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W B Crump, in his Huddersfield highways down the ages (1949), describes the route of an ancient track leading from Marsden to Penistone, by way of Meltham, Holmfirth, Hepworth, Maythorn and Thurlstone. He also describes five guide-stoops found along the route. Four of these, now somewhat battered, and some no longer in their original locations, survive.

From Marsden the track took the route that later became the first Wakefield-Austerlands turnpike as far as Holthead where the present road turns off to Meltham. Just before Meltham was the first guide-stoop, described by Crump, but now lost.

The second (pictured, right) is just south-east of the centre of Meltham, where Mill Bank Road leads off the B6107 towards Honley (grid ref SE104102). It is sadly virtually illegible, but had distances to Honley, Marsden and Penistone.

The third is a couple hundred yards further on, at the crossroads at the top of the steep Netherthong Road (grid ref SE108099), where a road leads up to the Ford Inn and the A635. Crump records a now invisible hand pointing left to Penistone, with other directions (no hands: “go right” would be assumed) to Holmfirth and Marsden. These directions are a bit of an enigma, since according to Crump the route to Penistone lay through Holmfirth, and one would therefore expect the stoop to be pointing in the same direction to these two places. Also Penistone and Marsden, being in opposite directions, should be on opposite faces but aren’t. Perhaps the stoop was originally elsewhere.

The fourth stoop has had a chequered history, and is now in the middle of Netherthong (grid ref SE138096), a good mile and a half away from its presumed original position. An old Ordnance Survey 2½” map records a milestone at about SE121093, and this is presumably our stoop, being used as a gatepost, and this is how Crump describes it. But obviously it had been moved there at some time as it was some distance from any road or track junctions. Howard Smith, in his Guide stoops of the Dark Peak (1999), suggests that this was at SE119092, where Bradshaw Road crosses Wilshaw Mill Road/Wolfstones Road, but he reports it as missing. It has directions to Marsden, Penistone and Huddersfield.

Crump then describes a route through Holmfirth, Hepworth, Maythorn and Thurlstone to Penistone, though some parts of it are possibly a bit speculative. The only other guide-stoop is on Thurlstone Moor, on the un-made-up High Bank Lane (grid ref approx SE219038), directing to Holmfirth, Huddersfield and Penistone – again in a very poor condition (pictured, right).

There is a stone just inside the grounds of Holmfirth High School (Heys Road, grid ref SE151097) which looks like a guide-stoop, but whatever markings it may have had have been erased. Though not on Crump’s route it is not far from the old crossing of the River Holme at Thongsbridge and could possibly be connected.

And finally, this being about the Maythorn Way, mention should be made of the Maythorne Cross, which has been the subject of legal disputes in recent years. Thought to have originally been a Saxon boundary marker, there are now two Maythorne Crosses, neither particularly original: one in Holmfirth by the river, near the main car-park (grid ref SE144084); the other in a field near its original location near the hamlets of Victoria and Maythorn.

RWH/April 2015

Street names and road history

Below is a selection of street name signs with a connection to the history of Yorkshire’s road network. [Sorry, the Milestone Lane pictured above is at Pinchbeck, near Spalding in Lincolnshire – and no longer has a milestone on or near it. The 1887 OS map shows both the name and a milestone, however]

 

