Boundary Markers

­­­The Saddleworth district of the West Riding was traditionally divided into four meres, each further divided into two or three divisions, commonly called upper, middle and lower.  See www.yorkshiremilestones.co.uk/2020/08/12/saddleworth-boundary-stones for more information. 

These boundaries, probably dating from pre-Norman times, bore little relation to the settlements that developed over the centuries.  Uppermill for example (or Upper Mill as it is referred to on early Ordnance Survey maps) grew rapidly in the 19^th century from a few houses around the eponymous mill to a population of 794 in 1841 and double that 50 years later.

In 1864 the inhabitants (or at least those with a say in the matter) of the MiddleDivision of Quickmere elected to become the autonomous Springhead Local Board of Health, and this inspired the inhabitants of Uppermill to do likewise four years later.

The 1894 Local Government Act formalised local government arrangements in England, following the establishment of County Councils in 1888: Local Boards became Urban District Councils, while all other rural parishes were combined into Rural Districts.  All of Saddleworth outside Springhead and Uppermill became the Saddleworth Rural District, and the meres ceased to have any significance. 

In 1900 the Rural District was merged with Uppermill UD and became the Saddleworth Urban District.  Finally in 1937 in a major reorganisation in the West Riding Springhead was merged into it to create the body that continued to the next reorganisation in 1974, and exists today, albeit with reduced responsibilities, as the Saddleworth Parish Council.

The area of the local board comprised only a small part of Lordsmere, as can be seen from the Ordnance Survey maps published around 1894.  The boundary on the west was the railway.  Its northern point was just south of the roundabout where the road to Dobcross goes off to the left; the southern point, near Wade Lock, was actually the original boundary with Shawmere.  Between these points the roughly semi-circular eastern boundary took in just the built-up area.

Curiously, it seems that it was not until nearly 20 years after its formation that, at a committee meeting of the Local Board on 2^nd June 1886, it was resolved that stone markers be erected to define this boundary.  Each was to be given a letter and marked with the words ULB BOUNDARY.

Four of these survive in their original locations.

The southernmost point, on the east side of the main road, just beyond where it crosses the canal, is marked by a stone clearly carved A / ULB / BOUNDARY.

From here it is a short distance to the railway line, and the boundary now follows the line of this northwards all the way to the point on High Street where the railway viaduct crosses the road.  A stone stands here, carved B / ULB / BOUNDARY. 

From here it goes down High Street as far as the small Pickhill Brook, just south of Ryefields Drive; a stone that has lost its top half and has no surviving markings stands here.  This, I believe, would have been stone C.

No stones survive after this until the one marked I as described below, but those marked on the old Ordnance Survey maps would fit the A-Z sequence as follows:

• D: the boundary following Pickhill Brook to a stone at a point just beyond the old railway line.  Sadly I have failed to find any trace of this.
• E and F: the boundary heading roughly SSW to Church Road, just before the old railway bridge: two stones are marked on the old map, one on each side of the road.
• G: heading SW, and crossing Station Road, where there was another boundary stone
• H: continuing in this direction and following a small stream now partly culverted, it reaches the River Tame where another stone was located.

Stone I can be found as the boundary follows the river south: it is about 60 metres north of Carr Lane Bridge carved I / ULB / BOUNDARY.  At this point the boundary heads east to take in a piece of land around Rush Hill before rejoining the river.  Rush Hill was the home of local worthy and mill-owner John Edward Pratt.

One more stone is marked (J) on the map at the point where the boundary crossed the river and the canal and returned to the main road to boundary stone A.  The location of this stone is inaccessible in undergrowth behind some lock-up garages so it may still be there.

Across the road from the stone marked A, and a little further south, another stone can just be seen on the other side of the road, sadly almost buried under tarmac.  There is evidence of carving on it: this appears to have the tops of the letters U L B on it but it either was not lettered or has lost its top.  This stone, while it appears to be one of the ULB stones, actually marks the original boundary between Lordsmere and Shawmere, and is not marked on the 1854 map.

I am informed that two more stones are in the excellent Saddleworth Museum in the centre of Uppermill.

