Two drunks were walking along a
country road one day...
...when they passed a churchyard. Having nothing better to do they decided to stop and read some of the gravestones. Suddenly, one of them swore rather loudly. "There must be something in the water around these parts," he said to his friend. "This chappy here lived to be one hundred and twenty!" "Blimey, that's impressive," his friend replied. "What was his name?" Bending down he slowly read the rest of the inscription: "Miles, from London..."
Click here to see the first milestone I ever recorded.
As you might already have guessed from the photograph (and the best joke I know on the subject – sorry), this website is all about Milestones. Since the middle of the 18th Century many roadsides in the United Kingdom have been adorned by these and similar waymarkers, but time and countless other factors have seen a considerable number lost. Consequently I decided to research and record some of those that remain around Bristol and Bath.
The milestone in the photograph is the first one that I ever recorded as part of this research project back in July 2007. It stands at the side of Rodway Hill Road in Mangotsfield and forms part of an almost complete fourteen-mile route between Hambrook and Bath. This website now contains details of 97 milestones on 30 different routes leading to Bath, Bristol, Chippenham and Chipping Sodbury, and I still have plenty more to seek out and record as time and circumstances allow, all of which I will add to this website as my research progresses.
See the Related Links section for more information on milestones and other similar subjects.
Latest Site News
Saturday, 6th September 2014
- Wow, doesn't time fly when you're having fun (or, rather, busy with other projects)? Anyway, last Sunday I was surprised to find not only a milestone but an entire route that I previously knew nothing about: To Bath, Guildhall from Bradford-on-Avon. It seems that despite the hours I've spent studying old Ordnance Survey maps, nothing beats keeping an eye on the side of the road.
For previous Site News bulletins, please see the Site News Archive.
