Coal-posts

For a number of years, I have trawled across the footpaths of the Uberpatch and come across these white posts. And for a number of years I have dismissed them, assuming that they are boundary markers of a parish council or administrative border. Recently curiosity has got the better of me...

They are coal tax boundary markers.

Coal imported into the City of London had been taxed since medieval times and, as it was originally all brought by sea to riverside wharfs, the collection of the duties was relatively easy. By the 19th century however, there was increasing trade by canal and rail, and various Acts of Parliament extended the catchment area to include these new modes of transport. In 1845 the boundary was set at a radius of 20 miles from the General Post Office, London. In 1851 an Act permitted the erection of boundary markers to indicate where this boundary lay; and about fifty markers were erected. In 1861 a further Act was passed, reducing the area to that of the Metropolitan Police District plus the City of London. New marker posts (about 280) were erected to show the boundary within which the duty was payable. The purpose of the posts was to give notice of where the boundary ran so that no-one could claim ignorance of liability to pay the duties.

The photograph above was taken on Walton Heath, one of the 1861 alumni. These markers of the past resonate with me, just as much as an ancient tree, a well-established footpath or old farm building. Where we walk, so have many before us. These posts are now standing proud - and maintained - in odd places. I can find them in the middle of a copse or alongside the edge of a minor footpath. Like the Second World War pill-boxes, that are strewn across the scarp slope of the North Downs, their positioning at the time made sense - but today, not so much. Time moves on, the vegetation matures, our need of a particular footpath wanes. But the solid post or pill-box remains rooted to the ground, ignorant of the passing of time.