Building record 1471700000 - Milepost on A404

Probable eighteenth to nineteenth century 'cast iron' metal milepost part of 'gout route' may be missing on Stanley Hill Amersham. North of Amersham Common. Not found in Chilterns Milestone Survey in 1995 or latest Milestones Society Survey updated in 2010. Not on current OS map but confirmed by handwritten notes on 1" OSD Map (1835) Bucks County Museum number 43 sheet XLIII now in Centre for Bucks Studies. Position estimated from 'All Historic Layers Database'. Inscription: Amersham 1 : Rickmansworth 7. On Amersham to Rickmansworth (F1) route. On page 5 of notes. Recorded as not found on page F of same document under Mile Stones [Hatfield] Chenies to Henley - "Gout Track". Number 1 on 1" OS (1835). [Handwritten notes consulted in HER] (B1).
According to Peter Gullands extensive study The Toll Roads of Buckinghamshire 1706-1881 with their connections into neighbouring counties 2017.This milepost is on The Reading and Hatfield Turnpike Road 1767 p.175 road 13. The original milestones were put up by Lord Cecil in in the early 1700s to improve his route to Bath and then the trust took this route over in 1767. The original milestones were unusual for Bucks were thin tall stones with domed tops with the distance from Hatfield on the top of them all. 5 of the original stones exist 2 as gateposts at Terriers two as garden ornaments in Flackwell Heath and one in the Chiltern Open Air Museum. After the tust took over some time after 1767 they replaced the 50 stones with stones with capital letters on them. Then some time in the 1800s they replaced these with cast iron posts from Wilder and Son of Reading. This is the longest Turnpike Trust administered in Buckinghamshire. This is one of 116 modern records of milemarkers out of a possible 230 from historical sources in the county. During WW2 throughout the country milemarkers were removed for security reasons and sometimes not replaced or put back in wrong place. Peter Gulland is not convinced by gout track as a title from the 1700s as he doesn’t find this epiphet till the early 19th century. After the trusts closed in 1880s and 1890s Highway Authorities district or county or parish gradually replaced missed milemarkers on some roads with metal milemakers that the Milestones Society calls Bucks Pressings. These are standardised wth two white faces with black painted inscription. [Copy in HER] (B2).