Building record 1136240000 - Milestone on A404

18th century milestone on A404 in Flackwell Heath. On 2001 Milestone Society digital database as milestone 20 RHT (Reading and Hatfield Turnpike)(B1).
This milestone is on the Reading and Hatfield Turnpike Trust road of 1767, an orbibital route round northern London. The original milestones were thin stones with rounded tops; five survive, 2 as gateposts in Flackwell Heath one in Chiltern Open Air Museum with lower case lettering from Little Chalfont. Road supposedly developed by Lord Cecil on his route to Bath calling off at Hatfield to pick up another gout suferer and therefore known as the gout route. This name is not present in old records so is probably a modern designation. The original milestones were replaced with 50 milestones with capital letters, then in the 1800s replaced with 50 cast iron mileposts manufactured by Wilder and Sons of Reading. Triangular cross section, with distance to Hatfield on top. (B2).