Tag: Fritchley

Beating the bounds

On By SteveIn Places, Roadside features3 Comments
Boundary stone near Fritchley

This stone, partly broken, can be found lurking in the hedge of the minor road that links Fritchley with Wingfield. Although partly broken, one side still reads ‘Winfiel(d)’ and the other ‘Crich’. Easily mistaken for a milestone, this is actually a boundary stone marking the limits of these two parishes, marked BS on Ordnance Survey maps. The boundary here can still be followed on public footpaths, southwards to a footbridge over the River Amber and Sawmills, northwards (briefly) to Park Head. The OS maps mark the boundaries with black dots, though they can be difficult to see.

A custom revived

The parish system of local government is thought to have been established in Saxon times, although individual parishes were originally much larger. In the past, parishes were the only kind of local authority that affected most people’s lives, being responsible, for example, for road maintenance. Therefore the limits of the parish were important, and in a largely pre-literate society this knowledge had to be handed down orally, hence the annual perambulation known as ‘Beating the Bounds’. This involved the priest, various landowners and some unfortunate young lads, whose fate was to be beaten at critical points so they would remember them. Who knows whether this beating was symbolic or real?

Another stone in North Derbyshire

Rivers and streams were often used as boundaries, since they were unlikely to move very much, but as they were not always available other marks, such as large trees, might be used, and clearly boundary stones were sometimes also needed. Where the line of a road (or footpath) is a boundary it suggests that the road is very ancient and important, such as sections of the old Roman road (The Street) running north from Pikehall, which was in use for at least 1,500 years. Today the custom of bounds beating is obviously redundant, but in places it has been revived as an enjoyable excuse for a group walk, as in the Macclesfield example above. More locally, a WEA group from Crich re-enacted the ceremony in 1984, and produced a very helpful written account of their route around the 14 miles of the parish boundary. See: https://www.crichparish.co.uk/PDF/beatingbounds.pdf

Milestoned?

On By SteveIn Roadside features4 Comments

Milestone from Bakewell to Ashbourne turnpike, near Winster

As might be expected, the Romans were the first to use milestones in Britain. Theirs were usually stone cylinders, and a fragment of one is in Buxton Museum. Clearly, they had two useful functions: not only did they tell travellers how far they had to go, but at the same time they provided reassurance that they were on the right road. Unsurprisingly, no Roman milestones survive in situ, and they were not seen here again until the eighteenth century.

Milestone near Matlock Bath

The turnpike trusts seem to have re-introduced milestones on their routes, with each trust using a slightly different style, as seen in the two examples above. Spelling of place names is also non-standardized. Many of these survive, and provide a useful indicator of the routes of different trusts. For instance, on the Alfreton to Ashbourne route, between Crich and Carsington almost all the stones are still in place, although sometimes they are hidden in the undergrowth.

Milepost at Fritchley

In the early nineteenth century some trusts began using iron, possibly because it was cheaper to letter. The above example is on the Cromford to Langley Mill turnpike near Fritchley, and gives more information than the earlier models.

This super-milepost is also made of iron, and is found opposite the Red Lion in Wirksworth. Unusually, it has the name of the iron founders (Harrison of Derby) at the base. Wirksworth was on the route of the Nottingham to Newhaven turnpike, and horses were probably changed at the Red Lion. Newhaven was an important turnpike junction, where coaches would join the Ashbourne to Buxton road.

Finally, it’s worth noting that although today few people use milestones for travel, we still talk about them in everyday conversation, as in ‘she had reached a critical milestone in her life …’. Perhaps a reminder that, at least for pedestrians, every milestone passed was an achievement!