RWH / June 2024

Read more: Uppermill Local Board and its boundary stones Read more: Uppermill Local Board and its boundary stones

The Sowerby Ramble is not one of the Milestone Society’s Heritage Walks, though perhaps it could be.

Rather it was a peculiar sub-district of Sowerby Township in the Calder Valley west of Halifax.  South of the Calder the townships went, from west to east, Langfield, Erringden and Sowerby.  Erringden township comprised principally the former manorial hunting-ground of Erringden Park, established in the 1320s.  To the north of it, however, between the park/township boundary and the river, was a narrow strip of land belonging to Sowerby.  This was known as Sowerby Ramble, and can be clearly seen on Myers map of 1835 (a section is pictured below: the Ramble is the pink strip).  It is also marked on the first Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1848.

Mytholmroyd marked the north-east corner of the Ramble, from where it continued westwards past Hebden Bridge and Eastwood to Stoodley Bridge.  Here a small stream, Stoodley Clough, heads up towards the noted landmark of Stoodley Pike, through what the OS map named as Ramble Wood.  The Ramble followed this stream to a point about half a kilometre east of the monument where it stopped abruptly.  This stretch separated Langfield and Erringden townships.  The Ramble also went south from Mytholmroyd, to the east of Cragg Vale, but much wider in places.

It is thought that its purpose was to provide access for maintenance of the park boundaries, or for cattle or deer herding.  Although the mediaeval park had been sold off several centuries earlier, the Ramble was not abolished until 1850, when it was incorporated into Erringden Township. 

It lives on, however in a series of S marks on stones, gateposts, walls, etc all along the boundary.  Pictured here (above) is one (a reverse S) on the east parapet of the railway bridge on Palace House Road, Hebden Bridge. Others can be found pictured on geograph.org.uk if you search for “sowerby ramble boundary”. When these Ss were carved is not known.  It has been suggested that it may have been around the middle of the 19^th century, to preserve the memory of the Ramble, but an earlier date seems more likely.

Sources: A Newell: Sowerby Ramble and Erringden Park (Halifax Antiquarian Society Transactions, 1915, p 233); Nigel Smith: The medieval park of Erringden (Hebden Bridge Local History Society, 2021)

RWH / March 2022

The River Tees was the traditional boundary between the North Riding of Yorkshire and County Durham.  Local government boundaries in the 20^th 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 17^th century Bow Bridge, which runs alongside the present one (pictured below).

RWH / December 2021

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

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 

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

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

1. J J Brigg: A disputed county boundary in The Bradford Antiquary, August 1933, new series part 26, pp 1-16.   
2. George Redmonds: The Lingards and Meltham dispute in his Slaithwaite places and place-names (Lepton: G R Books, 1988), pp 42-47.
3. W B Crump: Huddersfield highways down the ages (Huddersfield: Tolson Memorial Museum, 1949), pp 119-122.
4. 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.

RWH / Nov 2021

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 12^th 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.

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 Nooning Stones, 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 place called 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 to Colne, 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 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).

RWH / Nov 2021

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 19^th 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 19^th 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.

RWH / August 2021

Helme is a small village in Meltham township, five miles southwest of Huddersfield.  It was one of the earliest churches to be announced in the London Gazette, and unlike the others in the West Riding is described as an ecclesiastical district rather than a chapelry.  Spelt Elm on the 6-inch Ordnance Survey map published in 1854, it was spelt Helme when the church was built, though Helme Lane is referred to as Elm Lane in the boundary description. The name appears to be unconnected with any trees that may have once grown here.

The Church is an attractive Victorian Gothic church with many original features, such as the Lord’s Prayer, Creed and Ten Commandments painted on the chancel walls, and the Beatitudes inscribed over the arches in the nave.  The spire too is interesting, being the only wooden shingle spire in Yorkshire.  It has no stained glass, thus enabling, so it is said, God’s handiwork in nature to be seen (and handy if the sermon is a bit dull).

