The Re-erection of the Southgrove Milestone

Historical Background

The Marlborough to Everleigh Turnpike opened in 1762 by adopting already existing roads. Leaving Marlborough, it climbed Postern Hill to enter Savernake Forest. On beginning its descent of Leigh Hill it entered the parish of Burbage where, after leaving the emparked forest by passing through the Lodge Gates, the first of the parish's milestones is encountered. Continuing the descent the turnpike crossed the watershed of the fledgling rivers Avon and Dun and it was at this natural focal point for roads and tracks that a toll house was erected. The next milestones is encountered on the climb to Stibb Green, followed by the most noticed one, on the High Street opposite the Post Office, which boldly proclaims "Marlboro VI Miles Sarum XXI Miles Andover XV Miles". These 3 milestones are all grade 2 listed monuments. A fourth should lie just north of the entrance to Goldenlands Farm but is missing.

Today the modern road (A338) turns sharp left to proceed to Salisbury via the Collingbournes but this route was only adopted and turnpiked in 1835. Prior to that the main turnpiked route went straight on to climb onto the outer edge of Salisbury Plain where it terminated at Everleigh - quite a wild and bleak road. The onward route across the Plain to Amesbury was never turnpiked as it was in such (relatively) good condition but from the latter place another turnpike began and merged with the newer Collingbournes route at Old Sarum (where the newly restored toll house still stands).

It was along this route to Everleigh - now an unmade byway - that the fifth and last milestone was erected in the parish, eight miles from Marlborough. For more years than anyone can remember this milestone has lain where it fell, at the top of a bank, covered by undergrowth and - somewhat surprisingly - behind a wire fence. Surprisingly because milestones were always erected at the margins of turnpikes and on the Trust's land so it appears that at some time the field boundary has encroached on the Queen's highway.

Collecting the tolls had always been both an unpopular and sometimes a hazardous occupation so to fulfil the job the trusts would auction off the tolls to third parties thus giving themselves a secure income while leaving a tenant to police the route. Judging by the number of times they advertised in later years there were not many willing to take up the challenge.

Marlborough Times 1859

The turnpikes' struggled on against competition from the new railways until the late nineteenth century. During this time they merged into bigger units but despite this the Marlborough and Salisbury Trust finally gave up the ghost on December 31st 1875.

Much of the evidence that Burbage once hosted a turnpike has now vanished; the toll house mentioned in my text above was demolished in the 1950s to make way for the proposed bypass (opened in 1991!); the Southgrove toll house existed until 1998 just south of Goldenlands Farm but this was demolished and a modern house erected in its place; a third manning the Durley road from Stibb Green is shown on mid 19th century maps but has long since gone. This last gate is something of a mystery. It is not shown on the Tithe Apportionment of 1843 yet is mentioned in the 1859 advertisement above. A mid-Victorian map shows to be approximately at the entrance to modern Brennans Gate but one assumes it was housed in one of the existing cottages. This side gate was presumably erected to extract tolls from traffic heading to and from Tottenham House. It would have become even more profitable after the opening of Savernake station in 1862 however when Lord Ailesbury allowed the creation of a new public road from the station passed the Hotel to the Ram Alley crossroads in 1864 it seems to have raised a few hackles amongst the turnpikes trustees. As late as 1874 there were still accusations of toll dodging by tradesmen who entered Burbage by using this new road then turning left to go free of toll along the turnpike up to Stibb.

After the closure of the turnpike trust the maintenance for the road fell to the recently formed Marlborough Highways Board. It would seem by then that most users preferred the Collingbourne road but it was the coming of the military to the Salisbury Plain which finally sealed the fate of the old route to Everleigh for in about 1900 the government closed the onward road between Everleigh and Bulford to allow the army to practice with live ammunition and so this through route to Salisbury was severed and from that day on the remaining roads only catered for local traffic.

The re-erection of the Southgrove milestone

On a sunny Tuesday in September 2003 an small bunch of residents met to re-erect the Southgrove milestone.

Adopting methods used by ancient man at Stonehenge the stone was soon righted. From l-r Colin Younger (who was asked to be careful where he put the pole); Andy Parmenter; John Acheson; Jonathan Parmenter. John Powell took the first 3 photographs.

All done! In the middle distance can be seen the traffic on the A338 - the Collingbourne spur of the old turnpike - then Southgrove woods with Rivar Hill in the far distance.

The depth of the sunken road can be judged by the top of the open boot lid (trunk for our US cousins) of John's Jaguar