Publications about milestones, waymarkers and related transport heritage topics

The following publications offer the reader exciting and interesting opportunities to learn more about the means and methods of depicting distances for travellers across the centuries. It is not a comprehensive list of publications, so should you encounter other relevant titles, please do bring these to the attention of the Society’s Honorary Secretary so the “Bookshelf” can be updated.  

Some titles are known to be out of print, but you may still be able to source them through the internet search channels.

(Updated November 2024)

Title Author Publication details/ISBN No. Other details
General Interest
A, B, C and M: Road Numbering Revealed Andrew Emmerson and Peter Bancroft Capital Transport Publishing (2016)

ISBN: 9781854144034

Roads: Archaeology and Architecture  Richard K. Morriss The History Press (2004)

ISBN: 9780752428871

Building a Bibliography David Viner and Mike Hallet The Milestone Society In Milestones and Waymarkers Journal Vols 1- 6
Hidden Histories:

A Spotter’s Guide to the British Landscape

Mary-Ann Ochota Frances Lincoln (2016)

ISBN: 9780711236929

Coaching Days and Coaching Ways W. Outram-Tristram Re-print by Bracken 1986

ISBN: 9780946495962

(first edition 1888)

Golden Milestone: 50 years of the AA David Keir and Bryan Morgan The Automobile Association (1955)
Man of Iron: Thomas Telford and the building of Britain Julian Glover Bloomsbury Publishing (2017)

ISBN: 9781048837467

More than a line on a map – Yorkshire’s boundaries, past present and future Terry Ashby The Book Dragon

Tel: 01642 670906

ISBN: 9781739608408

The Nine Lives of John Ogilby Alan Ereira Gerald Duckworth & Co (2016)

ISBN: 9780715651100

The Road Goes On C. W. Scott-Giles; illustrations by Hugh Thomson The Empworth Press (1946)
Roman Britain and where to find it Denise Alen and Mike Bryan Amberley Publishing (2020)

ISBN: 9781445690148

Secret Britain: Unearthing our Mysterious Past Mary-Ann Ochota Frances Lincoln (2020)

ISBN: 9780711253469

The Turnpike Road System in England 1663 –1840 William Albert Cambridge University Press (first edition 1972; reprinted 2007)

ISBN: 9780521033916

Transport and Economy: The Turnpike Roads of Eighteenth Century Britain Eric Pawson Academic Press Inc. (1977)

ISBN: 9780125469500

Turnpike and Toll-bars (2 vols) Mark Searle Hutchison & Co (1930)

ASIN: 8001349UGM

UK: England and Wales
A Guide to the Milestones, Mileposts and Toll Buildings of Cumbria Colin Smith Brow Bottom Enterprises (2011)

ISBN: 9780955657429 

Cornish milestones: the development of Cornwall’s roads in the 18th and 19th centuries Ian Thompson Twelveheads Press; now Tor Mark Press (2013)

ISBN: 9780906294789

office@tormark.co.uk
Dartmoor Boundary Markers and other markers on and around the moor David and Kath Brewer Halsgrove, Tiverton, Devon (2002)

ISBN: 9781841141725

Derbyshire Turnpike Road and Bridge Trusts 1724-1896 Philip Riden and Dudley Fowkes Derbyshire Records 

Society (2019)

ISBN: 9780946324453

Derbyshire Turnpike Road and Bridge Trusts 1724-1896, Vol 44 (derbyshirerecordsociety.org)
Discover Dorset – Roads, Tracks and Turnpikes David Viner Dovecote Press (2007)

ISBN: 9781904349143

Finding Worcestershire Milestones Worcestershire Group of The Milestone Society The Milestone Society (2007)

ISBN:9780955753800

The Great Road – the Thetford to Norwich Turnpike Norma Virgoe Wymondham Heritage Society (2017) ISBN:  9781901553123
The Guide Stoops of the Dark Peak Howard Smith Self-published (2000)

ISBN: 0952154137

The Guide Stoops of Derbyshire Howard Smith Self-published (2000)

ISBN: 0952154145

Marking the Miles: A History of English Milestones Carol Haines Self-published/

ISBN: 0953888509

£12; Contact the author at: ch_miles@yahoo.com
Milestones Mervyn Benford Shire Publications No 401 (2002) 

ISBN: 0747805261 

Milestones and Toll Houses on Old Turnpike Roads (No 10 in a series of 16 booklets on the Roads across the Upper Thames Valley (RUTV)

The other titles are:

RUTV 1: Ancient Tracks across the Vale of White Horse

RUTV 2: Ogiby’s Road to Hun gerford

RUTV 3: The Turnpike Network in the Upper Thames Valley

RUTV 4: The Besselsleigh Turnpike

RUTV 5: The Wallingford, Wantage and Faringdon Turnpike

RUTV 6: Fyfield to St John’s Bridge & Kingston Bagpuize to Newbridge Turnpike

RUTV 7: Turnpike Roads through Abingdon

RUTV 8: Turnpike Roads around Oxford

RUTV 9: Early travellers on Roads across the Upper Thames

RUTV 11: Coach and Wagon Services on Roads in the Upper Thames Valley

RUTV 12: Response of Thames Valley Turnpikes to the coming of the railway

RUTV 13: Early Maps of the Upper Thames Region

RUTV 14: Turnpike Roads around Banbury

RUTV 15: The Turnpikes of Reading & East Berkshire

RUTV 16: The Turnpikes around Pangbourne

Alan Rosevear Self-published

(from 1993, with revisions to 2010)

Copies of RUTV 1 to 13 were lodged with the Local Studies Library at Oxford and at Reading; ISBN reference copies at the British Library and the Bodleian. 

