 2012.

Borough: a self-governing town, created by royal charter.  Boroughs had existed since Saxon times.  Old Yorkshire boroughs were: Beverley (938), Doncaster (1194), Hedon (1154), Hull (1299), Pontefract (1194), Richmond (1154), Ripon (1605), Scarborough (1181) and York (1141) – dates are those of the first known charter, but some may actually be older.  Population growth in the 19th century saw the creation of Municipal Boroughs (Municipal Corporations Act, 1835) and County Boroughs (Local Government Act, 1888).

Chapelry: in earlier times chapels were built in large parishes where the parish church was far away.  In the 19th century huge numbers of new churches were built, again technically chapels, forming chapelries within existing parishes.  Many of these had boundary stones.  See separate article.
 
Corporation: the governing body of a Borough

County: the traditional division of the country.  Counties, acting through the Justices in Quarter Sessions, had always had a supervisory role in local administration (eg issuing instructions to parish surveyors to erect guide-posts in the 18th century).  They also had responsibilities for bridge maintenance on major roads.  But County Councils, with greatly extended powers, only came into being with the Local Government Act of 1888.

Highway Districts, run by Highway Boards: although the concept was created by an Act of 1835 they became common only after 1862, as mergers of parishes for highway purposes.  Later they started taking over turnpike roads as Turnpike Trusts became increasingly insolvent.
 
Hundred: division of a county – originally an area capable of providing 100 men in times of war; obsolete by mid 19th century.  In Yorkshire these were called wapentakes: a Scandinavian term denoting the brandishing of weapons to signify assent at a public assembly, and hence to the meeting-place, and the territorial division of the county.  Certain other counties had other names for them.

Liberty: a mediaeval unit, originally one in which rights reserved to the king had been devolved into private hands – finally abolished in 1888.

Local Board (of Health): created by Public Health Act 1848.  Parishes and townships could adopt the Act at any time and re-create themselves as Urban Sanitary Districts (qv), controlled by a Local Board.
 
Parish: basic unit of local administration from time immemorial.  Parishes were originally ecclesiastical but increasingly acquired responsibility for civil administration (eg highways in 1555).  In the 19th century there began the separation of these functions: civil parishes became separate entities, and could become local boards (qv).

Rural (Sanitary) District: See Urban and Rural (Sanitary) District.

Township: in less well developed parts of the country parishes were often very large, and further sub-divided into townships (eg Halifax, having over 20).  These had the same functions as single-village parishes. Some townships contained self-governing areas with various names, including: Constablewicks, Districts, Divisions, Hamlets and Quarters.  Huddersfield Township, for example, had four hamlets (Bradley, Deighton, Fartown and Marsh); while Saddleworth was divided into Meres (Friar Mere, Lord’s Mere, Quick Mere and Shaw Mere), which were themselves further split into Divisions (Upper, Middle, Lower)

Urban and Rural (Sanitary) District: Urban Sanitary Districts, administered by Local Boards, were created in 1848, though only for parishes or townships which chose to adopt the Act.  The Public Health Act of 1872 definitively parcelled out the whole of England and Wales into either urban or rural sanitary districts, and in 1894 these became simply Urban Districts or Rural Districts.  Urban Districts were all individual parishes or townships, while Rural Districts were combinations of several (based on Poor Law Unions).  Many Urban Districts were not especially urban in character (eg Holme and Scammonden), but had adopted the Act in order to avoid being merged with other townships for highway purposes: mutual suspicion was as current then as it is now.

Wapentake: see Hundred

Sources: adapted from a talk given by Richard Heywood at the Yorkshire Milestone Society meeting, April 2008.  RWH / January 2012

The village of Marsden, on the edge of the Pennine moors in West Yorkshire, has two attractive packhorse bridges: one in the centre, by the church; the other a noted beauty spot at Eastergate, a mile or so up the River Colne.

From the latter a track, the old packhorse road, climbs steeply uphill towards Buckstones on the present A640, and continued to Rochdale. Surviving documents show that this long, straggling path was much used by local carriers in the 18th century, and maintained by the Marsden-in-Huddersfield Township. 

By the late 19th century, however, with the decline of the trade to Rochdale and the development of other forms of transport, the old packhorse route had become little used and had fallen into neglect.  This suited, and played into the hands of, the Lord of the Manor, who resented the effect that passing traffic had on his grouse and was hoping to close the moors.  His gamekeepers were instructed to deter members of the public and threaten “trespassers” with prosecution. 

In 1906 the local Urban District Council, continuing the role of the township highways surveyor, carried out repairs, and matters came to a head.  The Lord of the Manor, Sir Joseph Radcliffe, sued the Council claiming there was no right of way over the moor.

