Summary
Milestone, early C19, erected for the Liverpool to Warrington Turnpike.
Reasons for Designation
This early-C19 milestone is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* a facetted milestone exhibiting good quality tooling;
* it is a relatively rare example of pre-1850 milestone, which belongs to a period when structures that retain a significant proportion of their original fabric are considered to be of special interest;
* the inscribed lettering is legible and gives valid distances.
Historic interest:
* the milestone is illustrative of an early Georgian road development that was opened in 1754, to improve transport links between Liverpool and Warrington.
Group value:
* it benefits from a strong functional group value with other contemporary milestones along the route of the former Liverpool and Warrington Turnpike.
History
The Liverpool to Prescot Turnpike was established by an Act of Parliament on 26 April 1726, it was responsible for the repair and maintenance of the eight-mile long road and a one-mile branch to Hyton. A second Act was passed on 4 June 1746, which allowed a four-mile extension from Prescot to St Helens, and a third Act passed on 17 April 1753 permitted the 10-mile extension from Prescot to Warrington (with an additional five-mile extension from St Helens to Aston in Markerfield). The route from Liverpool Exchange to Warrington Market Gate under the first, second and third Acts, was 19 miles long, passing through Notty Ash, Huyton, Prescot, Whiston, Rainhill, Bold Heath, and Great Sankey. In 1754 a requirement was placed upon the Turnpike to mark this route with 18 milestones, numbered in sequence from Liverpool to Warrington, including one at Whiston, shown as No 9 on Yates' map of 1786. The milestone is clearly shown on the first edition of the six-inch Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1845 to 1847 and published in 1850. A total of six milestone remain extant today, which are made to one of four designs; the oldest surviving example situated in Huyton dates from the mid to late C18. The flat headstone-like example at Rainhill Railway Skew Bridge was installed in 1829 as a replacement for an earlier stone and its text is similar in style to the Whiston example, and the remaining two survivors nearer to Warrington appear to be of an early to mid-C19 date.
With the advent of the railways and the eventual end of the stagecoach, the Turnpike Trust was dissolved in 1871, with the maintenance of the road being taken over by the local authorities, eventually becoming the western end of the A57 Trunk Road in 1946. The Whiston milestone has been moved 5m to the north-east from its original position, due to road widening that took place sometime between 1955 and 1966. There are four other listed Grade II milestones along the route: Huyton, Rainhill, Lingley Green and Great Sankey (National Heritage List for England 1075494, 1261826, 1230786 and 1392443 respectively).
Details
Milestone, early C19, erected for the Liverpool to Warrington Turnpike.
MATERIALS: painted ashlar sandstone.
DESCRIPTION: the milestone is set on the north-east verge of Warrington Road (A57), approximately 18 metres north-west of the junction with Gilbert Road. It has a triangular section with a curved top that merges into an arris, which separates the two side panels. It has a spherical base that has a semi-circular front panel, which reads: WHISTON. The rear has a pecked tooled surface that contains a canted ashlar rectangular recessed panel. The north-west panel is inscribed: TO / WARRINGTON / IX / MILES and the south-east panel is inscribed TO / PRESCOT / I / MILE / TO / LIVERPOOL / IX / MILES. The side panels and the arris are painted white and all lettering is black.
