Cast-iron road marker at Ellwood, West Dean, Gloucestershire

Summary

A road marker commemorating the creation of this road through the Royal Forest of Dean in 1906.

Description

A road marker commemorating the creation of this road through the Royal Forest of Dean in 1906.

MATERIALS
Cast-iron.

DESCRIPTION
A semi-circular headed, roadside plaque, circa 0.6m high, commemorating the completion of this road through the Royal Forest of Dean at the expense of the Crown, under the auspices of The Office of Woods. The plaque has a raised rim and lettering and bears the extensive inscription:

THIS ROAD FOR A DISTANCE / OF 1485 YARDS [right arrow] WAS MADE / AT THE EXPENSE OF THE CROWN / FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE / INHABITANTS OF THE FOREST / AND DISTRICT / 1906 / E STAFFORD HOWARD ESQ / COMMISSIONER / PHILIP BAYLIS / DEP[UTY] SURV [EYOR].

History

In the mid- to late C19, in the face of competition from the canal and railway networks for freight, turnpike trusts which had formerly made the principal investment in public highways, were waning, and by the later C19, the condition of roads was in places in steep decline. The Local Government Act of 1888 placed responsibility for the maintenance of main roads in the hands of new County Councils, and more minor roads were, in 1894, passed to newly-created Rural District Councils. However, matters in the Royal Forest of Dean, where the roads were in a very poor state by the 1880s, were complicated by the fact that the land was largely owned by the Crown, and administered by the Office of Woods, and thus fell outside the purview of the county council.

The Forest of Dean Turnpike Trust had been unable to bring in sufficient revenue to maintain the roads in a decent condition, and the people of the Forest were agitating for better roads, in particular as they were contributing, through their rates, to the maintenance of roads elsewhere in the county, whilst no improvements were made to their local highways. It was widely expected that the Office of Woods would take responsibility for road creation and maintenance across the statutory forest, though for much of the 1870s and 1880s, no works resulted. After much lobbying and several false starts, the Dean Forest Highways Bill was passed into law as the East and West Dean Highways Act in 1883, setting out that the Office of Woods would be responsible for creating or putting into a good state of repair roads in the Forest, which would then be maintained by the county. Work began on a programme of road creation and repair in 1884, each road being inspected by the county surveyor on completion, and often during work too, which caused costs to increase dramatically. The first phase of the programme continued amidst controversy, with the Office of Woods threatening to cut off funding due to the escalating costs. In the early 1890s, the Forest of Dean saw a steep decline in the fortunes of its iron and coal industries, and, with a newly-appointed Commissioner of Woods and Forests, Edward Stafford Howard, and a new Deputy Surveyor of Dean Forest, Philip Baylis, a renewed drive for further roads gained pace. In 1897, a fresh agreement for new roads in Cinderford, Blakeney, Lydbrook, Ruardean, Littledean and Joys Green was made, to be funded by the Office of Woods and subsequently maintained by the East Dean Rural District Council. Similar agreements were made concerning roads between Lydney and Lydbrook, and at Ellwood. Work was carried out between 1897 and 1909.

The new road at Ellwood, the location of this marker, was created largely to improve access to the school, where children had been wading through mud to reach the council school; the road was built in 1905-6.

On 10 April 1900, Philip Baylis, the Deputy Surveyor of Dean Forest, wrote to the Commissioner of Woods and Forests, in a letter preserved in the Gloucestershire Archives, proposing the erection of the cast-iron road markers of which the example at Ellwood is one of a surviving group of nine. “I think it desirable that there ought to be some permanent record placed on the side of the roads which area being made in the Forest at the expense of the Crown stating that the roads were so made… I would have a cast iron tablet placed at each side of the road with the following inscription on it.” He appended a sketch below, showing the wording to be used, which set out the ‘act of grace’, as it was described in a local newspaper, of the provision of the roads by the Crown.

Ten of the cast-iron tablets are known to have been erected on roads from the 1897 campaign; those roads which had been finished before 1900 received their tablets retrospectively, and the others as they were completed. Nine of the ten tablets erected survive, including the example at Ellwood.

Reasons for Listing

The cast-iron road marker at Ellwood, dating from 1906, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Historic interest: as one of a small group of rare markers set up by the Office of Woods to commemorate the opening of new and improved roads through the Royal Forest of Dean, which were, unusually, funded by the Office of Woods on behalf of the Crown rather than the county council;
* Group value: as one of the nine surviving markers from the original ten erected in the period 1900-6, marking either end of the new or improved roads.

External Links

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