The case was held at Leeds in April 1908.  The Council produced 33 elderly witnesses (the oldest was 92) who recalled using the track as children – ie before the important date of 1835.  The judge concluded that the Lord of the Manor had failed to prove that there was no right of way, but also that the Council had exceeded their rights in the improvements they had carried out.  Accordingly the costs of the case were split between the plaintiff and the defendants.

Among the improvements were 9 stones, carved with the words “P H ROAD”, set up at intervals along the track – a number of which still survive.  These were described by the judge as a “technical trespass”, but did no harm, and might actually help walkers to stick to the path.

Sources: LB Whitehead: Bygone Marsden (c 1942); www.marsdenhistory.co.uk/misc/ph_road_trial.html   RWH / January 2012.

Canals in Yorkshire competed with the turnpikes in the era before the coming of the railways. Some, like the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Don Navigation, were built to make the river system navigable. Others, like the Calder & Hebble Navigation (the first part of which opened in 1770) and the Leeds & Liverpool Canal (opened in 1816) were constructed to provide transport routes into the towns and across the Pennines. 

Barge operators charged their customers by the ton and by the mile, so the distance travelled was very important. Most inland canals and some river navigations had milestones. Whereas many roadside milestones have disappeared during road widening, the canals have been little affected and milestones can still be found on the Calder & Hebble Navigation and the Huddersfield Broad and Narrow Canals. The characteristic triangular cast iron mileposts on the Leeds & Liverpool Canal are replacements for earlier milestones, few of which remain today. Replica milestones can also be found on the Rochdale Canal. 

A walk along the canal towpath provides a quiet respite from the bustle of traffic and a chance to find interesting milestones from the canal era.

More photographs to follow.

RWH / January 2012

 

Some examples of the county bridge and related stones in Yorkshire.  For more information, click here.

A typical West Riding stone, over the River Skell near Fountains Abbey: a minor road and a minor bridge now, but possibly more important in mediaeval times. Grid Reference: SE 671 682		Another West Riding example, not a stone but a cast-iron bridge marker, over Hebden Beck, a tributary of the Wharfe at Hebden, between Grassington and Pateley Bridge. Grid Reference: SE 026 322		From the North Riding, this stone is in the centre of Greta Bridge, near Barnard Castle – a lovely old bridge, now bypassed by the A66. Grid Reference: NZ 086 132
This plaque is on a small bridge at Cowgill, over the River Dee, near Dent, in Dentdale (now in Cumbria). It reads: This bridg repered at the charg of th West Riding AD 1702. Grid Reference: SD 761 869		A most unusual example, one of a pair of stones each standing 300 feet from the River Holme, on the A6024 at Holmbridge, south-west of Holmfirth. Grid Reference: SE 121 068		A cross-type bridge marker on the Skirfare between Kilnsey and Kettlewell, just before it enters the Wharfe.   Grid reference: SD 972 691

These photographs illustrate some features of different Brayshaw and Booth milestones in the old West Riding.

A well-looked after stone, one of many in the attractive village of Cawthorne, near Barnsley. Note the horizontal lettering. Grid Reference: SE National ID:		All the Brayshaw & Booth stones in the Saddleworth district, near Oldham, have recently been restored. Note the use of the old “mere” names (the four divisions of the township). Grid Reference: SE National ID:		Just outside Holmfirth, an interesting variant on the usual painting scheme. Here the letting is on a slant. Grid Reference: SE National ID:
An example of the wider flat stones used where the road was narrow, on the now perfectly wide enough road out of Elland towards Huddersfield. Also recently raised and restored. Grid Reference: SE National ID:		The Brayshaw and Booth name is clearly visible on this otherwise somewhat rusty stone at Lepton, near Huddersfield. Grid Reference: SE  National ID:		A stone that has lost its iron plate, showing the Steads’ workmanship. This is on the A670 in Saddleworth, near the boundary with Mossley. Grid Reference: SE National ID:

