old stone road sign/marker/milestone.

nokiatom

Can anyone explain what this sign means and how old would it be ?

Harry Palmr

Looks like a prototype of the white with black detail markers which are around County Waterford.

Speedsie

nokiatom wrote: »

Can anyone explain what this sign means and how old would it be ?

Looks like a crowsfoot bench mark. You could look at the historic OSi maps online to see if it was there in 1835.

http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/

nokiatom

what would the letters and numbers mean ?

mortimer33

nokiatom wrote: »

what would the letters and numbers mean ?

Looks like a milestone marker to me. Letters indicate places. Numbers are the distance in miles.

nokiatom

It seems the letters BO mean Board of Ordnance. They lasted up till 1855.

nokiatom

It seems the letters BO mean Board of Ordnance. They lasted up till 1855.

GM228

It's definately a milestone, but I doubt it's Board of Ordnance, more likely the B and O refer to a location (it could be Birr and Offaly for example).

The Board mainly maintained lands and forts for defence, aIthough they did conduct surveys and produce maps I don't believe they placed milestones with their initials. Milestones usually contained letters/words relating to the parish they were placed in or the starting and end points to be measured or both. There is also writing on top and between the B and O which is difficult to make out.

Milestones were usually placed every mile between two points mentioned on them with each one showing the respective mile which by the way were based on the old "Irish Mile", which was 1.27 the lenght of the mile we know today.

OP where is the stone located?

@Speedsie, I don't see any evidence of a "crow foot" engraving on the milestone either. The marking on top is hard to make out and could vaguely resemble one, but it's pointing towards the sky which would be unusual.

Seaswimmer

nokiatom wrote: »

what would the letters and numbers mean ?

The numbers I assume are miles, furlongs, feet.

Not sure why they wouldn't use yards instead of feet.

Or maybe chains!!

8 furlongs to a mile.
10 chains to a furlong
22 yards to a chain

4 rods/perches/poles to a chain...............

nokiatom

http://readingthesigns.weebly.com/blog/b-o-board-of-ordnance

GM228

nokiatom wrote: »

http://readingthesigns.weebly.com/blog/b-o-board-of-ordnance

They are all crows foot benchmarks, not milepost stones which is what the OPs picture is, still not certain that B and O was ever used in that sense on a milestone.

nokiatom

was it a mark to denote height above sea level ?

cml387

Is it possibly a military marker ? The crows foot on the top could also be the British Military broad arrow symbol

GM228

nokiatom wrote: »

was it a mark to denote height above sea level ?

Yes that's what benchmarks were for.

nokiatom

cml387 wrote: »

Is it possibly a military marker ? The crows foot on the top could also be the British Military broad arrow symbol

it is near a demolished military barracks. I just found it on a map of 1877

GM228

nokiatom wrote: »

it is near a demolished military barracks. I just found it on a map of 1877

Mystery solved, it isn't a milestone so and the B and O is for Board of Ordnance.

nokiatom

one can see a 2 on it so I reckon that must have been a number in the two hundreds which marked feet above sea level ?

Victor

nokiatom wrote: »

one can see a 2 on it so I reckon that must have been a number in the two hundreds which marked feet above sea level ?

No, where there are adjacent bench marks, each would likely have been numbered, to avoid confusion.

There are marked as BSW here: http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,715386,732128,12,9

nokiatom

thanks, I looked at that map but couldn't find any BO's. The photo I took above is not marked on it either........its all confusing to me !! lol