Other Waymarkers

As well as the main types of waymarker described on other pages (milestones, guide-stones, boundary stones), the Milestone Society and its members are interested in many other types of wayside feature.  Needless to say, Yorkshire, as befits England's largest county, has more than its fair share of all these.  For more information, click on the various links below.

Most numerous are finger posts, to be found at huge numbers of crossroads throughout the country.  While perhaps most have been replaced by signposts in the modern standard style, many interesting older ones survive.

The Society also records toll-houses in its repository.  Because they often stuck out into the road many of these have been demolished.

Then there are many different kinds of stones and other signs that may occasionally be encountered, including: 

  • Take-on and take-off stones.  If this were an I-Spy book you would get at least 50 points if you were lucky enough to spot one of these.
  • County bridge stones: denoting an important bridge which was to be maintained at the expense of the county rather than the parish. And since rivers were often boundaries between parishes this could be an endless source of inter-parochial dissension.
  • Right-of-way stones, such as the Marsden Packhorse Road stones, subject of a court case in the early 20th century.
  • Village signs, originally put up by organisations such as the Automobile Association.
  • Sanctuary stones
  • Turbary stones

Other interesting features to be found especially in rural areas reflect the history of our highways: these include packhorse roads and bridges, such as our newly-restored section between Marsden and Slaithwaite.  Elsewhere you will also find old causeys - see the article on Trods - and if you look over the pedestrian bridge leading from Bridge Street, Holmfirth to Crown Bottom car-park when the river is low.you will see a paved stretch of the river -bed - for this was the main way into the village some centuries ago.

In addition to the milestones on our highways there are mile-markers to be found on our canals, such as the Leeds-Liverpool  (pictured on the right) and the Huddersfield (Broad and Narrow) Canals, and the Society has now started to record these.

RWH / Oct 2015

Administration