Travellers' Rest stone at Lymm petrol filling station

Stone seat for travelling migrants, of around 1860, designed by James Kendrick.

MATERIALS: red sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: fixed in the ground on the edge of the forecourt within a small gravel border.

The stone has an overall length of 63 inches, a depth of 22 inches and an overall height of 16 inches. The stone is slightly domed in the centre to shed water, across a width of 39 inches; at either end it steps down by 6 inches, to a lower seat 12 inches wide, and 10 inches high.

It is partially buried so that the lower step is almost level with the kerb of the forecourt, possibly obscuring a date. It is also damaged with a crack at the west end, a chunk missing at the east end of the top step, and several score marks on the south face, across the ‘travellers’ rest’ inscription. Below this the south face is inscribed, in Roman capitals, MARY RIDGWAY/ A NEPHEW’S AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE. The west face of the top step has an Ordnance Survey datum benchmark inscribed. The north face has vertical tooling.