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 The Island's new funky radio station www.wightFM.com