The boundary is defined in the London Gazette of 13^th August 1858.  Boundary stones are mentioned twice in the description, and they do not follow the later standard pattern, being unnumbered, and consisting only of the letters H D B (for Helme District Boundary).  The first mentioned still exists, at the southern end of a public footpath leading from Helme Lane to Sunny Heys Road, just west of and roughly parallel to Broadlands Road (grid ref approx SE 0992 1110).  It is very small. 

The second mention refers to stones (plural): one is not a free-standing stone but carved on the corner of Bent Ley former silk mill, on the main Huddersfield to Meltham road. Another boundary stone stands here, marking that between the South Crosland and Meltham Townships.  Another, so far not checked, is presumably on the north-east corner of the same building.

Sources: https://huddersfield.exposed/wiki/Christ_Church,_Helme; London Gazette, 13 August 1858, issue 22173, pp 3781-2.

RWH / May 2021

There are several Thorpes in Yorkshire, but this is about one on the road between Triangle and Ripponden near Halifax.  It’s not really a place, more just a house (now a bed & breakfast) and a mill (now apartments) – and, for less than a century, a church.  Thorpe House was lived in by Frederick Rawson, a woollen manufacturer who owned the mill next-door and had the church built.

There were already old-established churches in Ripponden and Sowerby, both just over a mile away, and in 1848 a church, St Mary’s, was opened at nearby Cottonstones to serve the population of Mill Bank.  This had been built with money left in the will of Ellen Hadwen, who died in 1842.  She was a member of a family of cotton-spinners who owned various mills (not all surviving) at Kebroyd, just along the road from the Rawsons of Thorpe.

Despite all these, and perhaps out of local rivalry, Rawson decided to finance and build his own church, dedicated to St John the Divine, on land slightly nearer Triangle.  He died in 1879 with the church not quite finished, but the work was continued by his widow Harriet and the church was consecrated the following year.  It seated 300 people, and a Sunday School was built alongside for 200 children. 

This being the Church of England all new church-building had to be authorised by the monarch, and announced in the London Gazette, the official record.  The Thorpe St John Consolidated Chapelry (so-called because it was created out of more than one existing parish) was listed, with a detailed schedule of its boundaries, in the issue of 6^th September 1881 – this despite being already built and functioning.

The boundaries of the Thorpe chapelry refer to two boundary stones, both of which still stand.  From Kebroyd the boundary reaches “the eastern boundary of the buildings and premises called or known as Dean House and extending thence northward to and along the said wall or fence for a distance of eleven chains or thereabouts to a boundary-stone inscribed ‘T. St. J. C. C. 1881. No. 1’ and placed at the northern end of the same wall or fence on the southern side of Dean-lane”.

Skirting Mill Bank it then reaches a point “at or near to the junction of Birks-lane, Helm-lane, and Bowood-lane and extending thence north-eastward along the middle of the last-named lane for a distance of fifteen chains or thereabouts to a point opposite to a boundary-stone inscribed ‘T. St. J. C. C. 1881. No. 2,’ and placed on the south-eastern side of the said last-named lane at a distance of exactly four chains to the north of the junction of the same lane with Green-lane”.

The first stone, on Dean Lane, is just outside no 7, Saw Hill, and has recently (Autumn 2020) been cleared of the ivy which had hidden and presumably protected it.  It is in very good condition.  The second, on Bowood Lane, is about ½ mile north of Mill Bank, on the right-hand side of the road, built into a wall and now somewhat eroded.

The population of the area covered by the new church was not large, and it must have always struggled to have a viable congregation.  In 1917 it suffered a disastrous fire and was rebuilt.  In 1941 it became part of an amalgamated parish with the Cottonstones church, but was finally closed in 1968 and demolished in 1973.

Sources: Albert Senior: St John the Divine, Thorpe: souvenir of the Jubilee, Sept 20^th 1930 (published 1930); London Gazette, 6 September 1881 (available online); Malcolm Bull’s Calderdale Companion (website)

RWH / April 2021

In the north-west of the old West Riding over a dozen stylistically identical boundary stones can be found, all in an area between Giggleswick and Ingleton.  They are made from a single slab of Helwith Bridge blue slate, from a local quarry – Helwith Bridge, over the Ribble is about four miles north of Settle. 

