Road signs!

[sime42]

12 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

No, every village, town, city has a centre point, that’s where road signs should be measured from. Perhaps those few early years working on the roads got me obsessed with crap signage.

 

Where are those centre points taken as? Is/was there some kind of standard, like the post office, or church or something?

[eggsarascal]

3 minutes ago, sime42 said:

 

Where are those centre points taken as? Is/was there some kind of standard, like the post office, or church or something?

Normally we’ll known landmarks, the notional centre of London is Charing Cross.

[5thelement]

7 hours ago, eggsarascal said:

Normally we’ll known landmarks, the notional centre of London is Charing Cross.

The centre of London is at the statue of Charles 1, just south of Trafalgar Square, there is a plaque on the floor. 

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, 5thelement said:

The centre of London is at the statue of Charles 1, just south of Trafalgar Square, there is a plaque on the floor. 

What I have wondered for many years is what happens when roads are straightened etc to all the signs, and indeed the old mileposts?  I guess the signs maybe get corrected as and when they are renewed.  But do they keep moving old stone mileposts?  For instance near me on the Newport to Chepstow road is a milepost which I assume says Chepstow on one side and newport on the other.  It surely predates all the major improvements that took place to this road in the post war period but before the M4 was built.  So the distance to Chepstow would have been much further going through villages that are now by-passed etc.  This would be even more pronounced in say bath or Bristol giving distance to London.

 

 Are all the old mileposts now wrong?  Or is there maybe a little known profession of milestone corrector where a little old man comes out late at night and re-carves all the distances as and  when necessary?

Edited September 9, 2023 by Squaredy

[eggsarascal]

11 hours ago, 5thelement said:

The centre of London is at the statue of Charles 1, just south of Trafalgar Square, there is a plaque on the floor. 

You mean the same place where the original Charing Cross (Eleanor Cross) was, and all distances to London are measured from?

[eggsarascal]

10 hours ago, Squaredy said:

What I have wondered for many years is what happens when roads are straightened etc to all the signs, and indeed the old mileposts?  I guess the signs maybe get corrected as and when they are renewed.  But do they keep moving old stone mileposts?  For instance near me on the Newport to Chepstow road is a milepost which I assume says Chepstow on one side and newport on the other.  It surely predates all the major improvements that took place to this road in the post war period but before the M4 was built.  So the distance to Chepstow would have been much further going through villages that are now by-passed etc.  This would be even more pronounced in say bath or Bristol giving distance to London.

 

 Are all the old mileposts now wrong?  Or is there maybe a little known profession of milestone corrector where a little old man comes out late at night and re-carves all the distances as and  when necessary?

Road signs get changed as the road changes, mileposts are listed as significant points of interest and don’t get moved,or changed. One near where I used to live was about 2 miles out due to the A134 being straightened in the 1960’s.

[Dan Maynard]

11 hours ago, Squaredy said:

Are all the old mileposts now wrong?

If you're using mileposts for navigation then you're so old school you have to use the old road.

 

There's mileposts on the road through our village from it being the Great North Road, wouldn't be so useful moved up onto the A1(M) where it goes now.

[david lawrence]

For some reason I thought it was to the main post office in a town. Anyone else told this at school ?

[Doug Tait]

Yes, that's what I've always thought too 

[eggsarascal]

How can this be?, take Stoke-on-Trent, six towns makeup the city, all of the towns have/had main post offices. From what I’ve read it’s always been to well known landmarks.