Milestone Circa 500M North Of Cuskayne Farm

PROBUS

1146/0/10019 B3275 10-MAR-11 Milestone circa 500m north of Cuskayne Farm

GV II A granite milestone dating from 1830, standing on verge on the east side of the road, approximately 500m north of Cuskayne Farm on the B3275.

EXTERIOR: The stone is triangular in plan with a flat top and chamfered edges. It stands at 0.75m high and is 0.55m wide. There are cast iron plates on either front, road-facing side, set flush with the dressed stone. The left is inscribed TRURO 6 FALMOUTH 16 ½', the rightBODMIN 18 ¼ LONDON 244'. The type faces of the two plates are different. The stone and the plates are painted white, with the lettering in black. There is a benchmark carved into the top of the stone.

HISTORY: In 1754, the first Cornish turnpike was established. The next 10 years saw the establishment of several new Turnpike Trusts in the county, resulting in the construction of new roads and erection of milestones. Under the renewal of the General Turnpike Act in 1828 new roads were commissioned in Cornwall, in order to provide a 'modern' passage from Falmouth to London, with good gradients and surfaces for horse-drawn traffic. The milestone that is subject of this assessment is one of a series of twelve, eleven of which are extant, beginning in Truro and heading north-east to Fraddon.

In 1835 a new route was constructed which avoided a steep hill, and hence nullified some of the distances on the stones. There are uniform discrepancies in distance on this, and the other milestones in the series on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1880. The second edition of 1907 shows the correct distances, suggesting the milestones were given new mileage plates sometime between these dates, probably in 1889 when the County Council took on the maintenance of the road.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Milestone approximately 500m north of Cuskayne Farm, Probus, is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Intactness: it is intact and legible and remains in its original position * Historic interest: it illustrates the development of the road network in Cornwall in the C19 * Group value: it has strong group value with those other milestones marking the course of the new route between Truro and Fraddon