obelisk near Swanley station.

[theageofthetra]

Hi am on train down to Sittingbourne for the Sittingbourne & Kemsley's real ale day. On the slow line heading south just before you get to Swanley there is a stone obelix on the railway embankment. Its about 2m high and has some sort of insignia carved about a third up. Though hard to tell I think it would have been on railway land. Do any of the sages on here have any idea what its for? As the Swanley area was in V2/V1 rocket alley I wonder if it may relate to some wartime event?

 

[t_star2001uk]

have a look here... It appears to be a boundary marker of some type

http://www.coaldutyposts.org.uk/posts/post206/post206.html

 

[Mintona]

It's to mark the passing from Greater London into Kent I believe.

 

[transmanche]

It's to mark the passing from Greater London into Kent I believe.

It looks far too old for that purpose. (Greater London only came into being as an administrative area in 1965.)


When I clicked on the thread, I had a vision of this by the railway:

... which would be far more fun!

 

[Railsigns]

There's one on the Great Eastern Main Line just south of Romford, which is listed.

Wikipedia article on coal-tax posts.

 

[theageofthetra]

Well you learn something new every day. The picture in the first link does show the carving I saw and does look like the arms of the City of London. From reading the Wikipedia article the markers are a bit like a "you are now entering a penalty fare zone" warning!

 

[Surreytraveller]

It's to mark the passing from Greater London into Kent I believe.

Greater London didn't exist until 1965. It is the boundary of the old (pre 2000) Metropolitan Police area.

 

[Mintona]

Greater London didn't exist until 1965. It is the boundary of the old (pre 2000) Metropolitan Police area.

I was close! I knew it was a boundary of some sort between London and Kent.

 

[coupwotcoup]

There's one on the Great Eastern Main Line just south of Romford, which is listed.

Wikipedia article on coal-tax posts.

That's a new one on me too...been passing it back and forth for donkey's years and always thought that it was the Greater London/Essex boundary.

Judging by its position it probably doubles up as this too... First pub going West, the Tollgate, used to open at 5.30pm in the bad old days, while anything East was 6pm.

 

[Surreytraveller]

I was close! I knew it was a boundary of some sort between London and Kent.

At the time it was put up, it didn't mark the boundary of London and Kent, as all London was at the time was what we now call the City of London, and Kent went all the way into Deptford.

 

[NoOnions]

http://www.gres.org.uk/page18.html