In 1888 the Local Government Act established County Councils, among whose responsibilities were main roads. In this respect they replaced the highway boards (random collections of parishes) which had been taking over from the steadily collapsing turnpike trusts.
One of the largest county councils was the West Riding of Yorkshire, stretching from Sedbergh in the north-west, to Ripon and the River Ouse on the boundaries of York in the north-east, to Goole in the east, Bawtry in the south-east, Sheffield in the south, and up and occasionally over the other side of the Pennines in the west.
Providing services in such a huge area was always a logistical challenge – even ignoring the fact that large areas in the middle of the county (Bradford, Leeds, etc) were independent county boroughs outside the control of the County Council.  Nevertheless, in 1892, less than four years after it was set up, the Council decided to set up milestones on all its main roads.  No reason is given in the archives: maybe it was seen as a profile-raising exercise.  Efforts to improve the image of local authorities are obviously nothing new.
Accordingly, on 12th October 1892 it was resolved to obtain tenders for the erection of “643 milestones, six inches thick, with iron plates, bolted, showing the name of the road, township and mileage to nearest towns”.  The stone was to come from the Horsforth Quarries, and the milestones were to be 6 feet high, set two feet into the ground.  The estimated cost would be £2-5-0d each.
The contract was awarded to G & F Stead, stonemasons in Mirfield (Gill Stead and his son Frank), who were now to erect 619 stones within 12 months of the date of the contract, 21st August 1893.  They were paid in instalments, the final payment being made in October 1894, so presumably the work was finished on time.  Not only on time, but also under budget: the Steads were paid £1,140, which works out at a mere £1-18-0d per stone.
The whole enterprise must have been an immense undertaking, bearing in mind the distances involved and the transport available (horse and cart).
And it would also have been a mammoth task for the firm of Brayshaw and Booth, ironfounders of Liversedge, subcontracted to provide most of the iron plates required.  Their name is displayed prominently on the huge number of their milestones that survive, but little else is known about them: they are listed in trade directories between 1889 and 1917.  Another ironfounder supplying plates was William Towler of Leeds: see separate article.
Over 60 roads have, or had, the new WRCC milestones.  While most will have replaced the existing turnpike trusts milestones, some are on non-turnpiked roads, but some turnpikes were not included.  The major road from Halifax to Todmorden, for example, still retains its original pointing-finger stones.
About 350 stones survive, though a few are broken or have lost their plates (and sadly accidents continue to happen).  Some have been restored by Milestone Society members and other agencies such as parish councils.  Rotherham Council has been particularly good at looking after its stones, and Kirklees restored some of theirs some years ago.
Almost all have the protruding triangular iron plates, but eleven stones are wider and flat: these are found where the original road was excessively narrow (as it still is on the oriiginal bridge over the River Holme on Hollowgate in Holmfirth – pictured right); others are in Sherburn-in-Elmet, Elland, Uppermill and Denby Dale.
Another peculiarity is the lettering: sometimes it is horizontal; sometimes at an angle.  There is no pattern to this, though each road is to a standard design.  It is unrelated to the amount of lettering (of which there is sometimes a great deal – up to 160 characters).  Nowadays, as roads and pavements have got resurfaced, some of the information has disappeared under the asphalt.

A final puzzle is the colour of the original plates.  The contract stipulated that they should be painted blue, and traces of blue paint have been found on some stones (see photo, left).  Perhaps the colour was changed to the almost ubiquitous – and much clearer – white early on, or perhaps it was blue only on the rim, but no reference to this has been traced.  One milestone in Mirfield was painted blue and gold in 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee; see the article on the Kirklees restoration project for details.

For more information click here for the Brayshaw and Booth picture gallery.

Adapted from an article by Christine Minto, with additions by Stephen Skellern, in On the Ground (no 5, 2008, pp 16-18).   A longer article by Christine was published in the Saddleworth Historical Society Bulletin, 2015, vol 45, no 1, pp 1-17; it is available online.

RWH / revised July 2021.

 

In 1602 the West Riding Justices named 48 bridges which were to be kept in repair by the County – a relatively small number considering the size of the county.  A century and a half later Robert Carr and John Watson produced for the Quarter Sessions a “Book of Bridges” with plans and descriptions of 120 bridges and the extent of the obligation of the Riding for the maintenance of each.  At the same time a survey of all the bridges in the county was undertaken by John Westerman and John Gott, which included 308 bridges which were repaired by bodies other than the county – wapentakes, parishes or individuals..

In addition to the actual bridge, the County’s responsibility extended also to the highway for 300 feet from each end thereof.  County bridges were marked by stones and several of these survive, even where the bridges themselves have been widened or rebuilt.  Usually the stone is sited at the bridge, but occasionally they can be found 300 feet from it. 

There are three main types:

• round-topped stone ones, presumed to be the oldest, with WR carved on them – often now badly eroded – the example here is at Cooper Bridge near Mirfield;
• triangular stone (or are they concrete?) plates, often painted white and marked WR in black on each side; the example at the bottom left is at Grassington on the Wharfe.  These we presume to be later, as they are usually in very good condition.  There is a  theory is that they could date from a later (1803) bridge act as an indication of a bridge’s fitness for purpose.
• and a third, less common, type consisting simply of a vertical cross on a round-topped stone.  There are examples of these in the Dales at Hebden (on Hebden Beck where there is also a triangular marker) and Skirfare Bridge (illustrated bottom right) also over the Wharfe.  There is a theory that these bridges may have had a monastic origin, though the stones are much later.

