Milestone plaque from the past (From Gazette Series)

Milestone plaque from the past

DETECTION work took place after an historic milestone plate was saved for posterity when it came under the hammer in Worcestershire - and it turned out it came from Kingscote.

A Mid-Wales member of the Milestone Society alerted its chairman, David Viner and secretary, Terry Keegan, when he noticed the plate was included as a lot at the Pershore auction.

Several hundred people attended, most of them in quest of railway-related items. Having satisfied himself the plate was not stolen, Cirencester-based Mr Viner made a successful bid on behalf of the society.

Measuring 12in by 18 in and cast at a foundry in Stroud, the plate shows mileages in Roman figures to Bath and Gloucester.

Mr Viner established it came from the Ashel Barn milestone near Hunters Hall Inn, Kingscote, on what today is the main road between Tetbury and Dursley. The plate seemed to have been detached for some time.

Mr Viner said the stone was one of a small number marking the Old Bath Road, a cross-Cotswold route that began to fall out of use when a new turnpike was built south from Stroud in the 1780s.

"Few, if any, stones survive with this type of plate", said Mr Viner, who thinks it dates from the first part of the 19th century.

The society is now checking whether the stone is listed. Its 350 members are in the process of surveying and recording the thousands of surviving milestones and posts in England and Wales.