They have a triangular top and a v-shaped groove down the centre, with the parish or township names attractively carved on each side.  Historic England, who have listed many of them, describe them as early 19^th century, but they may be later as they do not appear on Ordnance Survey maps until the 1890s.

Nearly all the surviving ones are in Clapham parish, which comprised the townships of Clapham, Austwick and Lawkland, and the hamlet of Newby.  Others can be found on the borders of half-a-dozen nearby townships, including Ingleton/Horton, Horton/Stainforth, Stainforth/Arncliffe, Stainforth/Giggleswick and Langcliffe/Settle.

The one illustrated here, marking the boundary between Austwick and Lawkland townships, is near a bend on the A65 (Milestone Soc ID YW_AUSLAW01pb; grid ref SD 7793 6745).  There are three more on this boundary, including one on the lane leading into Lawkland.  This is no longer the parish boundary, however, it having been moved to run along the main road, probably in the 1930s.

A similar stone can be found on a minor road between Ingleton and High Bentham.  Made of the same material, it differs in that the I and the B are in larger capitals while in all the others all the letters are the same size.  The top is level rather than triangular, but this may not always have been the case.  This stone is illustrated on the front of Angus Winchester’s Discovering parish boundaries (Shire Publications, 1990).

Clapham township extended over five miles south of the village onto the moors, to an area called Clapham Common.  Austwick does the same to the east, and they share a long straight featureless  boundary.  (A detached portion of Lawkland between them to the north was transferred to Austwick in 1884).  Near a place known as Dovenanter is a much earlier boundary stone: a square block with A for Austwick on one side and C for Clapham on the other.  Winchester’s book pictures this standing up, but Humphrey Bolton’s 2018 photograph on Geograph shows it has fallen over – see www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5871545.  [Unless, of course, there’s more than one].

Who had the slate stones made and put up is not known.  While most of them are in the parish of Clapham, it was the townships rather than the parish who would have had the responsibility for marking their boundaries.  Similarly, while turnpike trusts might have erected boundary stones, most of these are not on the turnpikes.

One possibility, therefore is that a newly-formed district Highway Board erected them in the later 19^th century.  They took over responsibility for all roads, including turnpikes, and this could explain their uniqueness to this area.  I have not, however, traced any reference to a Highway District covering this district (eg for Ewecross, the wapentake which included Clapham parish).

Another possibility is that they might be related to tithe maps.  These were produced in the 1840s, following the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836.  Tithes were a local tax on agricultural produce, and the Act allowed tithes to the church, which had traditionally been paid in goods (eg crops or animals), to be paid in cash.  Large-scale maps were produced for most townships, showing every building and feature, natural and man-made, and land usage.  [Tithes were not abolished until 1936].

A tithe map for Clapham-cum-Newby township was produced by John Watson (Junior) of Kendal in 1847.  It shows “manorial boundary, buildings (named), vicarage, school, boat house, old mill, gardens, sundial, grotto, boundary stones, field gates, sheepfolds, pinfold, parkland, plantations, quarry (sand), pot hole, named hills, hill-drawing (slopes, knoll), woods, waterbodies, wells, springs, bridges, railway with station, footpath and/or bridleway. Turnpike roads distinguished; toll bar” at a scale of 1 inch to 3 chains.  The same surveyor produced a tithe map for the combined townships of Austwick and Lawkland, also in 1847.  Further research is needed here.

Another possibility is that they are somehow related to enclosures.  Similar maps were produced, often by the same surveyors, at around the same time, eg for Clapham in 1849.  This was surveyed by John Greenwood of Gisburn, who had assisted in the production of the tithe map for Giggleswick in 1841-43.

None of these possibilities, however, explain why the boundary stones can be found in unrelated townships.  So maybe a final possibility is that they began life in one township and others decided to copy them – or the quarry owners did an effective marketing exercise.

Please let us know if you have any further information on these attractive stones.

RWH / Sept 2020