The “Forest of Knaresborough” was an ancient area to the west of the present town, first mentioned in 1167, though possibly established even before the Norman Conquest, as a royal hunting-ground. It was not a forest in the modern sense of the word, ie a continuous stretch of woodland, but much more open land. It covered a huge area, around 40 square miles, containing 24 townships between the Rivers Nidd and Wharfe, extending almost as far as Pateley Bridge and Appletreewick.
There were attempts to enclose the forest in the 16th and 17th centuries, which all failed due to local opposition. Because of the large number of illegal (though generally small) encroachments that were being made, an investigation was ordered in 1766, resulting in a Commission being set up the following year. This reported that a good deal of the Forest common was “capable of cultivation and improvement”, and the Enclosure Act followed in 1770.
The first task of the Commission, however, had been to establish the forest boundaries. Accordingly a perambulation was announced, starting at Ribston (on the Nidd, three miles south-east of Knaresborough) on September 3rd 1767, with the assistance of local people. The boundary was then marked by a series of round-topped stones carved with a number, the letters K-F, and the date (normally 1767).
There were 49 stones, of which around 30 survive, not all in their original position. The route of the boundary is described in Christopher Butterfield’s booklet (details below), which has photographs of all the surviving stones .
The Commissioners started at the junction of the Nidd and the Crimple (or Crimple Beck), just below Ribston. The boundary follows the Crimple, which flows south of Harrogate, as far as Pannal, where stone no 1 is found, and continues in a clockwise direction to no 49, near the Nidd between Killinghall and Ripley. This is presumed to be the last in the series, as the boundary follows the river back to where the Commissioners started.
Nos 8, 9 and 10 have different dates (1823 and 1825); these are in the parish of Great Timble, and are presumed to be the result of a boundary dispute which took a long time to resolve. Another dispute is possibly responsible for the absence of stones nos 19 to 25 in the lead-mining area around Stump Cross.
Two surviving stones do not conform to the usual pattern (it has been suggested that one stone-mason was responsible for all the stones). These are no 12, at Gawk Hall, on the moors north of Ilkley where four parishes meet, and no 18, at Lord’s Seat, two miles east of Appletreewick. For these the legend has been carved on a large existing natural boulder or outcrop of rock, in situ.

Sources: Christopher Butterfield, comp. and Cyril Mason: The boundary stones of Knaresborough Forest (published by the authors, 6 Ashville Close, Harrogate, HG2 9LZ, 2009); Harrogate WEA Local History Group, ed Bernard Jennings: A history of Harrogate and Knaresborough (Huddersfield: Advertiser Press, 1970); Olwen Middleton: Knaresborough Forest boundaries (Milestone Society Yorkshire News, 2013, no 13, pp 3-5).  Photo by Joe Regan on geolocation.ws.

RWH/June 2013

Apart from Stott Hall Farm, nothing stood in the way of the builders of the M62 trans-Pennine motorway as it made its way over the moors and peat-bogs of Rishworth and Scammonden in 1969 – certainly not the old milestone at Outlane informing drivers (and originally cab-passengers) that they were 3½ miles from Huddersfield.

Ray Wilson, a former Huddersfield Town footballer and a member of England’s World Cup-winning team of 1966, could see it from his father’s funeral parlour which overlooked the construction site.  On learning it was about to disappear along with everything else into one of the huge crushing machines on the site, he asked if he could have it, and was told to move it before the machines arrived.

Accordingly, after much strenuous effort (for the stone had as much under-ground as was visible above), it was re-erected in Ray’s garden at Barkisland.  It lived there for 32 years.

When Ray left Barkisland in 2006, he and his wife wanted the stone repositioned in Outlane, and finally, in 2012, following the intervention of the Milestone Society, and as part of Kirklees Council’s milestone refurbishment project, it returned home.

Just a few hundred yards from its original site on the westbound sliproad of Junction 23, it can now be found on the original section of New Hey Road, now a cul-de-sac just on the Huddersfield side of the roundabout.  Painted white, unlike all the other “to and froms”, but already weathered, it was the furthest from the town centre, and the only 3½ mile stone in existence.  They were erected by Huddersfield Corporation in the 1880s or 90s for the purpose of calculating cab fares, which, it is thought, were priced per half-mile.

Source: Milestones & Waymarkers, 2012, vol 5, p 20; Huddersfield Examiner, 29 Nov 2006.  RWH / November 2012

In 2006 funding was obtained by Kirklees MBC (covering Huddersfield and district) to restore and conserve the many milestones – there are over 100, not counting an even greater number of boundary stones – in the District. 

