North Craven Heritage Trust |
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Since the project was featured in last year's journal, I have had an
excellent response from members who are interested in recording the wayside
features in their area.
Many interesting and little-known features have come to light, including a
pair of original Keighley & Kendal turnpike milestones, a horse trough dated
1819, a couple of 18th century guide posts not recorded by the Ordnance Survey,
and several interesting boundary markers. The project's main achievement for the
millennium has been the restoration of the series of cast iron mileposts along
the A65 (the old Keighley & Kendal Trust road) between Skipton and the
Lancashire border at Cowan Bridge. This is thanks to a partnership between the
North Craven Heritage Trust (recording), the Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust
(funding), the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (co-ordination) and North
Yorks County Council Highways Department (contracting).
The fruits of our labours can clearly be seen all along the A65, where
the posts have been rubbed down, primed and repainted. In some cases,
damaged posts have been re-welded on site. We should be proud that we
now have the best looking mileposts in Yorkshire! Milestones and boundary
posts seem to have dominated the project this year. In October I was invited
to give a paper at the first national Milestone Conference, held at the
Black Country Museum in Birmingham. I spoke about our project and received
a great many congratulatory comments on behalf of the Trust. Our recording
forms are now even being used for a similar project in Cornwall. A new
Milestone Society was formed from the 80 or so people who attended the
conference and I seem to have been co-opted onto the committee.... The
main priority for 2001 will be collating and making sense of the information
that the project has generated so far. Once all the details are computerised,
the results will be made more widely available for Trust members to peruse.
As ever, anyone with 'new finds', or who would like more information on
the project and how to record features should contact me via Spread Eagle
House, Kirkgate, Settle, BD24 9DZ.
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