Two particularly interesting examples can be found on the Holme Moss road, the A6024 between Holmfirth and Woodhead.  About one and a half miles south-west of Holmfirth, at Holmbridge, 100 yards from the bridge on each side of the river, stand two stones each marked with the single word County.  Whether these were erected by the Turnpike Trust or, earlier, by the township, Austonley, we do not know.

Another untypical stone can be found at Dunford Bridge, also 100 yards from the bridge: a plain stone with a vertical line cut down the middle.

Sources: West Yorkshire Archives; Milestone Society Newsletter (17, 2009, p 10).

RWH / last updated Jan 2022.

For more illustrations, click here.

Huddersfield has what we believe to be a unique series of milestones, triangular in section, at half-mile intervals on all the main roads radiating from the town centre, as well as on minor roads.  On one side it gives the number of miles ‘to Huddersfield’ and on the other side the same number ‘from Huddersfield’.  Hence we’ve named them the ‘To and Froms’.  For some time we had wondered what purpose they served, and when they were erected, and now researches in the Council archives have found some of the answers.

About 23 milestones are found on the roads leading to the following places (clockwise from the north): Bradford (with one off this on Fartown Green Road); Leeds; Wakefield; Almondbury; Lowerhouses; Newsome; Woodhead (via Holmfirth); Meltham; Blackmoorfoot (the old Austerlands turnpike); Manchester (the new turnpike); Paddock/Longwood; New Hey (with one off this on the road to Lindley); Halifax; and Halifax Old Road.  Of these the ones to the Huddersfield suburbs were never turnpiked.  There were no stones at the half-mile point from the town centre, and they stopped at the boundary of the pre-1937 Huddersfield Borough.  Milestones at Milnsbridge and Grimescar, originally in Linthwaite and Fixby townships (though the latter is now missing) are standard WRCC Brayshaw & Booth stones – as is one on Bradley Road in the north of the Borough.

The original theory, that they were related to tram fares, which were based on half-mile distances.  Tram services in Huddersfield (the first municipally-operated system in the country) began in 1883 .  But this theory was discounted as there are stones on a couple of roads that trams never served.

The same principle, however, had applied to the earlier (horse-drawn) hackney carriage fares.  Little has been written on cab services at this period, but in 1890 an Annual Inspection reviewed 48 cabs, 33 hansoms, 42 waggonettes and one omnibus.

Trawling through the Highways Committee minutes provided more evidence to confirm the cab-fares theory: in February 1875 the Moldgreen and Dalton Sub-committee resolved “that a distance post be placed at Primrose Hill for the purpose of calculating the Cab fares”.  Primrose Hill is on the Newsome road, one of the non-turnpiked suburban roads.  Note that a post is referred to rather than a stone.

Then in December of the same year the Almondbury & Newsome Sub-committee resolved “that a One Mile Stone and a One and a half Mile Stone be erected at Longley Lane and Lowerhouses”.  We have no reason to suppose that this is necessarily one of the “to and froms”.

Further research on the Highway Committee minutes may provide further details on other stones, but we have to remember that in 1875 most of the Turnpike Trusts were still in operation, so the Corporation would not be able to erect milestones on the turnpikes.

Meanwhile the Watch Committee minutes were also providing information (it was this committee that regulated hackney carriages).  In 1889-90 we find the Fartown, Deighton and Bradley Sub-Committee recommending a revision of the table of distances for cab fares, especially in Fartown, and that these should be measured from the railway station, not the Market Cross.  The minutes also referred to a table of distances being published in the [Corporation] Year Book.

The Year Book having been found, it did contain a Cab Fares page, showing charges were levelled on distances for a minimum one mile and for every succeeding half mile (or by quarter hours). There is a list of distances and fares (2 wheeled or 4 wheeled) from the Market Cross.  This minimum distance explains why there are no half-mile stones as one left the town centre.

There are specific locations for each half-mile point.  On Bradford Road, for example, the 1½ mile point is “A Mark on the wall 11 yards N. of Mr Dewhirst’s entrance gates.”  (This is exactly where the 1½ mile “to and from” stone was situated before being demolished recently by a passing vehicle).  All the datum points mentioned are chapels, toll bars, houses, junctions and suchlike, which indicates that the “to and from” stones were not yet in situ by 1890.

We are hoping that further research will provide conclusive evidence of when these unique stones were erected.

In 2012 the only 3 1/2 mile “to and from”, which was rescued during the construction of the M62, was re-erected at Outlane near its original location.  Click here for the full story.

Sources: Huddersfield Corporation archives as discussed, in West Yorkshire Archives Service at Huddersfield Library; Roy Brook: Huddersfield Corporation Tramways (1983); article by Jan Scrine in Yorkshire Milestones Newsletter.  RWH / revised November 2012.