Milestone 150M Sw Of Clerkenwater House

HELLAND

1557/0/10009 Milestone 150m SW of Clerkenwater House 01-OCT-10

GV II A milestone, dating from c1769, of stone (probably granite), now painted. The milestone is rectangular with a cambered head, and stands approximately 0.5m high. The milestone is inscribed with capital letters:B/1; the lettering is picked out in black paint. There is a metal pin in the top of the stone next to an inscribed benchmark.

HISTORY The milestone stands on the former turnpike road between Bodmin and Helland Bridge. The 1769 Act of Parliament that set up the Bodmin Turnpike Trust (9 Geo III, c.59 (local and personal)) required milestones and direction posts to be erected along the road, operated by the Trust: this one stood on the road from Bodmin to Helland Bridge. Annual income from the Trusts toll gates were recorded (PHIL/A/28 Royal Institution of Cornwall, Courtney Library) and show that while most gates returned hundreds of pounds each during the early C19, Clerkenwater Gate on the Hellandbridge Road yielded between twenty and thirty pounds annually. Despite this, the road continued to be part of the Trusts portfolio. This milestone is the last of only three that were erected along this three mile stretch of rural road.

The milestone is of a standard shape commonly employed by the Bodmin Turnpike Trust at that time, and is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey map of 1880.

SOURCES Information from the Milestone Society (2007)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The milestone 150m south-west of Clerkenwater House is recommended for listing at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * An intact milestone dating from the c1769, which remains in its original position. * Group value with the other listed milestones along the turnpike route. * It testifies to the great wave of C18 road improvement, undertaken by Turnpike Trusts. * This is an unusual turnpike milestone in that it is located on a secondary rural road.