A number of Brayshaw and Booth stones on the Wakefield to Denby Dale road (A636) were duly refurbished and then all went quiet.  Persistent enquiries revealed a catalogue of unfortunate events: those involved had retired, been transferred, or made redundant; the depot had been closed; the foundry in Cheshire where the plates had been sent for refurbishment had gone into liquidation.

A happy ending has, however, finally been achieved, and in 2012 a number of stones have re-appeared.  These include stones at Lepton (A642), Grange Moor and Flockton (A637), Holmfirth, and the only 3 1/2 mile Huddersfield “to and from”.  (See separate article for the saga of this stone.) 

Another development has been a “Diamond Jubilee” refurbishment of a Brayshaw & Booth stone at Mirfield.  This has been painted blue, in accordance with the colour stipulated in the original contract in 1893 (see Brayshaw & Booth article), but with gold rather than white lettering.  It looks very fetching, but one can understand why the colour was changed to white, as it is far harder to read.

The Milestone Society is grateful to Kirklees for its continuing commitment to this project.

Source: Milestones &Waymarkers, 2012, vol 5, p 48.  RWH / November 2012

A trod, according to the OED, is a dialect word for a trodden way, a footpath, path, or way.  Brockett’s Glossary of North Country Words in Use of 1825 describes it as a foot path through a field. 
The word is still in use, having been revived by Christopher Evans from Scarborough, who has tramped across miles of field and moorland tracing the route of these old ways across the northern parts of the North York Moors. 
The essential feature of a trod is the single row of large stone flags, as seen on the cover of Evans’ book (pictured right) in an old photograph by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, the Whitby photographer (1853-1941).  His photographs show a number of trods which have now vanished, and Evans believes that perhaps only 20% of them survive.
Nineteen “long trods” have been identified, some running from the northeast coast southwestwards; some following or crossing dales, such as Eskdale (both the north and south banks) and Glaisdale.  Two notable ones are:
* The “George Gap Causeway”: Blakey Ridge through Rosedale and Great Fryup Dale (a very steep descent, and trods can be very treacherous when wet) to Staithes;
* “Quakers’ Causeway”: from White Cross (just east of Commondale) over Commondale Moor to Guisborough; the present name is obviously later than the trod, which may have a monastic origin, leading as it probably does to Guisborough Priory.
But shorter trods are found all over the moors; they lead to individual farms, mills and churches.  And locally they converge on market towns (and former market towns such as Egton near Whitby, and Castleton in Danby Parish).
There is no single reason why trods were constructed.  They do not tally exclusively with the existence of monastic properties, though many may have such links, and it is probable that monastic labour helped create them – they are even sometimes referred to as Monks’ Trods.  Nor do they tally precisely with the locations of mineral workings (alum, iron or coal), or with the locations of crosses and other waymarkers (although some can be found on them, and many continue to be rights of way today). 
The key factor in any road’s existence, however, is to connect goods from their place of origin with the people who want them: the trods that lead from the coast provide one obvious example, connecting fish with local markets. 
The earliest ones date from mediaeval times, and they were still being constructed in the 18th century: Castleton, for example, did not develop until this later period.
Many trods are vulnerable by running alongside later highways, but the North York Moors National Park Authority is aware of their historical significance, as are some local history groups, and it is hoped that concerted efforts will be made to preserve those that survive. 

Source: talk given by Chris Evans to the Milestone Society at Hebden, April 2012.
RWH / April 2012

The Sedbergh Turnpike Trust, based in the far north-west corner of the old West Riding, was unusual in that rather than having a single road going from A to B, it comprised five roads all radiating from Sedbergh.

