I’m curious but not observant. I read on another blog about three things I have often walked past and never noticed; milestones. Like trig points and urban boot scrapers they are redundant. No doubt pillar boxes and public ‘phone booths will follow.
If I may digress, GK Chesterton relied on people not noticing in a Father Brown mystery; The Invisible Man – spoiler – it’s the postman. Talking of which, a friend wrote to me at completely the wrong address. The letter was promptly re-directed because of her PS on the back; everybody knows Bertie.
But back to milestones. When you were rattling up the Bath Road to London in a coach at a spanking lick the milestones were just that. As you got closer there were and still are some, milestones at half mile intervals. Lurking in King Street Hammersmith is the first I went to see: Hounslow 6 1/2 London 3 1/2.
Crack on towards Hyde Park Corner and the next extant example is, where else, outside The Milestone Hotel in Kensington.
The final milestone is at the Royal Geographical Society on Kensington Gore and it’s the most splendid.
There’s one more milestone: this is the 1,500th post. A low-key musical celebration is in order – nothing ostentatious.
Congratulations, Christopher – and thanks for all these wonderful diversions.
Hibernophile has a particular soft spot for the humble milestone, a great many examples of which are still extant in rural Ireland.
The examples I am familiar with are of the more simplified form, opposed to the painted cast iron type shown, which better embody the term, as they are formed from a single piece of hewn stone, carved with the distance & destination.
Nothing in Ireland is straight forward. The EU imposed metrication, so that now all road signs in the Republic of Ireland only display distance & speed limit in kilometers. My clever car speedometer only shows the speed in MPH. If you ask anyone in Ireland how far it is from A to B they will invariably always reply in miles, never Km. Why should modern life be so tortuous?
Thankfully the UK never adopted the EU recommendation.
Warmest congratulations on your personal milestone Christopher. In my opinion your blog is well ahead of the competition (by a country mile). 1500 posts (bar a few guest appearances) is quite an achievement. You are some man for one man, but before you pop the cork remember never to confuse quantity with quality: any fool can post gibberish these days. As brother Bru caustically states ‘Christopher is best enjoyed in small doses’.
Presumably they were removed in the war as all directions on road signs were.
There is a milestone on the A413 shortly after you leave Amersham to come towards the Chalfonts.