Milestone Set Into Garden Wall Of Milestone House

GERRANS

562/0/10010 A3078 14-FEB-11 (North side) Milestone set into Garden Wall of Mile stone House

GV II DESCRIPTION: A milestone of 1761. It is set within a garden wall which is not of interest. The granite stone is rectangular on plan with a rounded top and it stands approximately 1.2m high. It is painted white and is inscribed on its south, road-facing side: ST MAWES / 4¾ / TREGONY / 6¼; the lettering is picked out in black paint.

HISTORY: The milestone is one of a series erected by the Creed, Tregony and St Just Turnpike Trust which was established by an Act of Parliament in 1761. The milestones on the section of road between Dennis Water and Tregony are triangular in plan, whereas those on the road between Tregony and St Mawes, including this example in the village of Trewithian, are rectangular. Each of the rectangular milestones has a different style of inscription and it may be possible that the carving for each stone was undertaken locally.

The county map of 1827 depicts a road to the north of Trewithian, which bypassed the village, as the Creed, Tregony and St Just Turnpike, whereas the county map of 1832 shows the existing road through the village. The renewal Act of 1827 makes no mention of the change of route, but the map evidence suggests that this did happen at about this date. It thus seems likely that the milestone in Trewithian was re-sited to its current position when the route of the turnpike was changed and its inscription was then re-carved to reflect the changes to the distances. The first edition Ordnance survey map of circa 1880 shows the distances for the milestone in Trewithian as four miles to St Mawes and six miles to Tregony; different to those depicted on the stone which is inscribed: ST MAWES / 4¾ / TREGONY / 6¼.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The milestone on the north side of A3078, set within the garden wall of Milestone House in Trewithian, is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Intactness: it is an intact milestone dating from 1761 * Historic Interest: it testifies to the great wave of C18 road improvement, and has additional interest for its re-location when the turnpike was re-routed in the early C19 * Group value: it forms a group with other surviving milestones erected by the Creed, Tregony and St Just Turnpike Trust