The Act establishing the Trust was passed in 1761/2, and covered the following roads:

• eastwards to Askrigg in the North Riding; following roughly the line of the present A684, but at Appersett taking what is now a minor road to Hardraw and along the northern side of Wensleydale to Askrigg;
• westwards to Kendal in Westmorland (1762): the continuation of the present A684:
• to Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland (1762): leaving the Kendal road a mile west of Sedbergh at the Borrett Toll Bar, and heading south along the present A683.  (The present B6256, a couple of miles west of Sedbergh, which connects the Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale roads, was presumably also turnpiked as there is a milestone on it);
• north-east to Kirkby Stephen in Westmorland (1765), branching off the Askrigg road at the east end of the town – the continuation of the present A683;
• south-east to Dent (1802?): the only one of the Trust’s roads completely in the West Riding.  From Dent, mileposts continue on the road on the north side of Dentdale to Cowgill (whose bridge has an interesting plaque – click here for photo) and as far as the Hawes-Ingleton road, suggesting the Trust’s responsibilities extended beyond Dent itself. 

In 1840 the Trust is recorded as having 62 miles of road and seven main gates.

The Sedbergh Trust’s milestones are all to a standard, distinctive pattern:  a rectangular base with up to 50 cm of worked stone, plus rougher stone deeper in the ground; above this is a D-shaped column with a slightly domed top.  The whole is shaped from a single piece of stone and has a rough unworked back.  Destinations are indicated simply by their initial letters – though in Dentdale only the mileage to Sedbergh is shown – and some stones have the township name on the base. 

These milestones survive on all the Trust’s roads except the Hawes road (A684), where they were replaced by the new County Council mileposts (West and North Riding).  Those on the Dent road were presumably considered too minor for the West Riding County Council to replace them in 1894.  Similarly the WRCC did not bother to replace the milestones on the short West Riding stretches of two of the roads which led into Westmorland, to Kendal and Kirkby Lonsdale.

In 1825 the road from Hawes to Kirkby Stephen was turnpiked.  The central section of this, from the lonely Moorcock Inn at Garsdale Head to Appersett, was the existing Sedbergh-Askrigg road; from Appersett the turnpike continued to Hawes and Gayle, and from the Moorcock it went down Mallerstang to Kirkby Stephen.  Its milestones are similar in design to those of the Sedbergh Trust. 

Sources: Geoffrey N Wright: Roads and trackways of the Yorkshire Dales (Moorland Publishing, 1985); Christine Minto: The Sedbergh Turnpike (Milestone Society Newsletter, Jan 2006, no 10, p 17); www.turnpikes.org.uk.
RWH/April 2012

At the beginning of the 19th century Huddersfield was a small but increasingly populous township on the north-west side of the River Colne.  Public services were fragmented and mediaeval at best, and accordingly in 1820 the Ramsden family, or some enlightened citizens (it is uncertain which), sponsored an Act of Parliament “for lighting watching and cleansing the town of Huddersfield …”

The Act covered only a part of the town, that within a 1200 yard radius of the market-place, with the River Colne (the traditional boundary between the Huddersfield and Almondbury parishes) forming the boundary on the east and south.  Even this relatively small area was contentious, for it intruded into the areas of the self-governing hamlets of Fartown and Marsh.

This was followed in 1848 by another Act, known as the Huddersfield Improvement Act, whose jurisdiction again extended to the same 1200-yard limit. 

Two boundary stones from this period definitely survive: one on the road to Halifax (A629) on the right-hand side of the road (leaving the town centre), near the brow of the hill; and on Trinity Street, the road to Outlane / New Hey (A640) on the left-hand side, outside no 163.  Both are clearly carved with the letters and date “H. I. B. 1848”.

We believe a third stone exists, on Bradford Road.  This is just after its junction with Halifax Old Road, on the left-hand side of the road leaving the town centre.  It is roughly the same size and shape as the other two stones, but has no marks on it – and the back is buried under the ground level.

Others may have existed, but will have disappeared with later development; and old maps are unhelpful.

