Reused milestones at Ingledell on The Common at Flackwell Heath

None recorded

Landmark, art work or way finder

Assets whose form and function are readily visible, but which are not Buildings. This category includes signage and works of art such as murals and statues.

Asset type

18th century turnpike trust milestones reused as gateposts at Flackwell Heath

Rarity

It has recently been estimated that about half of the Buckinghamshire turnpike milestones and mileposts survive. Of the 20 mileposts on this turnpike in Buckinghamshire, only 3 survived in 2017. There were formerly 4 old milestones from the Reading and Hatfield turnpike reused as gateposts, but 2 were removed recently and the stones at Ingledell are now the only survivors. Milestones are particularly vulnerable to accidental damage from passing traffic and from mechanical verge or hedgerow maintenance.

Group Value

One of a group of milestones and mileposts on the Hatfield-Reading turnpike road.

Historic Interest

Milestones are of historic interest as tangible evidence of a particularly significant period in the evolution of the road network from an essentially post-Roman system of primary roads and local trackways to the modern trunk road and secondary road network. The Reading and Hatfield Turnpike Trust took over the running of a road between the Great North Road at Hatfield and the Bath Road at Reading, avoiding London and running via St Albans, Watford, Rickmansworth, Amersham, High Wycombe, Marlow and Henley. The route may have been built or improved under a 1757 Act of Parliament sponsored by the Marquis of Salisbury (Hatfield House) and the Earl of Essex (Cassiobury House, Watford) both famous sufferers of gout, which is probably the apocryphal source of the road’s modern nickname of the ‘Gout Track’. The original milestones were thin stone columns with rectangular base, curved front face, domed top and inscriptions in lower case, possibly set up by Lord Cecil of Hatfield House as they seem to predate the establishment of the turnpike trust in 1767. 2 of these early milestones survive as gateposts in Flackwell Heath and one from Little Chalfont is now in the Chiltern Open Air Museum. Another 2 formerly survived as driveway ornaments or gateposts on Amersham Road in Terriers but were removed sometime between April 2012 and September 2014. The early stones were replaced in 1770 by 50 milestones with inscriptions in capital letters, which were in turn replaced by cast iron mileposts with triangular cross section made by Wilder & Sons of Reading in the early 19th century. A cast iron milepost on Wycombe Road in Marlow was subsequently replaced, presumably by the County Council, with a steel ‘Bucks Pressing’ milepost, possibly in the late 19th or early 20th century.

Landmark Status

The milestones are visible as gateposts at the junction of Common Road and The Common. They would be highly visible if the overhanging vegetation were trimmed back.

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24 Sep 2023