Milestone at Roseworthy

at the back of the footpath on the north side of the road near Riverside cottages, Roseworthy, Camborne, TR14 0DU

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Overview

Milestone, early C18. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1484301
Date first listed:: 24-Jan-2023
List Entry Name:: Milestone at Roseworthy
Statutory Address:: at the back of the footpath on the north side of the road near Riverside cottages, Roseworthy, Camborne, TR14 0DU

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1484301
Date first listed:: 24-Jan-2023
List Entry Name:: Milestone at Roseworthy
Location Description:
Statutory Address 1:: at the back of the footpath on the north side of the road near Riverside cottages, Roseworthy, Camborne, TR14 0DU

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: at the back of the footpath on the north side of the road near Riverside cottages, Roseworthy, Camborne, TR14 0DU

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Gwinear-Gwithian
National Grid Reference:: SW6154339680

Summary

Milestone, early C18.

Reasons for Designation

The milestone at Roseworthy which dates to the early C18, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Historic interest:

* for its unusual location on a pre-turnpike route across Cornwall, but which later became its most important road.

Group value:

* with other listed milestones which were erected along the pre-turnpike route from Carland Cross to Hayle during the same period.

History

Milestones are one of the most widespread forms of street furniture. They became prevalent in the mid-C18, when turnpike trusts were encouraged to provide such markers, although until the General Turnpike Act of 1773 it was not obligatory for them to include mileage. A sequence of 23 milestones was erected on the road from Carland Cross near Mitchell in mid-Cornwall to Foundry Square in Hayle to the west between around 1720 and 1740.

Roseworthy is located on this road running east to west through Cornwall, and one of the early-C18 pre-turnpike milestones is located here. In the later C18 and early C19 the road, which passes over Roseworthy Bridge, became even more important as part of the packhorse route taking products of the mining industry to the port at Hayle.

The Hayle Bridge Causeway Turnpike Trust linked Hayle to Penzance in 1825 but it did not turnpike the road east from Hayle towards Redruth. However, the Trust rebuilt the road in 1839, still crossing Roseworthy Bridge but sweeping around the hills to make them easier to climb; none of the pre-turnpike milestones were removed. The road then became the principal route through Cornwall, the A30, until it was supplanted by the current dual-carriageway A30 with its by-passes which was completed in the late C20.

The raised inscriptions on the milestone were unfashionable by the mid C18, indicating an earlier date. The milestone is marked on the 1880 Ordnance Survey (OS) map, but on the opposite (south) side of the road near a mill leat. It is first shown in its current location on the 1938 OS map; it was possibly moved when the two turnings near the bridge were formalised. The surviving examples of the 23 milestones erected have ‘P’ for Penzance on the left-hand face and ‘L’ for Lands End on the right-hand face; here this is the opposite which may provide further evidence that the milestone has been moved.

Details

Milestone, early C18.

MATERIALS: granite

DESCRIPTION: the milestone is approximately 69cm (27 inches) tall, square in plan with a pyramid top which is slightly damaged. On the left and right faces are raised inscriptions, approximately 18cm (7 inches) high, reading ‘L 22’ and ‘P 12’ respectively.

Sources

Books and journals
Thompson, I, Cornish Milestones, (2013)
Websites
Heritage Gateway: Cornwall & Scilly Historic Environment Record, accessed 13/10/2022 from https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO67053&resourceID=1020
Other
Ordnance Survey, Cornwall (pub.1878) (1:2500)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.