Tuesday 21st January 2025  

Quorn Milestone

On the Leicester Road between the pavement and the fence stands a little-known link with the days of the Turnpike Trusts when the road through Quorn was a busy highway linking the industrial towns of the midlands and north with London. In addition to cargo carriers more than thirty stagecoaches passed through Quorn during the day and night. Milestones were important for speed and time checks for the coaches as well as for calculating tolls and delivery charges. The standard English mile of 1,760 yards became established and was used as the basis for erecting milestones on the turnpike roads.

According to old maps a similar stone once stood near to what is now the Bus Shelter just after the Woodhouse Road junction with the Loughborough Road probably removed during later road widenings.

The Leicester Road milestone is registered with the Milestone Society (National ID: LE_LM106). It is made from Swithland Slate with Height (above ground) 114.3 cms (45’’), Width 30.48cms (12’’), Depth 15.24cms (6’’) and Inset 27.94cms (11’’) by 24.13cms (9.5’’). The local destinations are unreadable having been obliterated by diagonal hatching in 1940 when destinations and mileages had to be removed to ensure that the information was not available in the case of an enemy invasion during WW2. The mileage of 106 is just discernible which was the mileage to London (Charing Cross). It is likely that the stone dates from the 1745 Act that set up the Market Harborough to Loughborough turnpike road trust. The firm chosen to supply the milestones was Hinds of Swithland whose expertise in quarrying and carving gravestones was well known.

Submitted on: 2021-03-06 Submitted by: Dennis Marchant Artefact ID: 2440 Artefact URL: www.quornmuseum.com/display.php?id=2440 Print: View artefact in printer-friendly page or just on its own (new browser tab).