Milestone Circa 30M South Of Garage At Denas Water

PROBUS

1146/0/10017 B3275 25-JAN-11 Milestone circa 30m south of garage at Denas Water

GV II A granite guidestone dating from 1830, standing on the verge on a small lay-by on the south side of the road.

EXTERIOR: The stone is triangular in plan with a flat top and chamfered edges. It stands at 0.85m 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 4 FALMOUTH 14 ½', the right 'BODMIN 20 ¼ LONDON 246'. 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 left face beneath the plate.

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 the 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.

The B3275 was altered in 1995 and the milestone was moved 80m to the east.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The milestone 30m south of the garage at Denas Water is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: it illustrates the development of the transport network in Cornwall and further afield * Intactness: it is a good example of an early C19 milestone. * Group value: it has strong group value with the other ten surviving milestones along the road between Truro and Fraddon