Coal and Wine Tax posts - Spelthorne
| Post 77, TQ 028 770 N side of Park Street, E of Colnbrook Bridge Plate 78 can be seen on the left of this picture See here how a slight change of viewpoint made all the difference between a "supplemental" grade for my photo and a geograph point for someone else. | 
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| Plate 78, TQ 028 770 in N parapet of Colnbrook Bridge | ||||
| Post 79, TQ 025 764 in field to SW of Poyle Manor on E bank of the Colne Brook. A difficult to reach location. Not yet visited. | Post 80, TQ 025 758 S side of Stanwell Road / Horton Road as realigned following the construction of the Wraysbury Reservoir, 300 yards E of junction with Coppermill Road. There is confusion on maps which suggest that Stanwell Road continues to the Poyle Road roundabout. This road sign suggests that the road changes its name on the boundary between Windsor & Maidenhead and Slough. This is the point where the post should be but unfortunately it seems to be missing. Certainly there is no undergrowth for it to hide in. | 
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N side of Wraysbury Road, Staines and E side of the County Ditch about 40 yards E of Lammas Drive
As the name County Ditch suggests this is the boundary and we might expect there to have been a Post here originally. On the Victorian maps site we have a choice of three versions: Berkshire, Middlesex and Surrey. But none of them shows a post.
This may be the post that was originally at TQ 022 749, in field fence E of Moor Farm, Horton - now under the water of the Wraysbury Wreservoir.
S side of Wraysbury Road, Staines and W side of the County Ditch about 30 yards E of Lammas Drive
In the picture below left Post 81? can be seen in the background on the left.
Original location was
TQ 018 738
(not shown on the map but presumably near
the point where the County Ditch crosses the railway)
N side railway,
E of stream and 600 yards SE of Wraysbury Station
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In Lammas Pleasure Ground, Staines beside the river.
The London Stone - the great … great grandparent of the posts
This is a replica (see below).
A board near the stone tells us:
Until 1350, management of rivers was in the hands of the monarch but in 1197 Richard I sold the rights and revenues of the lower Thames to the Corporation of the City of London. He did this to pay off debts incurred while fighting the Third Crusade.
At this time, Staines was the first town upstream from London with a bridge and stood at the tidal limit of the river so it was an obvious place to mark the Corporation's control. The stone stood beside the river near the old town bridge from 1285 until moved here two or three hundred years ago.
More recently the stone was removed for restoration and protection to the Old Town Hall Art Centre, Market Square, Staines and a replica put in its place.
The current Town
Bridge, Staines was erected after the stone had been moved to the
Lammas.
One face of the stone (facing right in the picture above) displays semi-
circular indentations. These were made by the tow ropes of horse-drawn
vessels rubbing against the stone. The same damage can be seen on
almost every bridge over every British canal (see below).
There is also a London Stone in Cannon Street. But that one is even older and quite different.
The Old Town Hall, Market Square, Staines
Shepherds Bridge, midway between Dreweat's Bridge and Kintbury Bridge
(Kennet and Avon Canal)
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Downstream digression, TQ 860 786 Beside the mouth of Yantlet Creek, Isle of Grain Another London Stone.
This marked the downstream limit of the Corporation's control.
Note that while the London Stone, Staines (above) lies right on the line of route of
the Coal and Wine Tax Posts, this London Stone by Yantlet Creek lies about 20
miles further downstream from the line of route which crosses the Thames
at the mouth of the Darent. (Note how long this article went before anybody else edited it! And I certainly had not left it an orphan.) More of my pictures My image on geograph Page on John Eade's Thames website |
© 2003–2016 Roger W. Haworth
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