Bodham Milestone

Buried and missing for decades, the Bodham milestone was found, by Ben Skillings in late 2015, who then re-buried it for safe-keeping.
 

In 2016 , assisted by Jonathan Dorey, with his tractor and loader, Ben, Mark Tweedie and myself recovered the Sherringham milestone,- note the unusual two Rs - and took it to Sheringham Primary School to show the pupils. They were excited to be the first children to see and touch the milestone after so many years and were fascinated to see the double r in Sherringham.

As we'd finished what we'd set out to do Mark and I ate our sandwiches and assumed Ben had gone home but, on our way back, we spotted him at the Bodham milestone site happily excavating the milestone base. We stopped to help him and soon found the buried top section too. It became apparent the stone had been repaired, at some stage, as the two sections had been joined with concrete. As a result this proved to be our most difficult manual recovery to date, After hard graft, and a few choice words, both sections were in our trailer together with the Sheringham stone. Both were taken to my workshop, at my Hardingham home, for eventual repair.
 

Delays occurred, so it wasn't until 2017 that repairs were done. Once again the Bodham milestone caused a few grey hairs. The angle of the break was such that to join the two sections we enlisted the help of an experienced builder who, with a hammer drill and attached chisel-bits, created a surface to drill into. Then 12mm holes were drilled to a depth of 130mm into both sections and, using 10mm stainless steel all-thread, we resin-bonded the the two sections together A challenging but satisfying end result.
 

Then came the painting. Keen to involve children we enlisted the help of four young brothers and their mother. When dry, I gave the stone a second coat of white paint A week or so later Ben skilfully lettered the stone, this after tracing templates for the missing incised letters which are thought to have been accidentally erased by verge-cutting machinery.

Owing to heavy traffic, on the Cromer to Holt road, we decided the safest option would be a 'field-side' installation. So, following harvesting of the crop, we installed the stone on August 7th, without too much hard work, with the aid of a tele-porter and skilled operator, kindly lent by Richard Amies. Photos of the installation were taken by Pat Cubbitt, Bodham Parish Council chairman.
 

To avoid weed growth and dampness a wooden surround was put in and filled it with pea shingle.

The project was funded by NCC, Bodham Parish Council, Milestone Society, local residents and businesses and Moving Miles book sales.

On Monday 6th November 2017, after a two year 'on and off search,' Ben Skilling's found the second Bodham milestone. At time of writing only the top section is present, but, if it exists Ben will find it.

Records show this was last seen in 1985.

Nigel Ford

www.milestonesociety.co.uk

 

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