An extended version of RUTV 14 was published as “Turnpike Road of Banbury” by The Banbury Historical Society Vol 31 (2010) ISBN: 9780900129292 and 

9781899536481

Copies of “Turnpike Roads around Nantwich, Cheshire” by Keith Lawrence (2013) and “Devon Tollhouses; a gazetteer” by John Kanefsky (2022) can also be downloaded from turnpikes.org.uk

Contact the author at Rosevear1@aol.com or as pdfs on turnpikes.org.uk 
Moving Miles – restoring 60 of Norfolk’s milestones with help from children, Royalty and hard work Nigel and Jennifer Ford (2014)
Norfolk Milestones Norfolk Industrial Archaeology Society 3rd edition (2015) £8; Contact Carol Haines at:

ch_miles@yahoo.com

Solway Past History of the borders Graham Brooks Self-published (2021)
Somerset Traditional Fingerposts: Maintenance, Repair and Restoration Handbook Somerset County Council and South-West Heritage Trust (2017)
Sussex Industrial Archaeology: A Field Guide B. Austen Phillimore & Co Ltd 

(1985)

ISBN: 0850335566

The Toll-houses of Somerset Janet Dowding and Patrick Taylor Polystar Press (2013)

ISBN: 9781907154058

Patrick Taylor is also the co-author on other books in the same series, covering Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Essex, South Devon, Staffordshire and Suffolk. (2001-2014)
The Toll Roads of Buckinghamshire 1706-1881 Peter Gulland Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society (2017)

ISBN: 9780995717732

Bucks County Museum

(on-line)

The Turnpike Roads of Devon in 1840 Martin Ebdon Martin Ebdon (2014)

ISBN: 9780993007200

The Toll-houses of South Devon Tim Jenkinson and Patrick Taylor Polystar Press (2009)                                                                                                                                   ISBN: 9781907154010
The Toll-houses of North Devon Tim Jenkinson and Patrick Taylor Polystar Press (2010)                                                                                                                                   ISBN: 9781907154034
The Toll-houses of Staffordshire Tim Jenkinson and Patrick Taylor Polystar Press (2014)                                                                                                                                   ISBN: 9781907154072
Thomas Telford’s Holyhead Road – The A5 in North Wales Jamie Quartermaine, Barrie Trinder and Rick Turner Council for British Archaeology (CBA) Research Report 135 (2003) 

1902771346

Council for British Archaeology website
Worcestershire Turnpike Trusts and Tollhouses Alan 

Scaplehorn and Connie Swan

Worcestershire Group of The Milestone Society (2009)
UK: Scotland
Are we nearly there yet? (Scottish milestones) L. Bruce Keith Priory Ash/

ISBN: 9780956638755

Contact Bruce Keith at dunproductions@yahoo.co.uk
The Milestones of Arran Ruth and Alan Thompson (2000)
The Milestones of Fife Alex Darwood and Dr Paula Martin East of Fife Preservation Society (2005)
Milestones of the Union Canal Jim Lonie Linlithgow Union Canal Society (2020)
Morningside Toll House: A History of the Road North to Edinburgh Old Town and South to Fairmilehead and Beyond   Alverie Weighill Self-published (2018) Contact Alverie Weighill at

valerieweighill@yahoo.co.uk

The Resort of All Amorous Couples: Thomas Telford’s Toll-house at Alison’s Bank, Gretna Alverie Weighill 

(V. E. Weighill)

Self-published (2021)

ISBN: 9781800490000

Contact Alverie Weighill at

valerieweighill@yahoo.co.uk

The Roads of Fife Owen Silver John Donald

(1987)

ISBN: 9780859761604

The Scots’ Dike and its Boundary Stones Alverie Weighill Article in the Transactions of Dumfries & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society (91) (2017) Contact Alverie Weighill at

valerieweighill@yahoo.co.uk, and on the D&GNH&AS website

Scrapbook of information on Scottish Milestones and other Waymarkers Compiled by Terry Keegan The Milestone Society – out of print Contact for more information: Honsec@milestonesociety.co.uk
International
Discovering Australia’s Historical Milemarkers and Boundary Stones Robert and Sandra Crofts Xlibris (2013)

ISBN: 9781483636894

Discovering the Milestones from Madinah to Makkah Dr Abdullah Alkhadi Orient East (2021) Contact Ian Thompson at: i.thompson029@btinternet.com
Manx Milestones Stuart Slack The Manx Experience.

1873120583

The Manx Experience,

Onchan, Isle of Man IM3 3BW

Marking the miles along the National road through Ohio Cyndie L. Gerken Create Space Independent Publishing Platform (2015)

ISBN: 9781517317034

Milestones and Guideposts in Massachussets and Southern New Hampshire  James and Mary Gage  PowWow River Books

(2014)

ISBN: 9780981614075

The Old Post Road: the story of the   Boston Post Road (American Trails Series) Stewart H. Holbrook McGraw-Hill (1962); reprinted 1972) 

ISBN: 9780070295353