Milestone Opposite Gang Cottage

The milestone opposite Gang Cottage is an early 18th century milestone made of local granite. It has a roughly square shape with a flat top, standing approximately 1.37 meters high and 0.25 meters wide. Three of its faces feature deeply incised capital letters that are 0.08 meters high, while the fourth side is plain and slightly narrower. The inscription on the milestone reads: CAL/LING/TON LAUN/CES/TON S/GER/MA/NS.

Erected around 1700, this milestone is part of a series marking the route from St Germans to Launceston. In 1697, an act of Parliament allowed local Justices of the Peace to instruct highway surveyors to place stones or posts to improve travel in remote areas. Although the milestone does not correspond to modern roads shown on Ordnance Survey maps, it is linked to the road junction and highway system illustrated on J Gascoigne's map of Cornwall from 1699. By the time of the first edition Ordnance Survey in 1809, the road had been altered, but the existing field boundary still follows the line of the old road.

The milestone is designated at Grade II because it is relatively early, remains intact in its original location, has good group value with other listed milestones, and represents the early development of historic road use, being one of the few surviving physical remains associated with original routes before the introduction of turnpikes in the 1770s.