Milestone

ILKLEY

710/0/10022 HARDINGS LANE 13-FEB-09 Milestone

II Milestone, 17th-18th C, rectangular stone block c. 1 metre high, set by the roadside at a junction.

ELEVATIONS: The front face is flat with a squared top, and the sides are fairly flat but tapered to the top. The front is inscribed with the words: TO/ RIPPO/ N/ 15 M, with a crudely incised hand below with a finger pointing right. On the left side are the incised words TO/ KEIGH/ LEY/ 5 M, with a crudely incised hand above pointing left.

HISTORY: The stone is marked as GS (guide stone) on the 1891 edition OS map, and Direction Post on the 1853 edition OS map. It may date from the period in the eighteenth century when the creation of turnpikes shifted the cost of road maintenance onto the road user through Act of Parliament, or possibly earlier as one of the guide stones erected by Justices in the 1667 to guide travellers over the moors.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION The milestone at Hardings Lane is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It dates to before 1840 and probably to the eighteenth century * It is of individual design with hand carved inscriptions