It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help.
Guide stones
Guide-stones are known as guide-stoops in Yorkshire, from an old Norse word for post. The first official ones followed an act of Parliament of 1697/8, instructing the county justices to have direction indicators set up at crossroads. They could be stone or posts, presumably wooden.
Naturally, none of the latter survive, but many of the stones can be found. The Milestone Society’s repository does not distinguish between guide-stones and milestones, though they are not synonymous: the first guide-stones did not show distances.
Some are still in lonely spots on the moors, though often encroached on by later development. Sometimes they have been re-used as gate-posts and many, no doubt, will have been lost for a variety of reasons.
The links that follow are to articles on some of the many interesting ones that can be found. Guide-stones of the West Riding has a more detailed history.
NORTH RIDING
Handstones: guide-stoops on the North York Moors
WEST RIDING
Guide-stones of the West Riding
West Riding: now in Lancashire
West Riding: now in North Yorkshire
Guide-stones around Skipton: the ‘Craven stoops’
West Riding: now in South Yorkshire
A hexagonal guide-stoop near Stocksbridge
The Maythorn Way: an ancient track between Marsden and Penistone
West Riding: now in West Yorkshire
Guide-stones between Otley and Leeds
Three obelisk mileposts at Ackworth
The stone chair: an eponymous area of Shelf
The Maythorn Way: an ancient track between Marsden and Penistone
The Kirkburton parish walks guide-stoops
RWH / updated April 2025