The boundary continued as a ward boundary into the 20th century, but by the 1918 Ordnance Survey map boundaries have been rationalised, and although in places the circular line survived, most now follow streets rather than arbitrarily cutting through houses, etc.

Sources: David Griffiths: Pioneers or partisans? – governing Huddersfield 1820-1848 (Hudds Local History Soc, 2008); information from Milestone Society members.  RWH / March 2012.

In the 16th century a stone was found in Booth Bank Clough, between Slaithwaite and Marsden, one of the little streams that drops down into the River Colne.  It was set up, in 1587, in the grounds of Slaithwaite Manor House, and became known as the Dial or Dyall Stone.  Despite having been taken, for some unknown reason, to the Isle of Man in the 19th century, and later re-sited outside Slaithwaite Town Hall on Lewisham Road, it can still be seen at the Manor House, off Nabbs Lane in the centre of Slaithwaite.

It is cylindrical, about five feet in height, 19” in diameter and with a circumference of five feet.  There are no signs of any inscription on it.

For a long time it has been thought to be a Roman milestone, and recent excavations by the Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society have shown that it almost certainly is one.  A route connecting the fort at Castleshaw in Saddleworth via Marsden to the fort at Slack, near Outlane on the outskirts of Huddersfield, has long been reported to exist (eg by mapmaker John Warburton in 1720), but its exact line had always been in doubt.  Excavations by the Society over nearly 40 years have now enabled this route to be ascertained much more clearly, and a milestone could well have been erected near the spot where the Dial Stone was found.  The absence of an inscription is not unusual: letters, etc could have been painted on it.

Although the Dial Stone had a sundial positioned on it at one point in its eventful history, it is probable that Dial is an alternative form of the word Devil, from some mediaeval superstition relating monoliths such as this to the Devil.  Roman milestones have elsewhere been referred to as “devil stones”, and one of the milestones now at Aldborough was found at a place still known as Duel Cross – Duel being one of several variant forms of the same concept.  The Devil was thought to be responsible for all sorts of geological formations or prehistoric features (causeways, dykes, ditches, etc).

It has been suggested that a stone that can be seen in a garden in nearby Golcar is also a milestone from the same road.  It is very similar in size and shape.  This is on Church Street near its junction with Manor Road.

Sources: Norman Lunn and others: The Romans came this way (HDAS, 2008); www.roman-britain.org

RWH / rev October 2021

One of the most unusual guide-stoops in the county can be found just off the A616 Stocksbridge bypass in South Yorkshire: it is, as far as we know, unique in having six sides.

In the absence of pointing fingers, a traveller was to take the road to the right while facing the destination name on the stone.  But here the road layout is far from clear: in fact there are only five routes leading from the stoop in evidence today.

Going anti-clockwise from the north the destinations read as follows:

a)  Peni / stone / Huthe / rsfield / & / Halli / fax.  This route is shown on the modern OS map only as a right of way heading north-north-west from the stone.

b)  Wood / head / & / Mottra[m].  The present Salter Hill Lane; as its name implies, this route is the old saltway from Cheshire via Longdendale to Yorkshire, preceding but following roughly the same route as the 1732-40 turnpike, now the A628; several old milestones survive on it.

c)  Under / bank / & / Brad / field.  Going roughly southwards: the present Underbank Lane.

d)  Shef / field / & / Rotter / eham.  The main continuation of the saltway into South Yorkshire: the present Tofts Lane.

e)  Barns / ley / & / Ponte / fract / 1734 / Don / caster.  There is no obvious route going in this direction from this point.

f)  Wake / field / & / Leeds.  The present Dyson Cote Lane, heading north-north-east. 

The easiest way to find the stone is from the Stocksbridge bypass (A616): take the turn-off south directing to the Steelworks (West Access), followed shortly by the next left turn, which is Underbank Lane, going under the bypass and uphill to the junction.

Sources: English Heritage; and B Elliott: Discovering South Yorkshire (1998)
RWH / March 2012