Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2009 | Page 46
life
ISLAND HISTORY
How many miles
to Newport?
Photo: Mitsubishi Evo 10 driven by James Kaye
Article by Jan Toms
We live in times where there is a club or
organisation for everything so we should
hardly be surprised to learn that there is
a Milestone Society.
It is quite easy to overlook Island
milestones but they are there, sheltering
shyly along roadside banks. Some have
gently eroded until they are little more
than mellowing blocks. Others have
disappeared altogether, either toppling
over the cliff, tumbling into ditches or else
deliberately buried to confuse an invading
enemy during war. A few have been given
a second lease of life as part of a garden
wall or occasionally doubling up as a
borough boundary marker.
The milestone has a very long history
starting, as with so many things, with the
Romans. Exploring their vast territories
they found it helpful to have some idea
of the distances and thus men were
despatched to size up the routes. They
measured out a thousand paces, each
pace being the normal distance covered
by both feet. Hence, the Latin word
mille, meaning thousand evolved into the
English mile. In fact the distance was
about 140 yards shorter than the modern
mile, a discrepancy not altered until the
end of the seventeenth century.
There is no evidence that the Romans
erected milestones along their Island
roads, but who knows? For the most part
when they departed from Britain those
left behind were no longer concerned with
moving armies and supplies over huge
distances so the milestone became defunct
– temporarily at least.
They seem to have been given a second
lease of life in the Middle Ages when once
again pilgrims and travellers traversed the
country on their own personal missions.
It is hard for us to imagine a land without
proper roads and certainly no helpful
46
signposts to guide
us on our way.
This is where the
milestone came into
its own. It not only
told you how far to
the end of the road
but also reassured
you that at least you
were on the right track – track being the
appropriate word. Not unnaturally those
tracks that led to important places, cities,
villages, markets, evolved into the major
streets and roads we know today.
Some parts of the country have elaborate
milestones and way markers, carved,
painted and highly visible. The Island
has an altogether more modest array.
Of the hundreds that may have existed,
only less than a score have to date been
located in situ. The Isle of Wight County
Archaeology and Historic Environment
Service have checked out some of the
routes and where possible marked the
stones and recorded their condition.
In some cases the only proof that they
ever existed is their presence on an old
Ordinance Survey map.
Along the Coast Road from the West
High Down to Newport there were
probably thirteen stones as the distance is
reckoned to be 14 miles. From Freshwater
to Chale it was about ten miles and
as one number increased, so the other
diminished. For example, “Chale 6
miles” meant that Freshwater was 4 miles
away, then when Chale became 5 miles,
Freshwater too was 5. The coastal stones
tended to be placed near chines, granges
and sometimes doubled up as Parish
boundaries.
Chale itself has four extant stones, one
outside Chale House, one on the corner by
the wall of St Andrew’s Church, another
along Chale Street a mile from the last,
and one in Town Lane. Apart from the
one in Chale Street that records that the
traveller is 8 miles from Newport, the
others are now illegible.
Along the Shorwell to Brighstone road,
there are two markers in better condition.
At Limerstone a renovated stone on a
grass verge assures the rambler that he
is 6 miles from Newport. A mile to the
west, snuggling up to the wall around
Brighstone Tea Rooms, another stone
declares that it is 7 miles to Newport.
Whether it is seven miles to or from a
place seems to depend on the preference
of the mason. Perhaps it has something
to do with whether you view the cup as
half full or half empty.
The strangest Island milestone stands
outside Wisteria Cottage at Newchurch.
For some inexplicable reason it tells
the casual viewer that he or she is 91
miles from London. One must wonder
whether that is as the crow flies and also
where exactly London begins. Perhaps
a homesick Londoner wandered outside
from the Pointer Inn one night and gazed
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